Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan is bringing his “Lighthouse” tour to Le Poisson Rouge in Manhattan on November 6th, 2024. We recently caught up with Duff via Zoom to discuss the tour, new music and more. Once Duff was on with us, we immediately dove into talking about his Manhattan show. I was curious how Duff adjusts from performing in much bigger venues to what for him must be more of an intimate setting. Duff expressed his excitement at playing Le Poisson Rouge because of the artists who have played there before him and because his daughter lives right around the corner.
Duff mentioned having recently did a run of European shows in rooms that held between 800 and 1400 people. He said this is his “Wheelhouse,” “Especially with this, the ‘Lighthouse’ record and the ‘Tenderness’ record playing these places where you see everybody and people are, the songs are kind of emotional.” He went on to talk about how ornate so many of these smaller theaters are, especially the theaters in Europe, some of them in the neighborhood of two hundred years old. He said he’s heard that Le Poisson Rouge has that kind of vibe so he’s really looking forward to the show.
From here we pivoted to talking about Duff’s recently released new songs “All Turning Loose,” “My Name Is Bob,” and a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes.” There is a studio version of “Heroes” along with a live version featuring Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones. Duff does not usually do covers, as he mentioned “It’s not my thing.” But he had been working on a song he wrote with a working title of “Heroes.” In the midst of that his producer suggested that he “Crush” Bowie’s “Heroes.” He gave it a quick listen, felt it was in his vocal range and dove right into tracking the song. Duff expressed how having Steve Jones play the song with him in London was something special because Steve is “A hero of mine, for real.”
There is a difference between what Duff does in Guns N’ Roses and his solo music. So much of his roots appear to me to be Punk in nature. So, I asked him what Punk means to him. “Great question” was his immediate response. Duff talked about in the late 70′s in Seattle he had a paper route and used his money to buy concert tickets. He mentioned seeing Led Zeppelin at The Kingdome in 1977. At the same time in Seattle there were promoters doing $1 concerts. He rattled off having seen Iggy Pop, DOA, The Clash, The Jam along with bands like Kiss, AC/DC and more. He said there was difference in Seattle “They were all just great Rock bands.” He talked about the first time he heard the Sex Pistols and how the Punk thing was different. “Last of eight kids, you want something of your own.” “Punk Rock was my own.” He spoke about starting a band right away and how you didn’t have to “Play like Yes.” “You could learn as you went.” He spoke about how that led to him playing with a lot of his heroes.
We discussed the difference between being a bassist in a band like GNR or being the front man for his solo shows. He described himself as being a “Groove thug” when he’s with GNR. Solo he connects more, a more of intellectual connection with the audience. It’s more gentle but still “All honest Rock N’ Roll to me.” Duff’s studio is just minutes from his house, and he has seventy-five songs recorded. When asked about an album on the way he said “I just keep recording and then you start grabbing songs, like that would be a good first song. Like “Lighthouse” seemed like that’s a perfect start of a record that I would put out. And “Just Don’t Know” the song with Cantrell, Jerry Cantrell, the perfect ending. Now what do we fill it in with?”
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