“First and only”: Duff McKagan’s regrettable first meeting with Prince
Guns N’ Roses have always been something of an unstable band, with constant instances of band members falling out with one another and forced lineup changes as a result. While frontman Axl Rose is the only continuous member of the hard rock group to have remained since their formation, both guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan can be regarded as stalwarts who managed to stay along for the ride through large periods of turbulence.
Bassists have a reputation for being the most level-headed members of the band, normally operating with a sense of maturity and loyalty to their commitments and having an uncanny ability to withstand all of the bullshit that other members might inflict upon them. However, there are certainly cases where all of this pressure to be the most mature member of the group causes them to go off the rails, and the temptation to succumb to rock and roll extravagance can sometimes be too much.
The sensible bassist rule can’t really be applied in McKagan’s case, and his wild side has been unleashed on plenty of occasions. During a period when Guns N’ Roses were one of the biggest bands in the world, McKagan and the rest of his bandmates were presented with an opportunity to meet rock royalty, and someone who he personally looked up to as a hero, but he tarnished his moment by taking his partying to an unreasonable degree.
At the same time as the release of their 1991 double album, Use Your Illusion, Guns N’ Roses embarked on a world tour of gigantic proportions, and while they were out on the road, they received an invitation to see Prince perform live, and would even have the invitation extended to meeting the purple-clad rock god backstage.
While this might be a nerve-racking proposition for most, for McKagan, it was a case of being overwhelmed by the effects of his alcohol consumption and simply freezing in the presence of such a daunting figure. His over-imbibed state led him to make a fool of himself in front of Prince, and to this day, his encounter with the musician is something he regrets massively, although in a 2024 interview with Metal Hammer, he was able to laugh it off.
“The first – and only – time I met Prince, I was too drunk,” McKagan divulged. “I went in the room and it was dark with all these candles around, and I just didn’t know what to say because I was too fucking drunk!” While this might have seemed like a catastrophic meeting between the two, McKagan would later discover that things hadn’t been as bad as he’d imagined.
“Years later, I wrote a column in the Seattle Weekly about taking my girls to see Prince and how it was magic,” he continued. “I get this call a few days later from his manager, and it’s like ‘Prince loves your column, he wants to use it in his new tour programme.’ So clearly we had a positive interaction the first time!” While they often tell you not to meet your heroes, it’s possibly an even worse idea to meet your heroes while completely plastered – even if it doesn’t end in complete disaster.
