Duff McKagan on Status of Velvet Revolver’s Lead Singer Search: It’s Nowhere
Over the course of his illustrious career, Duff McKagan has been in a lot of bands -- and he touched on pretty much all of them during a recent interview with FasterLouder, looking back on his stints with Guns N' Roses and Neurotic Outsiders while looking ahead to his future with Loaded, as well as weighing in on where Velvet Revolver might be headed.
"I have no idea," McKagan admitted when asked where the search is at in the effort to replace Scott Weiland in the band's long-vacant lead singer slot. "I think it’s at nowhere. I think everybody just kind of got sick of talking about it, because there’s really no guy, so there’s nothing that me or Slash or Matt [Sorum] or Dave [Kushner] could say that would change the course of this question. So there’s nobody now, I think the longer that Slash is out touring, and that I’m out touring, people will stop asking as much. Maybe once it’s settled down, we’ll find the guy."
Asked which of his bands he's most proud of, McKagan diplomatically responded, "I’m just proud of the fact people will still come and see me play. I don’t know if there’s one band in particular. I think just the whole arc has been jaw dropping for me, really. I’m proud of it all."
That includes his split from Jane's Addiction, which he says happened because his tenure was always "more to service that band ... for a minute." He added, "It’s weird for me, a guy who’s always started his own bands, it’s kinda hard to come into a band with a 20-plus year history and try and fit in."
As for his current group Loaded, it sounds like McKagan is just out having fun; as he noted at one point during the interview, "If you see me doing something, I like doing it. ... Rock 'n' roll doesn’t pay all the bills for sure. Record sales pay some of the bills, but these days no one’s really making a ton of money from selling records, maybe Linkin Park or Pearl Jam."