(antiMusic) Duff McKagan is currently supporting his solo band Loaded and took some time to speak with AskMen.com about their latest album, "Sick," his bandmates and their influences and he answered the obligatory Guns N' Roses question as well. A couple of the questions and answers are below: AskMen.com: Sick sounds amazing and I think reflective of some of your earlier influences, but it's a departure from your days with Guns and Velvet Revolver. What would you say to fans of your more well-known work who are interested in picking this album up?
Duff: I think Loaded is its own standalone band and I think a really good band, from my experience, is the greatest sum of all of its parts. Every guy brought something to the table and we took the best of those parts and made it a whole. Same thing with Velvet Revolver; you still had Slash and I, you had those elements, but you got Scott Weiland in there and Matt [Sorum] as a songwriter and even Dave Kushner — you take the best parts of them. With Loaded, we've always been sort of left of center; we're not a straight-up commercial rock band. People are saying it's [Sick] more punk rock, but punk rock to me was something that I experienced and I played in a lot of punk rock bands, but that was a long, long time ago. I'm certainly not going back; I'm not harkening back to those times.
AskMen.com: What do you think of Chinese Democracy? Duff: It's funny; so many people have asked me that question and I gotta figure out why people think my opinion matters.[And then, our call dropped.] Sorry about that. I didn't want you to think I hung up because of the question (laughs). Perfect timing. I think Axl did a great job on that record and other than that, the songs and the band are a completely different thing, so for me to really comment on the band, I might as well be commenting on the new Slipknot record. It's that far removed from me. We [Guns] made our last record in '92 or '93 or something -- that was 16 years ago. That was a lifetime ago for me. I was still using and stuff back then. So, that's how long ago it was for me. It's great [Chinese Democracy]. There are songs on it that I like and there are songs on it that I don't like, just like any other record. - Check out the full interview here
