Duff McKagan made a name for himself as the bassist for Guns N’ Roses. However, before he took up bass, the 59-year-old was also a drummer and guitarist for other bands. McKagan named in an interview who inspired him on his career as a bassist.
Duff McKagan names his seven favorite bass players
The Guns N’ Roses member is currently in the promotional phase of his new solo album “Lighthouse”, which will be available from October 20th. McKagan also conducted an interview with “Guitar World” in which he talked about the seven bassists who impressed and influenced him the most.
Prince:
Although McKagan wasn’t a bass player to begin with, when interest in the instrument arose, he was primarily influenced by Prince: “I wasn’t a ‘bassist’ per se at the beginning, but when I decided to do it, I wanted something different be. And during this time I was very strongly influenced by Prince’s bass playing in the studio.” He specifically incorporated Prince’s high-end sound into Guns N’ Roses. You can particularly hear it on “Appetite for Destruction”. Duff’s bass has graced Prince’s “Love Symbol” for many years, whose great bass playing was always overshadowed by his abilities as a pianist and guitarist.
“It’s all there and you can hear the beautiful round floor. So Prince’s great bass playing helped me develop my sound.”
Lemmy Kilmister:
Lemmy Kilmister, on the other hand, would have shown him how “punky” a bass can be played.
“Lemmy showed me the importance of being aggressive and that while you can jump when playing with the pick, you shouldn’t play two notes at once. Because hitting the notes is important, and this guy was so damn good at it.”
For McKagan, Kilmister was the perfect fusion of punk and metal. But he also knew exactly what he was doing and how to play the bass best: “If you’ve ever seen Mötorhead live, then you know that he knew what he was doing; That was obvious.”
Paul Simonon:
Paul Simonon from The Clash was particularly life-changing. The Guns N’ Roses bassist saw this live in 1979. At one point, Duff McKagan didn’t even know what he wanted to be and whether he saw himself playing drums, guitar or bass. Here it was Paul Simonon’s outstanding bass style that motivated him, along with other bassists, to deal more intensively with the bass guitar.
“Did I want to be Joe Strummer, Terry Chimes or Paul Simonon? That’s what was going through my mind. But I saw Paul and knew his vibe would win. […] He’s just another player I looked up to when I started getting serious about bass guitar in ’84. There were so many good players to look up to back then, but Paul is one who stands out.”
Donald “Duck” Dunn:
With Donald Dunn, it was primarily wisdom that the bassist gave McKagan in the last years of his life that would have helped him advance his skills.
“I met him and said, ‘Hey man, I’d like to take lessons from you,’ because I was taking a lot of lessons around 2008, 2009 and 2010. […] While I didn’t take any lessons from Duck, I did pick up some great words of wisdom about the bass and I’m very grateful for that.”
Randy Rampage:
The extent to which Randy Rampage from DOA influenced him can only be seen in photos of Rampage from the late 70s.
“I remember being in that scene as a teenager and thinking, ‘Okay, I have to be at least this good. I think it’s good to have high goals that you can work towards.”
Steve Jones:
With Steve Jones, it was above all the collaboration with the drummer Paul Cook that fascinated McKagan and taught him that the harmony of the instruments is also very important musically. Through the two of them he began to “take the bass to heart”.
“If you’re reading this and you’re a young bass player, no matter what you do, you should pay attention to where the bass is placed in the beat. Sometimes you have to be in front of the beat, sometimes you have to be behind it, and sometimes you have to be on top. But Steve Jones found the sweet spot with Paul Cook, which influenced how I approach bass grooves for the rest of my life.”
John Paul Jones:
John Paul Jones and Led Zeppelin influenced McKagan in his teens. He explains that he grew up with the band and their music. McKagan took his first musical steps through his brother, who taught him three chords on the guitar. With these he later learned “The Birthday Song”. He learned a blues major scale without even knowing what exactly that was at the time. McKagen only later understood the meaning and difficulties behind such a 12-bar blues major scale through John Paul Jones.
“He does this shit effortlessly, like he doesn’t even think about it. It really hit me when I was part of a Jimmy Page tribute in Seattle and I went to the woodshed to learn his stuff. Man, I’m talking seven hours a day; That’s when I really learned to appreciate John Paul Jones. It was fluid, effortless and beautiful. I could say so much about John Paul Jones: He was a real motherf*****.”