ÍøÆغÚÁÏ

Best known for his role in the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, Duff McKagan provides bass for some of the most revered albums in the metal canon. Life after GNR's initial early-'90s combustion found him busy with solo projects and working with bands like Velvet Revolver and Loaded. McKagan would occasionally hook up with GNR for a reunion tours, but his main focus was on solo records, like his 1993 debut Believe in Me, the politically charged and hopeful country-rock Tenderness from 2019, and his third album, 2023's Lighthouse, which featured contributions from Slash, Jerry Cantrell, and Iggy Pop. He remains a first-call bassist for numerous hard rock projects; he branched out into sports and financial writing, and he founded a musician-focused investment firm.

The youngest of eight children, McKagan was born in Seattle, Washington in the spring of 1964. His real name is Michael, but his family gave him the nickname Duff at the age of two and it stuck. He grew up rebellious, falling in love with punk and glam rock by the time he was a teenager. His brother Bruce introduced him to the bass, but he did not take to the instrument right away. At the tender age of 16, the Fastbacks hired him on as their drummer, giving him his first shot in the nascent Seattle rock scene. He left the band toward the end of 1981 and began playing in countless other punk combos in the area. Most influential was his work with the Fartz, a band that never made it that far but served as one of the primary influences on grunge innovator Mudhoney. While McKagan enjoyed the gigs he was playing, he tried his luck in Los Angeles after a few years of playing in the Northwest. Upon moving to town, he met future Guns N' Roses founders Slash and Steven Adler, and decided to form a trio with the others called Road Crew. The band gave them the kind of visibility they craved, but upon meeting Indiana transplants Izzy Stradlin and Axl Rose, the quintet flirted with the idea of combining forces and GNR finally became a reality in 1985.

After a self-released EP gained attention in the Los Angeles area, Geffen signed them for an album in 1986. The result, Appetite for Destruction, would be one of the most important rock records ever released, although it would be hard to tell from its initial impact. The album floundered at first, McKagan even considered going back to Seattle, until "Welcome to the Jungle" became a runaway hit. Guns N' Roses instantly became a huge sensation, and the media ate up their bad-boy reputation and incredible live performances. The whole band let fame get to them, but no member took it as seriously as Axl Rose, who began to shake up the band with his increasingly controversial statements to the media and erratic behavior. Things became serious upon the release of the G N' R Lies EP, which featured a racist rant in the song "One in a Million" that McKagan and Slash both spoke out against in the press. Rose slowly continued to dominate the band, driving out Adler and Stradlin and replacing them with less vocal contributors Matt Sorum and Gilby Clarke. Ironically, McKagan and Slash developed strong bonds with the pair, distancing Rose from the other members. When the band hit the road for the endless Use Your Illusion tour, the backstage decadence and wild spending became ridiculous, as opening bands would report about orgies and pig roasts to the press.

McKagan was disillusioned with the music he was making, and after contributing songs to Iggy Pop's Brick by Brick, he tried his hand at a solo album. His drinking had gotten wildly out of control, and the resulting Believe in Me was a scattered effort that failed to spark the public's interest. When the tour ended, McKagan discovered that his pancreas was in such terrible shape that he had to immediately give up drinking or face almost certain death. After a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil," the bandmembers separated to take time away from one another. Thinking that Guns N' Roses was just taking a break, McKagan started working with Slash on the Slash's Snakepit project along with the other members of Guns N' Roses, except for Rose. Sessions for a new Guns N' Roses album continually fell apart, and McKagan started working with the Neurotic Outsiders and several solo projects from fellow and former Guns N' Roses members. As the years began to tick away, Rose finally sent news to the remaining members of the band that they had to stop working on other projects or they were going to be fired. That was the final straw for McKagan, and he separated from the band, joining Seattle punk rockers 10 Minute Warning, a band he'd played in almost 15 years before. A second solo album, Beautiful Disease, was slated for release in 1999, but a record-label merger ultimately meant the album was shelved indefinitely, and McKagan lost the commercial rights to it. While some promotional copies made it into circulation, the album never saw the light of day and McKagan quickly regrouped with a project called Loaded (sometimes called Duff McKagan's Loaded) to re-work some of the songs from the record. In 2002 he became part of the supergroup Velvet Revolver, a hard rock outfit made up of himself and fellow Guns Slash on guitar and Sorum on drums, Stone Temple Pilots vocalist Scott Weiland, and L.A. punk luminary Dave Kushner. The band released a multi-platinum debut album that rose to the top of the charts, and kept up a respectable level of success until they disbanded in 2008. After a six-month stint in Jane's Addiction, the unexpected happened and McKagan rejoined Guns N' Roses in 2010 for a one-off performance. This opened the doors for what eventually led to more shows and the 2016 Not in This Lifetime tour -- the first wide-scale tour GNR would go on with McKagan since 1993. Following this epic event, the bassist wrote a book and returned to the studio with collaborator Shooter Jennings to work on his third solo album, Tenderness. The album was more of a departure from hard rock than anything he'd done before, and also tackled a larger number of social and political themes. It saw release in 2019. In 2023, McKagan began sharing new music in advance of his third solo album, Lighthouse. The album was recorded entirely in his home studio and included contributions from Slash, Alice in Chains member Jerry Cantrell, and even a duet with Iggy Pop on one of the album's two versions of its title track. It was released in October of 2023. ~ Bradley Torreano

Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious were obviously the most attention-grabbing members of the Sex Pistols, but it was guitarist Steve Jones who led the charge musically. Born September 3, 1955 in London, England, Jones took up the guitar in the early '70s -- inspired by such acts as T. Rex, the Faces, the Stooges, and the New York Dolls. Since he was penniless, Jones acquired a wide variety of musical equipment by stealing from others (including David Bowie's Spiders from Mars during the group's farewell shows at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1973). It was around this time that Jones befriended drummer Paul Cook, and the duo formed a local band to jam on their favorite covers. By 1975, Cook and Jones (plus a small group of London teenagers) began frequenting a clothing shop called Sex, owned by Malcolm McLaren, who had briefly managed the New York Dolls and possessed a love for controversy.

McLaren offered to manage the duo if they would put together a proper band, which quickly led to the entrance of bassist Glen Matlock and singer Johnny Rotten. The same year the Sex Pistols were formed, a confrontational and thought-provoking band that was the complete antithesis of the bloated dinosaur that rock had become (especially overblown progressive rockers), and along with such U.S. outfits as the Ramones, helped create punk rock. Nearly all of the songs that the newly formed quartet penned around this time would go on to become punk rock classics, which was no mean feat, especially since Jones was still learning how to write songs at the time (he'd usually play along to songs by other groups, then be inspired to come up with his own riffs). The Sex Pistols were a magnet for publicity due to their then-shocking antics, which resulted in the group being signed by several record companies, then dumped before they could make any full-length albums. Matlock exited the group before sessions could begin for their debut album (with Warner Bros. Records' backing), and was replaced by Rotten's friend Sid Vicious.

The group's one and only officially released studio recording, 1977's Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols, is often considered to be one of rock's all-time great recordings. Spawning such timeless punk anthems as "Holidays in the Sun," "Anarchy in the U.K.," "God Save the Queen," and "Pretty Vacant," all contained instantly memorable guitar riffs courtesy of Jones -- which were subsequently copied by countless other players over the years. But despite all the hoopla, a volatile mix of drug problems, ego conflicts, and poor management created tension between the bandmembers, leading to their breakup in early 1978 after an inaugural tour of the U.S. had wrapped up.

