DUFF MCKAGAN Says He Snorted His Body Weight In Cocaine

VELVET REVOLVER and former GUNS N' ROSES bassist Duff McKagan had sinus surgery on December 14 to repair his torn and damaged sinuses left non-functional as a complication from years of cocaine use.

In the latest installment of his column, which appears on Reverb at SeattleWeekly.com, McKagan writes, "From sometime in 1989 until about November 1993, I snorted perhaps my body weight in varying degrees of good, bad, and straight-up shitty blow. I don't recommend this to any of you young readers. I was NOT such a smart 20-something. Nope, just an ordinary drug-addict.

"I remember trying to glamorize all my drug and alcohol use back then. I would romanticize my life and my struggle as something noble and just. I was an ARTIST, maaan! I NEEDED to dull myself to certain inputs or else my art would suffer. Yep, before I knew it, I was strung-out and terrified. Crappy stuff.

"Someone asked me about this stuff a while back, and 'what are your kids gonna say when they start to party?' Some people ask me these things in an almost bellicose way, as if suffering through my kids' drug-abuse issues would be just payback for what I have done to myself. Hopefully, I was a big enough idiot in my time that I have filled the dumb-ass quota for my whole family. God, I hope so."

Duff issued a statement last week addressing rumors that he had gone back to drug use, following the news that he had sinus surgery. McKagan wrote online, "Thank you all for the very nice well-wishes regarding my sinus surgery recovery. I do want to make it clear for those of you who may be wondering . . . The surgery was a result of scar tissue build-up from my cocaine use which ended sixteen years ago. I have not relapsed on cocaine."

McKagan told The Pulse Of Radio not long ago what the best part of sobriety was for him. "Waking up every day," he said. "Waking up and being able to have a cup of coffee and be aware of what's going on around me and being comfortable in my own skin, and being curious about what's gonna happen that day. Simply, just waking up is the best thing."

McKagan said in a recent interview that when he moved back to his hometown of Seattle in 1993, before getting clean and sober, he was in such bad shape that he didn't think he'd live much longer. He recalled. "The house had a basketball court and an old, leaky roof. I never thought I'd use the basketball court. And I remember thinking that the cedar-shake roof that I put on the house, rated to last 25 years, would outlast me. Today it's looking old and somewhat worse for the wear. I guess I do too. To hell with how I look from the outside — I'm giddy just to be here."