Guns N’ Roses Bassist Duff McKagan Recording 2019 Solo Album
We last got new solo music from Guns N' Roses four-stringer Duff McKagan in conjunction with his 2015 book, How to Be a Man (And Other Illusions). Next year will change that as he's set to release a yet-to-be-titled solo record with singer / songwriter Shooter Jennings helming the production.
McKagan's first solo record, Believe in Me, was released in 1993 and an unreleased follow-up was shelved in 1999 due to a label merger. Even with Guns N' Roses hectic schedule on the long-running "Not in This Lifetime..." tour, he issued an album with Walking Papers WP2, earlier this year.
As for what this next solo venture will be about, the bassist had some words for that. "I wrote a couple of articles about historical places I passed through on this last tour and people kept asking if that was going to be the focus of my next book, but an unseen and irrepressible force guided me to write little vignettes of reflective prose…little instant-reactions," he reflected.
"The heartbreak, anger, fear, confusion and divide I have experienced over the last two-and-a-half years of traveling this globe of ours coerced these words into songs that tell my truth, and one that I hope will spread and help us all," he continued, adding, "I do this for my daughters… I do this for my love of where I grew up… I do this, because I truly feel it must be done and said right now.”
Jennings, who has known McKagan for 20 years since moving to Los Angeles, was admittedly drawn to the area being a huge fan of the band. He recalled the feeling as the two were on the verge of tracking the new material. “From the first night we sat together at my piano hashing out arrangements of his songs, before going into the studio to record them, I felt it was a really important record that had to be heard,” the producer said. “The songs have so much heart and are so musical that I could just hear all the arrangements immediately and I could really feel them.”
Walking Papers, one of McKagan's many musical projects, released their first record in five years in 2018. See where it ranked among this year's best hard rock albums below.
30 Best Hard Rock Albums of 2018