Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan was interviewed by Yahoo Entertainment reporter Lyndsey Parker recently. Here, the Guns N’ Roses member calls out disgraced former Hollywood executive, Harvey Weinstein as well as denounces President Donald Trump. Alternative Nation transcribed Duff’s comments
Duff: A whole different train of thought and I’m sure stuff was going on [back then], Harvey Weinstein stuff and all that but we hated that kind of [behavior]. Like, if we saw that stuff going on us, we didn’t allow it to happen around us.
Parker: Hmm-hmm.
Duff: You know, we were still good dudes and we never allowed that stuff to happen around us. You know, you hear about these stories now, like, I don’t know man, even through elementary school, middle school and high school you saw the potential creeps. Those people were never one of my friends. You’d go – that guy’s got the potential to be a rapist. You can tell, you know? Or a predator in some sort, a Harvey Weinstein kind of guy.
Parker: Like, stay away from him, you tell your female friends to stay away from them.
Duff: Yeah, none of my friends said “grab em’ by the pussy”. You know what I mean? Like, who would say something like that? I don’t mean to be political against the dude that said that but it’s just an idiotic, stupid thing to say for any man.
During the same interview, the Guns N’ Roses icon was asked about how musical era of the eighties differs from the era of Me Too. In addition, McKagan was asked to defend numerous controversial claims, some relating to controversial Guns N’ Roses song lyrics. In addition, he discussed claims of Axl Rose being racist after the release of “One in a Million” and shared a story in which he and an African American flight attendant had an awkward exchange. “It’s So Easy” and “Used to Love Her” were also discussed. Alternative Nation transcribed Duff’s comments.
Parker: In the era that Guns N’ Roses came up in and this has been a topic of conversation when Motley Crue’s The Dirt came out. It was a different era.
Duff: It was.
Parker: Pretty different era than the Me Too era we have now and a lot of lyrics, not necessarily just Guns N’ Roses lyrics but I remember when I Used To Love Her was the one that sort of came under fire. One In A Million too but things that had to do with women. Certainly a lot of lyrics that by other bands [including] Motley Crue and Poison. I talked to Slash about this actually and some of those lyrics didn’t bother me when I listened to them back then.
Duff: Right.
Parker: I didn’t think too much of them but now when I listen to them I think: “Huh, I don’t know how I feel about that.” So I think it’s interesting that you did a song like Last September because maybe people wouldn’t expect it from someone who came from Guns N’ Roses, or came from the era, an era that wasn’t necessarily known for being ver–
Duff: I wrote the lyrics for It’s So Easy.
Parker: Did you really? [Nervous laughter]
Duff: Yes, I did.
Parker: It didn’t bother me at the time.
[Awkward silence]
Duff: Also there was a sense of humor then that if you can’t see the sense of humor in Used To Love Her.
Parker: I mean, I didn’t assume it was based on a true story.
Duff: Yeah.
Parker: Obviously.
Duff: It could of been sung from a woman’s point of view too but there’s just no women in our band. “I Used To Love Him, But I Had To Kill Him”. It’s the same thing.
Parker: [Changing topics] You wrote the lyrics to It’s So Easy?
Duff: Yes.
Parker: I always kind of liked that lyric but you know, because of the humor you’re saying. However, I feel if that lyric came out now people would be up in arms about it.
Duff: Sure and I went on BBC’s HARDtalk for my first book, right, it was the woman on there and she was very nice to me in the green room and I thought it was gonna be “Oh what a great book, what a lovely family and that’s so nice.” We get on, the green light goes on the camera and she goes: “So turn around bitch, I’ve got a use for you.” You wrote that lyric, huh? How do you explain that to your daughters. Like, okay, I’m glad we’re talking about this in a different way.
Parker: Yeah.
Duff: In the Eighties or the late Seventies to now it’s two completely different things. Men and women were less predatory, I think, in my experience and were more just in it together. I sometimes felt the victim of predatory practices.
Duff then commented later in the interview:
Duff: I remember getting in a plane back to Seattle, an African American flight attendant came up and sat down next to me.
Parker: Really?
Duff: She asked if I really hate black people. I’m like: “Oh f***”!” You know? You know, part of my family is African American. Slash’s as well, so that people kind of didn’t put that together. It is hopefully now [or] later, people can examine that song and I think it’s brilliant as well as super brave of Axl [Rose] to step out and do that. It was public commentary just like Paradise City is, “Captain America’s got a broken heart”, just like Jungle is and that song was extreme in it’s using the verbiage of the street, you know of ill-informed people on the street.
