DUFF MCKAGAN: 'There's More' New GUNS N' ROSES Music 'To Come Here Sooner Than Later'

In a new interview with Poland's Pełna Kulturka, GUNS N' ROSES bassist Duff McKagan, who is preparing to embark on a tour in support of his third solo studio album, 2023's "Lighthouse", was asked if he is already working on new solo music. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, I'm gonna release a new song, I think the day we start touring in Dublin [on September 30] — with a B-side. It's the way I still think — a single with a B-side; I still think that way, although it's digital and all that stuff now, but you just make more material available. So I've got a couple of songs coming out in a couple of weeks. And I have — one other record's completely already arranged song-wise. We've got that record. And I don't know when I'll put it out because there's more GUNS stuff to come here sooner than later. So I don't wanna put out a record while GUNS is doing a thing. I try to stagger all of that stuff. So when that record will come out, the next record, I don't know. I could just put three records out at one time, but that'd be too much."

Asked if it's still really important for him to release full-length albums as opposed to stand-alone singles, Duff replied: "Yeah, it is. To me, and I'll never give this up, it's just the way I came up — albums you listened from side A, song one, flipped it, listened the whole way. And those records became these soundtracks to your life. And you would look at the vinyl, look at the packaging and where the record was recorded and all that stuff. And it's really nice for me to see vinyl really coming back, in a real way. And my daughter's looking at albums now, like, 'Wow, look at that.' It's not just a little thing on your iPhone screen, like the record cover's this little… We do artwork, and it's all important to me. I still like to tell a story with an album. And 'Lighthouse' was no different. It starts with the song 'Lighthouse' and it takes you on this journey. It ends you up at 'I Just Don't Know', which is pondering what's next. So I liked it. There's hope in the middle of the song, with an actual song called 'Hope'. There's peaks and valleys to the lyrics, lyrically. So it's important for me. I'll always put out albums, no matter what anybody else thinks. And people seem to like vinyl. I do well on vinyl, 'cause I give a shit. And I make the vinyl sound good at test pressings, and mastering the vinyl and doing all that stuff is important to me."

GUNS N' ROSES released a four-song EP, "Hard Skool", in February 2022. The effort, which was exclusive to the GUNS N' ROSES' official store, contained the two new songs the band released in 2021 — the title track and "Absurd" — as well as live versions of "Don't Cry" and "You're Crazy".

The legendary hard rock outfit has not released a full-length effort since 2008's "Chinese Democracy", which included only singer Axl Rose from the band's classic lineup. McKagan and guitarist Slash reunited with Axl in 2016 and have since released several standalone singles — "Absurd" (stylized as "ABSUЯD"),"Hard Skool", "Perhaps" and "The General" — but have not made any announcements about another LP.

This past June, Duff was asked during an appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" if he thinks GUNS N' ROSES will ever release more "newly written music" again as opposed to continuing to rework and put out previously composed songs. The GN'R bassist responded: "Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. There's new material. I don't know how we're gona put it out. I think that's a question too. Like, do you put out a record? Do you just keep putting out singles? I don't know what the right answer is there in this day and age."
If and when it happens, the new GUNS N' ROSES studio album will be the first under the GUNS banner since "Chinese Democracy" and the first to feature Slash, Rose and bassist Duff McKagan since 1993.

Written by Rose and co-produced by Rose and Caram Costanzo, "Hard Skool", which had the working title "Jackie Chan", was originally recorded during GN'R's "Chinese Democracy" era but was eventually omitted from that album. Short clips of the song were later posted online and a full version was leaked in August 2019.

"Absurd" came out on August 6, 2021, three days after GUNS N' ROSES performed the tune live for the first time during its concert at Boston's Fenway Park.

GUNS N' ROSES last performed "Silkworms", which was also reportedly written during the "Chinese Democracy" sessions, in 2001.

"The General" was the B-side of GUNS N' ROSES' limited-edition seven-inch vinyl single titled "Perhaps", which was made available for pre-order in August 2023.

Like "Perhaps", "Hard Skool" and "Absurd", "The General" was written during the sessions for the "Chinese Democracy" album. It was previously talked about by ex-GN'R drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia, who reportedly wrote some of the song's music and gave it its title, and former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach.