If there’s one band that has taken the saying “good things take time” to heart, it’s Guns N’ Roses. They like to go to concerts 180 minutes, significantly longer than those of other artists. In an interview, bassist Duff McKagan reveals what’s behind the longer-than-average live performances and why they don’t shorten them.
“There are just too many songs”
Opposite “Heavy Music” McKagan discusses how he and the other band members feel about the extensive setlists: “Man, Axl loves it – you know, I think it’s – damn, it’s like, what songs do you take out, you know, when Do you want to play for a shorter time?” He himself experiences a dichotomy in this regard: “Don’t get me wrong – my body would love it if we only played for two and a half hours. Most bands play for two hours. Two hours and 10 minutes or so and we play for three hours and thirty minutes. I would like to play for a shorter time because then I would have less pain the next day. But there are just too many songs and people stay the whole time. Nobody goes, so it’s like, ‘Okay, they have to like it.'”
Duff McKagan in an interview:
“I really love it”
McKagan explains that her own enthusiasm for the songs basically guides the decisions: “We pull out other songs. I really love playing ‘Bad Obsession’, you know? ‘Pretty Tied Up’. This is so great… We all play them. ‘Reckless’ and ‘Shadow’. I look at Axl and say, ‘Yeah, are you sure, man? We have to play again in a few nights.’”
But her strong motivation has left its mark in the past: “But he’s a monster, man, that guy. Axl. Like its longevity. We just had to cancel one show because of the singing because he got a swelling – no surprise – a swelling on one side. He still wanted to do the gig and the doctor said: ‘You could ruin your voice forever’. A few years ago we canceled a show in Glasgow. We made up for it.”
New music from Guns N’ Roses
In 2023, Guns N’ Roses have already released two new tracks, “Perhaps” and most recently “The General”, which could also join the setlist in the future. The pieces, like the two titles “Absurd” (2021) and “Hard Skool” (2022), come from the recordings of their 2008 album “Chinese Democracy”.