|
Michael Andrew "Duff" Rose McKagan is an American bassist, singer, guitarist, and drummer, born 5 February 1964 in Seattle, Washington.
Early Seattle bands (197x-1984)
In the late seventies and early eighties, he played a multitude of instruments in various Seattle punk bands, including (but possibly not limited to): Avantgarde, Cannibal, Cleavage, On the Rocks, Our Gang, The DT's, The Fags, The Zipads, Wandering Bandaleros, (formed as Thankless Dogs; reportedly his first band), , , , , , , and ; only a few of these bands would materialize, with The Fastbacks, The Living and 10 Minute Warning being the most successful.
Road Crew, Guns N' Roses, jam bands (1984-1997)
In 1983, Duff headed to Los Angeles in search of broader horizons. In 1984, he saw an ad in The Recycler along the lines of "Guitar player looking for bass player: Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Dolls, Led Zeppelin and Fear. Call Slash", Duff answered the ad and met up with future Guns N' Roses members and at Canter's Diner in Los Angeles to join their newly-reformed band Road Crew. Road Crew worked on what would eventually become the Guns N' Roses song "Rocket Queen". The group was eventually disbanded by Slash due to them failing to find a singer.
In March 1985, just a few weeks after ... Read More ... was formed, asked Duff to join due to their bassist not showing up to rehearsal. Duff and Izzy were neighbors and had met each other previously. Izzy taught Duff most of the material at home and then the band rehearsed in preparation for Guns N' Roses' first-ever live show at the Troubadour, March 26, 1985, with (lead vocals), Izzy Stradlin (rhythm guitar), (lead guitar), (drums), and Duff McKagan (bass guitar). On June 06, Guns N' Roses as the [m9467] lineup debuted at The Troubadour, with Axl Rose (lead vocals), Izzy Stradlin (rhythm guitar), Slash (lead guitar), Steven Adler (drums), and Duff McKagan (bass guitar). Duff would go on to achieve worldwide success in Guns N' Roses with [m9467] being considered one of the best debut albums of all time.
From 1987-1989, and 1993, he was part of a jam band called Drunkfux (or The Drunk Fux). Drunkfux would play gigs sparsely during their active years with the lineup changing all the time, with Guns N' Roses members being core members. In 1988 he formed a side project with his then-fiancée, Mandy Brixx of The Lame Flames, called Dr. Love and Love Connection – another jam band that would play local venues such as The Cathouse and Coconut Teaszer.
Neurotic Outsiders (1995-1997; 1999; 2006)
On January 30, 1995, Duff played a benefit show at the Club Shelter in Pasadena, California with , , and , with being the headliner the show was billed as "Mötley Crüe and friends". On March 10, that same year, he played The Joint with (guitars), Steve Stevens (guitars), Matt Sorum (drums), and a variety of people joining on vocals throughout the night. The band was known as "Wayne Neutron". In June, Matt Sorum was approached to help with a benefit show at 's L.A. club, the Viper Room, in aid of a cancer sufferer. He contacts a number of his celebrity friends, and the "Neurotic Boy Outsiders" are formed, initially for the one show: (guitar and vocals), Duff McKagan (guitar and vocals), (bass and vocals), and Matt Sorum (drums). Due to the success of the show, the group decided to continue and regularly played the Viper Room. Reportedly, the name "Kings of Chaos" is said to have been used for some early live shows (not to be confused with ). Eventually, the band would go by ; they recorded and released an album and a Japanese-only EP, released in 1996 and 1997 respectively. They briefly toured Europe and North America in 1996 and disbanded thereafter.
The band would reunite for three shows at the Viper Room in 1999, and again in 2006 for a final show at the Viper Room.
10 Minute Warning reformation, The Gentlemen, Loaded (1997-2000)
After leaving Guns N' Roses in 1997, Duff moved back to Seattle and took on a number of projects – he reformed 10 Minute Warning and recorded and released an album in 1998; he recorded another solo album ([m1479312]) to be released in 1999, however, due to label mergers he lost the rights to the album, leaving it unreleased. To support the tour he had started a band called The Uptights, which would quickly change its name to The Gentlemen. This band featured and on guitars, with on drums, and Duff on bass and vocals. The band was originally meant to tour the record, and even though the record was shelved, the band still toured. They eventually adopted the name "Loaded", and released (which featured songs from [m1479312]); shortly after, they disbanded. In 2000 he formed another incarnation of
|
