Since finishing up the their most recent album Libertad, McKagan has spent his down time doing, of all things, taking bass guitar lessons. "I mean I’m really confident with my bass playing. But I just got this new six-string guitar and I’ve just been sitting on my couch playing it finding all these new grooves I never knew I could get,” McKagan said over the phone “I’ve been in punk bands all my life but never really took lessons.”

McKagan believes that his music is something that has been evolving over time. “Part of me thinks it’s what I’ve been listening to. Part of me thinks it comes from some unknown mysterious place that I’d rather not know about. Part of me thinks that it is the collective. That it’s all about who I’m playing with.” Said McKagan “I’ve been listening to a lot of John Paul Jones, I’m going through a Led Zeppelin thing right now.”

“I’m lucky I suppose,” said McKagan “my passion is also my living. This band has allowed all of us who might have been relegated to ‘you were in a good band but it’s over now’ file to show that we are still musically viable.”

Despite having been a key member in what many consider to be one of the greatest rock bands of all time McKagan is still hesitant about what lies ahead. “I never try to plan out my future. I’ve learned from experience,” McKagan said “there are so many different lives going on within a band. Some people have to go back to a family and kids. I hope that we will make a third album I really do. But if we don’t at least I can say it was a good time.”

In an age where much of music is ruled by commercialism Duff McKagan is the last of the true rockers. He has made success for himself on his own terms. After one conversation one has no doubt that McKagan was born for success. Come out and see for yourself as McKagan and the rest of Velvet Revolver tear it up in Chicago next Thursday night at the Riviera Theater.

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