Michael Duff McKagan is an American journalist, songwriter, and musician. He became famous thanks to his performances in the band Guns N 'Roses (GNR), in which he spent about 13 years. The group was successful from the 1980s to the 1990s, when hard rock was quite popular. Duff played bass and sang.
Biography
Duff McKagan was born on February 5, 1964 in Seattle, USA. In addition to him, the family had seven more children, and they all knew how to play musical instruments. Michael got his nickname Duff in childhood and called it the “Irish thing.” Elder brother Bruce taught him to play the bass guitar, gradually studying with him. Soon, Duff McKagan independently played songs from Prince's albums "1999" and the American punk rock band "Black Flag" Damaged. Later, in an autobiographical documentary called It's So Easy (And Other Lies), the musician admitted that his work was influenced by the English singer, writer and journalist Barry Adamson.
Duff McKagan was an excellent student, so he graduated from Roosevelt High School in tenth grade. After that, he worked as a pastry chef at Great American Food and Beverage Company.
Duff McCagan is 191 cm tall.
Career
When the singer was 15 years old, he founded a punk band called Vains. A year later, they released their first single, School Jerks. In parallel, Duff McKagan was a member of The Living, which opened some of the concerts of famous groups.
In 1980, the singer played drums as part of the American punk band Fastbacks. Its sound could be heard in the single of the group "This is Your Birthday" and in the song Someone Else's Room, released in 1981.
In 1982, Duff performed as part of a new musical group - The Fartz. Eight years later, they released the album You, We See You Crawling, in five singles of which McCagan played. After some time, the group was renamed 10 Minute Warning. In it, he already played the guitar.
In 1983, Duff McKagan moved with his brother to Los Angeles and began working at the Black Angus restaurant. He looked for newspaper ads that required bass players, and so he met guitarist Slash and drummer Stephen Adler. Having become friends, the guys decided to create a musical group called Road Crew, which broke up very quickly. The reason for this was that they could not find a singer and disagreements arose between the members of the group from time to time.
As part of GNR
In 1985, Duff McKagan joined Guns N 'Roses to replace the departed bass player. The founders of this group were Axel Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Tracy Ulrich (Gan) and Rob Gardner, who also had experience in public speaking as part of music groups. After Tracy and Rob left, Duff's friends, Slash and Stephen Adler, joined Guns N 'Roses. Soon the guys gave their first concert in one of the nightclubs in Hollywood.
In 1987, Guns N 'Roses released their debut album Appetite for Destruction, copies of which have sold over 28 million worldwide, most of which are in the United States.
A year later, the group released a new album, consisting of only 8 tracks, entitled GN 'R Lies, which was sold in the United States with a circulation of more than 5 million copies.
In 1990, Stephen Adler was kicked out of Guns N 'Roses because he dabbled in drugs and was replaced by Matt Sorum.
In 1995, the GNR group became less active and popular, and Duff created a new one - Neurotic Outsiders, which included Steve Jones, John Taylor and Matt Sorum. Their first album was Maverick Records. The guys went on a tour of Europe and North America, but their activities did not last long, the group broke up after two years. In 1997, Duff McKagan left Guns N 'Roses and returned to Seattle to see his family and old friends.
Duff has a large number of albums. Some of them were recorded when he was part of a group, while others he released as an independent performer.
Personal life
In 1988, Duff McCagan married the singer of the punk band Lame Flames Mandy Brix. However, their marriage was fragile, and the couple divorced two years later.
In 1992, the musician marries Linda Johnson, but with her, too, everything ended in divorce after 3 years.
In 1999, Duff McCagan marries the American model and television presenter Susan Holmes. This time the marriage was strong. The couple had two daughters: Grace Elizabeth and May Marie.
The musician claimed to be one of the last to see Kurt Cobain, the frontman of the Nirvana group, shortly before his death. Duff admits that, sitting next to him, he felt that Kurt wants to do something bad, because he was angry and tense.
When McCagan was 30 years old, he became ill with alcoholic pancreatitis, as a result of which the pancreas swelled up to a huge size. He was examined at a medical center, and the doctor said that death will occur in a month, if he does not give up alcohol. In his autobiography, Duff admits that sports and martial arts helped him overcome addiction.
For some time, the musician claimed that the fictional Duff Beer drink in The Simpsons was named after him, but he received no fee from it. However, the creator of the series Matt Groening did not agree with this, saying that it was some kind of absurdity.