Jones and Cook decided to remain together in the wake of the Pistols' split, as they contributed session work to ex-New York Dolls guitarist Johnny Thunders' star-studded 1978 solo release, So Alone. The pair also completed several Rotten-less tracks for a post-mortem Sex Pistols film, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (a few of which featured the debut of Jones on lead vocals) -- "Silly Thing," "Lonely Boy," "Here We Go Again," "Black Leather," and "Friggin' in the Riggin'." By the end of the year, Jones had produced an EP for the San Francisco punk outfit the Avengers (The American in Me), while Jones and Cook had teamed up with Thin Lizzy members Phil Lynott, Scott Gorham, and Brian Downey for a short-lived solo project, the Greedy Bastards (the band would issue a lone single, "A Merry Jingle," in 1979, under the truncated name of the Greedies).

In early 1979, Jones and Cook supplied backup to several tracks by ex-Runaway Joan Jett ("You Don't Own Me" and "Don't Abuse Me"), which would turn up on her debut album, Bad Reputation, while a Cook/Jones demo of her eventual breakthrough hit, "I Love Rock N' Roll," would later surface on Jett's 1994 rarities set, Flashback. A proposed new band with Sham 69 members Jimmy Pursey (vocals) and Dave Tregunna (bass) ultimately failed to get off the ground, which led to Cook and Jones cutting demos with bassist Andy Allen. 1980 began with the duo appearing in the movie Ladies & Gentleman, The Fabulous Stains (alongside Clash bassist Paul Simonon), in addition to Jones contributing guitar to a pair of tracks on the Siouxsie and the Banshees' release, Kaleidoscope. By the summer, the Cook- Jones-Allen outfit, officially called the Professionals, had signed with Virgin Records and issued a self-titled debut the same year. Before a supporting tour could be launched, Allen was replaced by ex-Subway Sect bassist Paul Myers, while second guitarist Ray McVeigh was welcomed on-board, as well. A sophomore effort, I Didn't See It Coming, was issued in 1981, but a serious car accident in the U.S. ended its supporting tour prematurely, and would lead to the dissolution of the Professionals the following year.

Jones developed a dangerous drug addiction around this time, but it didn't prevent him from forming the new wave supergroup Chequered Past in late 1982, comprised of ex-Silverhead and Detective frontman Michael Des Barres, plus ex-Blondie members Clem Burke, Nigel Harrison, and Frank Infante (with Infante being replaced by ex-Iggy Pop bassist Tony Sales). But like the Professionals, Chequered Past had a very short shelf life, as they split after issuing a lone self-titled studio album in 1984. By the mid- to late '80s, Jones had cleaned up his act; as he co-wrote several songs for ex-Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor (Taylor's 1987 solo debut, Thunder) and Iggy Pop (1987's Blah Blah Blah and 1988's Instinct). Jones had also launched a brief solo recording career around this time, issuing a pair of heavy metal-esque releases -- 1987's Mercy and 1989's Fire and Gasoline (which included songs co-written by Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx and the Cult's Ian Astbury, with guest appearances by Guns N' Roses Axl Rose and the Cult's Billy Duffy).

Jones steady recording schedule continued throughout the '80s and '90s, as he worked with the Nothings, Bob Dylan, Don Johnson, and the short-lived Johnny Depp/Gibby Haynes project, P. Jones formed another rock supergroup in the '90s, the Neurotic Outsiders, which featured ex-Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum, plus ex-Duran Duran bassist John Taylor. Predictably, the quartet lasted for only a single release, a 1996 self-titled debut. Further studio work came Jones way (Suicidal Tendencies singer Mike Muir, an Alice Cooper tribute album, Insane Clown Posse, etc.), while Jones co-produced the 1999 self-titled debut by AC/DC/Guns N' Roses-disciples Buckcherry. Surprisingly, the original Sex Pistols lineup reunited in 1996 for a world tour and live album, Filthy Lucre Live, before splitting up once more. Also around this time, Jones and his ex-bandmates were all extensively interviewed for the Sex Pistols superb bio-movie, 2000s The Filth and the Fury. ~ Greg Prato