Guns N’ Roses Member Makes Awful AIDS Revelation

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Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan was interviewed by Yahoo Entertainment reporter Lyndsey Parker recently. During the provocative and engaging interview the Guns N’ Roses icon touched on how the music scene was impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 80’s. Alternative Nation transcribed McKagan’s comments.

Duff: I mean, HIV/AIDS was a thing but it hadn’t entered the but it hadn’t entered into [the mainstream] yet. I worked a bakery in Seattle, it was all gay men and me. AIDS was originally called GRID – Gay-related immune deficiency or something like that. Do you remember, it was called GRID?

Parker: Yeah, kind of crazy when you think about it, I do remember that.

Duff: So yeah, it was just a different time. I mean everything was unprotected from drugs, needles, sex, all of that stuff.

McKagan then said later on in the interview that Guns N’ Roses were pulled from an AIDS benefit show after backlash over some of their lyrics:

Duff: I was surprised, yeah, we were supposed to play David Geffen’s AIDS benefit in New York. A couple of months later we got pulled off of that.

Parker: Oh wow.

Guns N’ Roses faced a backlash over the lyrics to songs like “One in a Million,” but Axl Rose’s actions over the years have never suggested that he is racist or homophobic, as he has been a defender of the oppressed in recent years in social media posts.