DUFF MCKAGAN Says It Was 'Really Great' To See AXL ROSE Again

November 7, 2010

Jim Wilkie of ESPN.com recently conducted an interview with Duff McKagan (DUFF MCKAGAN'S LOADED, VELVET REVOLVER, GUNS N' ROSES). An excerpt from the chat follow below.

ESPN.com: I wasn't going to ask any GUNS 'N' ROSES questions, but then I read where you played that show in London. Did you just play the encore?

McKagan: I played a few songs in the encore. It was really fun for me. It just happened out of nowhere. Literally, I was in the elevator going up to my room and the manager of the hotel — it's a hotel I stay at all the time — said, "Hey, you're playing tonight, right?" "No, I'm not playing at all this trip." Usually I played when I go there. It's an honest mistake. "You're not playing tonight?" Oh, will there be an issue? You're in a room next to Axl's [Rose, GUNS N' ROSES singer]."

ESPN.com: Right next to his room? Not just same hotel, but right next door?

McKagan: Right next, the chance of all the hotels in London, all the days of the year, all the years, all the floors in the hotel, you know. Yeah, but it was a great serendipitous thing because I was being thrown into "OK, how's it going?" You didn't have like three days to prepare. … And I don't have any resentments. It was a huge, great, amazing thing that happened in all of our lives. Killer. My life's totally enhanced in a whole different way because of that thing, for sure. So I just don't carry it around. I've gone through a lot of things to work through some of this shit. It happened. So it was great. I had no resentment. It was really great to see him. I don't think he had any resentment and we had a good time. We laughed. That's what you want to do with an old friend.

ESPN.com: What was it like to end up on stage playing GUNS 'N' ROSES. What was that feeling?

McKagan: I played a lot of GUNS 'N' ROSES songs with VELVET REVOLVER. It's part of my makeup. We wrote the songs [together], so they're like my songs. I don't compartmentalize what songs are what, so it was easy. Great, he's got a really good band. Nice guys, it's all good. I had to get right back after the gig, I had a meeting at 8 a.m. the next morning. "I gotta go."

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