DUFF MCKAGAN Talks About Being One Of Last People To See KURT COBAIN Before His Suicide

VELVET REVOLVER bassist Duff McKagan (ex-GUNS N' ROSES) has told Patrick MacDonald of The Seattle Times that the group are currently working on their sophomore album, writing songs to be recorded in the fall.

"It's great to be back in a band that means what they do and does not compromise," McKagan said. "We've written so much material and jelled so much more. We've found our identity, who we are. We started to find that out on the road. And we found out that there is no envelope for this band. It can go from one extreme to the other and still be the same band. For me, it's a high water mark. You go into rehearsal and every day you have to be on top of your game.

"Our reputation precedes us, and there is a curiosity factor, the Evel Knievel factor. And there is the music-lover factor."

McKagan said he and Courtney Love recently sang GN'R's "It's So Easy" together in Las Vegas, as celebrity guests at a clothing-store opening.

"I'd talk to her a couple times since I've been sober," McKagan said. "This time she was sweet, just really nice, and healthy. She started apologizing to me for what Kurt [Cobain] said, criticizing GUNS N' ROSES, and I said there is nothing to apologize for. That's rock 'n' roll."

McKagan was one of the last, if not the last, person to talk to Cobain before his suicide. They flew together in first class from L.A. to Seattle in April 1994.

"He said, 'Man, I just escaped from Exodus' [a treatment facility]. I didn't have any foresight that the guy was going to do what he did. I could tell he was bummed out, and I'd been that way before. We were at baggage claim, and I thought I'd ask him to come stay at my house. I turned around and he was gone.

"What if. Only if. A lot of my friends have died. If only he'd ... " McKagan's voice trailed off.

"But we're alive. We had a band meeting the other night to talk about business and just kinda take inventory, like, 'Is everybody cool with each other?' And we toasted this thing that we've done, that we've done it on our own terms. And it was so powerful. We didn't say it, we didn't vocalize it, but you could tell it was also like — and we're all still alive. When all five of us could have been dead. And we're not only alive, we're stronger than we were when we were 20 years old."

McKagan sounded like he was choking up. But he pulled himself together.

"It's freakin' great!" he concluded.