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DUFF MCKAGAN: Don't Call Me A Rock Star

September 5, 2008

VELVET REVOLVER/ex-GUNS N' ROSES bassist Duff McKagan has penned the latest installment of his weeky column, which appears every Thursday on Reverb at SeattleWeekly.com. An excerpt follows below.

"I'd like to take this opportunity to go one step further and discourse on my utter contempt for the much over-used term 'rock star.' You may be now saying to yourself, 'Yeah right, the dude from GUNS N' ROSES has a beef with a term that probably spells him out to a T?' Let me tell you something, I cringe at this term whenever it is directed anywhere near me and here is why…

"I was fortunate enough in my teens to see THE CLASH on their first U.S. theater tour. This was before the major recognition they received on the 'London Calling' record, but they were still larger than life to me and truly exotic. If the term ‘rock star' could have been used at any time in my youth-driven lingo, it would have been then and it would have described the true awe that I felt of being in the same room as these erstwhile trend setters.

"About 200 people showed up at the Paramount in Seattle to see this gig and it was, simply put, mind-blowing. During the show, a big yellow-shirted security guy up front punched a fan and broke his nose. Blood was everywhere. THE CLASH stopped the show. Bassist Paul Simonen appeared from the wings of stage right wielding a firefighter's axe that he must have plucked from the wall. He jumped down in the pit and proceeded to chop down the wooden barrier separating the fans from the band while guitarist Joe Strummer dressed down the security gorilla and went on further to say that there was no difference between the fans and the bands… 'We are all in this together! There is no such thing as a rock star, just musicians and listeners!' That moment remains static in my mind to this day."

Read McKagan's entire column at SeattleWeekly.com.

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