Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard has revealed that there was an organic ‘toughness’ to Guns N’ Roses in a new interview. Gossard feels that Duff McKagan, being from Seattle, helped bring that sound to the band.
Duff told Audio Ink Radio, “The story of Duff and kind of his input and impact in Seattle. It’s not really that well known, or I don’t read about it a lot. A lot of people kind of think, well, he was in Seattle, but then went to Guns N’ Roses. But, his imprint in this record shows, I think- the riffs on that Living record, you can kind of hear elements of 10 Minute Warning. You can hear elements of things that I picked up and went, ‘Oh, my God. I want to hear riffs like this. I want to hear this sort of perfect balance between minor and major and heavy and pop and rock and ballad and all of those things sort of combining.’
It just shows you how good he was even back then and sort of how kind of unsung he is in regards to when people talk about Seattle. Because, I think he was the inspiration for a lot of folks getting up on stage and figuring out how to write songs.
The interviewer said, “I do feel like a lot of people might actually be surprised that Duff McKagan was such a big part of that Seattle scene, because when you think of Guns N’ Roses, you kind of think of hard rock and metal. People see that as the antithesis of Seattle music and what came of grunge.”
Stone responded, “You know, I don’t quite hear it as- to me, when Guns N’ Roses came out, they were refreshing in the sense that, and not necessarily every song, but you could- I could hear elements of Seattle in there, and they were way tougher than what was going on at the time in Los Angeles. I mean, you know, It’s So Easy, Mr. Brownstone, Welcome to the Jungle.
All those tracks are phenomenal. I mean, they’re just, you know, incredible. But, I love hard rock. So, that wasn’t a leap for me. But, I do think that there’s- I think Duff was the punk element in that band. I think he is the element that is making that toughness come through, as well…”
