How the best album of the 1980s transformed Duff McKagan: “Soundtrack of my life”
Whether or not pop music can truly change the world is a debate that can – and most likely will – go on for multiple decades.
We do not have the requisite time nor word count to delve into that here. What is not up for debate, however, is the fact that pop music can change our individual lives, and Duff McKagan found out during his pre-Guns N’ Roses days.
Nobody makes a record like Appetite for Destruction on their first attempt. Prior to even joining the ranks of America’s mainstream rock colossus in 1985, McKagan had built up his musical experiences in the throes of Seattle’s blossoming punk rock scene during his teenage years.
Although it wasn’t until the explosion of grunge that the punk sounds of the mountainous city found a mainstream audience, McKagen’s native Seattle had always boasted a particularly ich punk scene, and during the early 1980s, the future bassist became a major figure within that scene, performing in a plethora of now long-forgotten groups, including a post-punk outfit named 10 Minute Warning.
It was with that latter outfit that McKagan got his first taste of success, along with his first experiences of addiction. “The band I was in, 10 Minute Warning, got signed by Jello Biafra’s label Alternative Tentacles,” he once recalled to Classic Rock. “It seemed like we were on our way to being the next big thing, and the heroin came in and just ravaged that band.”
Heroin spelt the tragic end of countless musicians and promising young bands during the age of punk rock revolution, and McKagan seemingly came quite close to letting it be his downfall, too. “At that point, I was drinking, maybe more than average. But all my friends started using heroin,” he shared. “My girlfriend was strung out, my roommate was strung out – it seemed like it was closing in on me.”
Rather than succumbing to the allure of the needle, though, McKagan sought solace in pop music – an unlikely outlet for a young punk revolutionary. “That was when 1999 became the soundtrack to my life,” he said, name-dropping the legendary Prince album from back in 1982. “It was all the things that music is supposed to be – your solace, your best friend, an escape,” the bassist explained.
Aside from providing McKagan with an escape from the increasingly depressing surroundings of 10 Minute Warning, Prince’s magnum opus also spurred him on to leave Seattle behind. “Through that record, I made the decision to move to LA. I’d seen what Prince had done by himself, and I figured if he can do all of that, the least I can do is go to LA,” he shared.
“It was a scary thing to do when you’re 19, going to a place where you know nobody, but I figured I could sell my drum kit, so I had 350 bucks,” McKagan concluded. “And yeah, it was 1999 that gave me the courage to do it.”
By extension, then, it was Prince’s 1999 that led McKagan to join the ranks of Guns N’ Roses in 1985, thus filling out their classic line-up and inspiring the creation of some of the most enduring and influential mainstream rock records in American history. The list of things the world has to thank Prince for just got a little bit longer, it would appear.
