DUFF MCKAGAN Says Taking Stage With GUNS N' ROSES Again Was 'Meant To Happen'

Former GUNS N' ROSES bassist Duff McKagan recently spoke to the Artisan News Service about his surprise guest appearance last October with the band's current lineup at London, England's O2 arena. Check out the clip below.

Said McKagan: "I almost wish that getting on stage part didn't happen...

"For me, the most important part of that — the chance meeting that our hotel rooms were right next door to each other. Great; it was meant to happen, it was meant to happen for us to finally connect again. What happened when we connected is a private matter — but I'm glad it happened."

He added, "It almost I wish it was, like, on an off night — that they weren't playing — because people were like, 'Oh, you played. Does that mean a reunion?' No, it doesn't mean any of that.

"I went to the gig with him. I was so jet lagged and on so much energy drink that it was all sort of surreal by that point. Like, 'I should be in bed right now, you know. I've got a meeting tomorrow morning at 8 in the morning. What am I doing here?' And then all of a sudden there's a bass in my hands — 'What? Am I going to play? 'You Could Be Mine'... I haven't played this song since 1993. Shit — how does this song go?' But that part was fun — I'm glad it happened. But the way more important thing was that there was a sense to me that it was meant to happen."

McKagan told Seattle radio station KISW last October that playing in London with the current version of the band he left in the mid-Nineties was "great." McKagan came onstage during the group's October 14 gig at London's O2 Arena to play on "You Could Be Mine", "Patience", "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" and "Nice Boys", sticking around to take a bow with singer Axl Rose and the rest of the group at the end of the show. The gig marked the first time McKagan had performed with GUNS N' ROSES in 17 years.

He told the radio station that he checked into his London hotel and was there for business unrelated to music when he learned that Rose was staying in the same hotel. McKagan said, "I had no idea Axl and GUNS N' ROSES were in London . . . I'm in these meetings and my phone starts ringing later on in the day in my hotel room; it was kind of managers and tour managers. The word (was) out I (was) in the hotel. And it came down to the simple fact... Axl and I just sort of met up, we saw each other and we hugged. I went down to the gig with him."

McKagan said he was watching the show when "somebody comes over with a bass," adding, "It was fun. I had a great time. It was a little bit heavy. When people saw it... It wasn't heavy for me so much. I was kind of more concerned about the band that he's put together . . . It's a great band and I didn't wanna do anything to lessen what they were doing."

McKagan also revealed that he and Rose hung out the next day, saying, "We had a nice dinner the day after the show, and that was it."

As for whether this could be the first step toward an eventual reunion of the original GUNS lineup, McKagan said, "I have nothing to say about it. It's not . . . I don't know. It's not anything that I worked or planned for."

Rumors of a GUNS N' ROSES reunion with the classic lineup have been swirling for years. Rose told Billboard.com in 2009 that he doesn't ever expect to play again with guitarist Slash, saying, "One of the two of us will die before a reunion."

Rose and original GN'R rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin played a few shows in 2006.

McKagan teamed with JANE'S ADDICTION last year, but split with the group in September. Now he's back playing with Slash in VELVET REVOLVER.