Duff McKagan

In the organizer's words:

Live Nation Presents

Duff McKagan

In October with solo album Lighthouse in Cologne, Munich and Berlin

Presented by Rock Antenne

When it comes to Duff McKagan , most people immediately think of the now legendary Guns N' Roses line-up. In 1985, Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin and Co. brought him on board as bassist. By this time, however, McKagan, who was born in 1964, already had an amazing underground career behind him: at 15, he founded his first punk band The Vains, from 1980 he played drums in the pop-punk band The Fastbacks, a year later he was lead guitarist in the punk band The Living, with whom he performed as a support act for Hüsker Dü, for example. From 1982, McKagan was the drummer in The Fartz, who were more inclined towards hardcore and then became 10 Minute Warning. The last band stop before Guns N' Roses became a band called Road Crew, with a young man called Slash playing guitar and Steve Adler on drums. Both followed McKagan to Guns N' Roses a good two weeks later - and the rest is rock history. Duff McKagan was on board until 1997 and returned for the big reunion in 2016 after the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. So he can be heard on some of the most famous rock songs in the world and even co-wrote some of them: "Sweet Child O' Mine", "Welcome To The Jungle", "Paradise City", "November Rain", to name just the biggest.

This wild ride through his musical biography, to which deserving bands such as Loaded and Velvet Revolver must be added, is only intended as an introduction to Duff McKagan 's equally astonishing solo work. For example, listen to the song "Chip Away" from 2019, about which Bob Dylan said in a Wall Street Journal interview that he saw parallels to his songwriting. Duff McKagan has now released four albums of his own and the latest "Lighthouse" is not only one of the strongest, but also the lyrical essence of his life as a musician to date. This is also evident from the fact that companions such as Iggy Pop, Jerry Cantrell from Alice In Chains and, of course, Slash each pop in for a song. McKagan nevertheless says rather modestly about the twelve strong songs: "These are really just simple punk songs, raw and unfiltered, even though I sing and don't shout. But the themes are wide-ranging: I start with an ode to my wife and end the album with an ode to life - so I've captured the two things I love most quite well."

After touring extensively with Guns N' Roses over the last few years, Duff McKagan finally has the time to perform his new songs and a few of his classics live in a much more intimate setting. Instead of gigantic arenas and stadiums, in October he will be performing in live clubs in Cologne, Munich and Berlin that are as much appreciated as they are atmospheric. A good opportunity to see and hear once again that this rock musician is far more than just a part of Guns N' Roses - which would have been enough for many musicians, but not for Duff McKagan ...