Duff McKagan Talks Guns N' Roses Plans, Axl Rose's Injury And More
(SiriusXM's Trunk Nation) Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan recently sat down with Eddie Trunk on SiriusXM's Trunk Nation where he discussed Axl Rose's injury at their reunion show ten years ago, the band's chemistry and longevity and his plans for next year.
The show sent over these excerpts: Eddie Trunk: I just wanted to ask you real quickly, you've got these dates now that go throughout the year in America, Canada, I think you're going to New Zealand, Australia, so '26 is pretty much locked out. We know that in '27, Slash is gonna put out a record. We know you've done some great stuff solo. Can you give any insights on what's happening with Guns or with your own side stuff for next year? Have you thought about that?
Duff McKagan: Well, I mean, we've worked on new stuff, which is pretty cool, so there's gonna be something with that for sure. I'm gonna put out a record. I have my own studio now, Ed, which is just dangerous. You know, I had got it right before, but right before COVID. I always have my acoustic guitar. I'm always writing songs, so I have like 80 songs. I'll put something out next year. I don't tour a ton. I don't tour like Slash. Slash goes out and does a, we do the world like four times over with Guns, and then Slash goes and does a world tour. I don't know how he does it.
Eddie Trunk: And I don't know if you remember this, but it's now 10 years since you and Slash have been back with Guns, and I was at the very first show you guys played at T-Mobile here in Vegas and I remember we ran into each other in the hallway in the hotel and you pulled me aside and that's when you said to me, "Hey, so Axl's gonna be in a chair tonight." And I go, "What?" And you go, "Because he, nobody knew he had broken his leg." And Dave Grohl was there and he brought the throne and that's how it all started 10 years ago. Talk a little bit about this incredible journey from there to where we are 10 years later.
Duff McKagan: Yeah, so we played the Troubadour, that April Fool's joke, or April Fool's Day gig. Are we gonna play or not? You know? And, you know, we rehearsed for like three months in secret. I think at that point we had announced we were doing Coachella, but this gig, who knows if we're gonna play or not, and we knew we were gonna play, so we get up on that old stage at Troubadour and we have the monitors and stuff and Axl gets up on the monitor, I think it was like second song and he slipped off of it. Wasn't something we were used to. It was, you know, at rehearsal, we had different whatever, you know? And he slipped off and he goes on to us. We have like these in ears and he can talk to just us sometimes. "I think I broke my foot," and he played the rest of the show. "Yeah, yeah, it's broken." Okay, and after the show, he goes straight to the Cedars Hospital, which is right down the street. He broke his foot, broke it in a few places, got some pins put into it, and he's like, "I don't wanna cancel anything. I'm trying to figure out how to sing sitting down." Which, you know, for that kind of music, singing sitting down is a really tough thing too and to sing sitting down, being Axl, and singing that stuff is a feat. It's an athletic feat, and so, yeah, he sang in a chair at rehearsal and he's like, "Well, I think I can do it, but I don't wanna sit in a chair. Just a chair, you know, it looks kinda lame." And so, yeah, the idea of Grohl and he had just broke his leg and had that amazing throne, and so they drove it out from LA I think day of show and there was no instructions how to put it together, so our crew had to figure out how to put that big old throne together piece by piece and we did. We did all that stuff and he went out and did AC/DC. You know, during that time, he's like, "Man, I've got this opportunity. It's been, you know, a dream come true to be, go and sing with my favorite band." We're like, "Go do it, man." Me and Slash jam with all kinds of people, you know? So that was cool.
Eddie Trunk: He told me, Duff, he told me that that night. I talked to Axl after the show. There's a photo of him in a wheelchair and me talking, and I will never forget this. He pulled me in, he goes like this, because at that time, it was rumored he was doing AC/DC and he pulls me out and he goes, "I'm actually singing with AC/DC." And I'm like, and he goes, 'cause the idea of him launching something like that with the whole G&R thing going on. I was like, "Really?" And he goes, "Yeah." And he goes, "Don't say anything." But he goes, "I'm gonna actually do it." And he was telling me how difficult it is to sing "Shoot to Thrill" and I couldn't believe it. I was dumbfounded that he was actually doing it and he did it amazingly well, of course.
Eddie Trunk: For me, the most incredible thing about this last 10 years of this and where you're at now is just how smoothly it's all gone. You guys go on, it's like clockwork. It seems almost un-Guns N' Roses and how incredibly smooth it's been for 10 years.
Duff McKagan: Well, the thing that is Guns N' Roses is that we never play the same set, so we're on the edge of our seat. You know, right now, we're starting with "Welcome to the Jungle." We know that's gonna happen. We know at some point in the evening, we're gonna probably end with "Paradise City." In between those two things, it could be anything, and so that's very Guns N' Roses, but it makes for, we're on the edge of our seat, you know, as players and I think that just makes for a much more exciting show. We're not going through a set list, you know, "Okay, we're gonna play the next four and the guitars are set up and ready to go." No, it's not like that, but it's been smooth. It's never not real, Ed, you know? None of us would know how to phone it in, you know? There's no such thing. Axl going from that, you know, as you said, the wheelchair to going to AC/DC to doing all these shows. He's really, I mean, when he went and tried out for AC/DC, I'm gonna go try out for the, they've got these, you know, two months of shows, or whatever it was, and last night, you think you're gonna have to try out? There's some other guys I got. I'm like, "Dude, you got the gig." So, he flew to Atlanta and he tried out. It was really kinda cute, you know? And we knew he was gonna get the gig, of course, but I don't know. The shows have been great. Doing America again, we haven't been here. It seems we keep going around the world, man. I can't remember when we were in America last, couple years ago probably.
SiriusXM's Trunk Nation hosted by Eddie Trunk airs daily at 3pm ET on SiriusXM's Faction Talk (ch. 103) . See the show page here
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