Profile of Duff McKagan on Famous Like Me

Duff McKagan (born February 5, 1964) is an American musician and bassist who is best known for his eight-year tenure in the 1980s hard rock band Guns N' Roses. Duff's height is 6'2", has hair blonde, and hazel colored eyes.

Early Years

He was born Michael McKagan in Seattle, Washington, the youngest of eight children born to Elmer and Alice Marie McKagan. The names and professions of his brothers and sisters, as of December 2002, are: Jon (store manager for QFC food chain), Carol, Mark, Bruce (general manager for Muzak Corp in Seattle), Joan Shelton, Claudia Christiansen and Matt (band teacher for Lindero Middle School).

Duff's father goes by the name Mac, and his mother is Marie. It was his brother Bruce who introduced him to the bass. He describes his home city as "a rowdy rock 'n' roll town with a hip underground."

McKagan headed to California when he was nineteen, and played in thirty-one rock bands around Los Angeles including "Ten Minute Warning" and was replaced by Daniel House of Skin Yard, and a hard-core punk band called The Fartz. Answering an ad for a bass player in a local magazine, he met guitar player Slash and drummer Steve Adler of the band "Road Crew." at L.A.'s legendary 24 hour deli and rock hangout Canter's. Duff expected some punk with a penchant for '70s rock, but found two long-haired guys instead.

"When I met Slash and Steve Adler for the first time," he said, "it was weird, 'cause I'd never met guys like this before - L.A. locals. We went out that night and got drunk, and then we had this ill-fated band. It was Slash's band, Road Crew."

Guns N' Roses

From the wreckage of the bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose, Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin joined Duff, Slash and Steve to form Guns N' Roses. Initially formed to meet booked gigs for the disbanded acts, the new line-up was finalized on June 6, 1985. Duff became the band's bassist, and after two days of rehearsal the newly formed group played their debut gig with GN'R on a Thursday night at the Troubadour.

He brought his punk rock sensibilities to the group, as he is a huge fan of Sid Vicious of Sex Pistols and in general.

He married for the first time On May 28, 1988 to Mandy Brix, a hostess in a Japanese restaurant in L.A. who also had her own all female rap-trio, "The Lame Flames." They were divorced in 1990. He married again in September 1992 to Linda Johnson, (believe she was a playmate) and divorced in September 1995.

Plagued by drug and alcohol addiction, McKagan survived for eight years in the highly volatile band, while Adler and Stradlin departed in 1990 and 1991, respectively. Meanwhile in 1990 Duff and Slash co-wrote and played a few songs on Iggy Pop's "Brick by Brick."

Solo Years

After a half-hearted attempt at drug rehabilitation, he kick-started a solo career with 1993's "Believe in Me". GN'R officially called it quits in 1994. That same year, McKagan underwent emergency surgery on his pancreas. This forced him to give up drinking for good. In the years that followed, McKagan sobered up his act, became a father and concentrated on his solo career. He recruited drummer Abe Laboriel, Michael Barragan and Izzy Stradlin to help him record Beautiful Disease, with a 1999 release on Geffen Records.

In 1995 he collaborated with Slash in his solo project "Slash's Snakepit," co-writing a song called beggars and hanger's on, which he played live at the Palace during a Snakepit show in May of that year. He would go on to form "Neurotic Outsiders," a heavy-metal super-group consisting of GN'R drummer Matt Sorum, Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones and John Taylor of Duran Duran on bass. They played the L.A clubs circuit in the late 90's, and toured the U.S. in 1996. A self titled album was released in September 1996. After that he put together different bands, like Duff McKagan's "Black Dog," "10 Minute Warning," and "Loaded."

Duff also tried it as an actor in 1997. He had a part in the TV serial Sliders, which aired in May of that year, as a dead rocker vampire.

On August 27, 1997, he had his first child, Grace, with Susan Holmes, they married on August 28, 1999 and on July 16, 2000 they had their second child, another girl, Mae Marie.

Duff was living between Los Angeles and Seattle from 1994 to 1999, because his mother was battling Parkinson's disease and he felt he had to be with her. His mom died in early April 1999 and since then, he lives in Seattle.

He put together another band called "Mad for racket" or also known as "The Racketeers" in 2000, and they played in London in December 2000. Duff did not play on that show. In 2001, he reunited with Loaded for the club circuit in Seattle. He also ran a marathon in 2001 with bib number "11468."

In August 2001, Loaded toured Japan. Duff also toured Japan with Izzy Stradlin to support Izzy's new album "River."

Velvet Revolver

Since April 2002, Duff has played bass guitar for super group Velvet Revolver together with former Guns N' Roses members, Slash and Matt Sorum.

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