DUFF MCKAGAN Says Kids Today Don't Listen To Full-Length Albums

Duff McKagan (WALKING PAPERS, LOADED, GUNS N' ROSES, VELVET REVOLVER) was interviewed on episode 118 of the "Let There Be Talk" podcast with rock and roll comedian Dean Delray. You can now listen to the chat using the SoundCloud widget below.

Speaking about how people listened to full-length records during GUNS N' ROSES' early days in the '80s, before the invention of the compact disc, McKagan said: "People did records then. It's, like, what's missing now. We'd think about, 'How does this record go from beginning to end?' And, 'How's the middle part?' And when you flip over the record, what to start the second side with. How do you end the first side? People don't even think in those terms anymore. 'Cause we grew up through records. [We would think] How is the first side gonna sound? How is it gonna begin and end?

"Anybody who is probably under 45 listening to this is probably going, 'What? What are they talking about?'

"But, yeah, if you made a record [back in those days], you would think about the order on each side, and how the first side would end, and how you would open up the second side of the record, and how you would end the whole record, and all of the body of work in between that. You know, does this whole thing tell a story?"

"People don't listen... I don't wanna generalize, but I have two teenage kids. They listen to a song by one [artist], a song by somebody else, a song [by somebody else]. And [I go], 'Don't you wanna listen to the rest of the record?' They look at me, like, 'What's up, antique? What are you talking about?'

"I'm not saying one [way] is better or worse, but we just grew up in a different time when we got to enjoy that whole [experience of listening to albums from beginning to end]… I got a [turntable] back at home now. I got one, like, a year and a half ago. And it's the best…. Going out and buying records and putting a record on, it's so killer."