• Guns N' Roses Bassist Duff McKagan to Release New Book 'How to Be a Man (and Other Illusions)' in May

    As bassist for Guns N' Roses, once dubbed "the most dangerous band in the world," Duff McKagan has done some serious living. The artist has never been shy about his decadent years - he released a tell-all memoir, It's So Easy and Other Lies, in 2012. The bassist is planning a new book based on some of the columns he wrote over a five-year period for the Seattle Weekly. How to Be a Man (and Other Illusions) is due out May 12.

  • Duff McKagan Talks Record Biz, Says GN'R Label Stiffs Him on Royalties [LISTEN]

    Duff McKagan stopped by Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta's podcast recently to talk about his time with Guns N' Roses. The bassist explained some of the financial aspects of the iconic rock band, like the difficulty of getting royalties nowadays and how much the group was paid for its exhaustive, two-year "Use Your Illusion" jaunt in the 1990s. According to Blabbermouth, McKagan has some issues with his former record company. The GN'R back catalog, which includes "Appetite for Destruction" and both "Use Your Illusion" albums, belongs to Universal Music Group. With hits like "Welcome to the Jungle," "Paradise City" and "Sweet Child O' Mine," the collection nets the company plenty of dough, but the musicians responsible for the songs are not as lucky. "It's, like, the second biggest catalog item they have. It sells. In 1994, I'd just gotten sober and I was kind of figuring some stuff out. And our lawyer said, 'We're gonna audit Geffen,' audit our record company. Before that, I lived in this sort of fantasy world that they were our partner in this thing," he said. "We were going out and attacking the world together. Well, they didn't pay us on something like 6 million records. Six million records! That's what we found."

  • Slash and Wife Perla Hudson Reportedly Separate

    Slash and his wife, Perla Hudson, have reportedly separated after 13 years of marriage. Sources told TMZ that Perla flew to Hawaii with the couple's sons London and Cash, telling the Guns N' Roses guitarist that they need to work out their problems. Perla hasn't filed for an official separation, but that's what the rocker's wife is calling the split.

  • Chris Cornell, Duff McKagan Will Play Mad Season Reunion with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra

    One of grunge's most beloved bands, Mad Season, will reunite in January with the help of two big names. Soundgarden's Chris Cornell and former Guns N' Roses member Duff McKagan will fill in for deceased members Layne Staley and John Baker Saunders. Surviving members Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) and Barrett Martin will lead the reunion, which will feature the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

  • New Guns N' Roses Music Created During the Slash Era, Richard Fortus Says Axl Rose Has Tons of Material [WATCH]

    Guns N' Roses has some new music that is reportedly in the process of being finished. According to band members, the material Axl Rose has brewing sounds pretty killer too. Guitarist Richard Fortus is the latest rocker to talk about the tunes publicly, saying that some of the stuff dates back to the Slash era. Yes, that's correct — some of the new Guns N' Roses songs will technically be a collaboration between two people who continually say they will never work together again.

  • Coachella 2015: AC/DC, Jack White and Drake Rumored to be Headlining April Festival

    The 2015 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is about five months away and the rumor mill on who will headline is already turning. AC/DC, Jack White and Drake are all current favorites to show up at the festival as long as they accept the invitations, Hits Daily Double notes. The website also claims that organizer Paul Tollett of Goldenvoice has standing offers of $8 million out to Led Zeppelin, The Talking Heads, The Smiths and the original Guns N' Roses to appear at the festival.

  • Guns N' Roses Frontman Axl Rose is Not Dead, 'Welcome to the Jungle' Singer Responds to Death Hoax

    Axl Rose is not knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door yet. The "Welcome to the Jungle" singer is the latest rock star to fall victim to an Internet death hoax. While he did not immediately respond to the false reports, the Guns N' Roses frontman eventually posted a funny sentiment about the incident via Twitter. The story was originally posted on a fake MSNBC website with the headline, "Sources: Guns N' Roses Frontman Axl Rose Found Dead in West Hollywood Home at Age 52."

  • Slash Remembers Pantera's Dimebag Darrell, Brother Vinnie Paul Says He's Found Peace with Untimely Death [WATCH]

    December marks the unfortunate anniversary of the death of Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell. The legendary axeman, aka Darrell Abbott, was shot onstage in 2004 while performing with Damageplan. It was a huge loss for the metal community and fans of his work, which lives on even though he is gone. Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash shared a few memories with Loudwire recently about the slain guitarist, who died Dec. 8.

  • Joni Mitchell Halts Biopic Starring Taylor Swift

    If you were looking forward to that Joni Mitchell/Carole King/Carly Simon biopic "Girls Like Us," then today, Nov. 25, you are out of luck. In an interview with "The Sunday Times," via "NME," Joni Mitchell revealed that she has pulled the plug on the project, citing the casting of Taylor Swift as one of the primary reasons. "I squelched that!" Mitchell admitted. "I said to the producer, 'All you've got is a girl with high cheekbones.' It's just a lot of gossip, you don't have the great scenes." "There's a lot of nonsense about me in books," Mitchell went on to say, "assumptions, assumptions, assumptions." The now-halted film was based on the book "Girls Like Us" by Sheila Weller, which followed the rise of Mitchell and her singer-songwriter contemporaries Carly Simon and Carole King during the 1970s. Swift was cast as Mitchell back in 2012, with "Mad Men's" Jessica Pare cast as Simon and "The Newsroom's" Alison Pill cast as King.

  • Guns N' Roses Keyboardist Dizzy Reed Says Band's New Music Is 'Fantastic'

    We have been hearing a lot of good things from the Guns N' Roses camp recently, and the main piece of positive news is that there is new music ready to go. Longtime keyboardist and Axl Rose pal Dizzy Reed talked about the new material, saying it is "fantastic" and that people "need to hear it," Blabbermouth noted. The next GN'R album will be the follow-up to 2008's "Chinese Democracy." "Last I heard, there's a lot of music that has been recorded, a lot of stuff that's done, a lot of stuff that's almost done, and I think it's just a matter of picking out which songs are gonna come out in the next phase," he told backstageaxxess.com. "And last I heard, that's what was happening. The main thing is, when it's ready to come out, it'll come out." Guitarist DJ Ashba confirmed that Rose had two albums worth of new material last month. Reed chimed in earlier this month, saying the tunes are in the process of being finished.

  • Early Axl Rose EP with First Band Rapidfire Available for Download [LISTEN]

    Axl Rose has been linked to Guns N' Roses since the beginning of time. The erratic frontman, however, was in a few other bands prior to making it big in the late 1980s. He was in the first lineup of L.A. Guns before forming his own band, Hollywood Rose with GN'R guitarist Izzy Stradlin. Their five-song demo was released in 2004 from the archives, and now fans are able to download an EP from Rose's first project, Rapidfire. According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Rapifire's demos have been available online for a few years, but the official release only came after Rose's legal blessing. Loudwire even reported earlier this year that a YouTube clip of Rapidfire was taken down at the request of Rose's lawyers even though it belonged to guitarist Kevin Lawrence. "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead man," Lawrence wrote prior to the release. "Oh, and I can't wait for the 500-page illegal harassment of a cease and desist. Snore .. zzz ... zzz. Heard of interference of business and SLAPP suits? I own the copyrights, the masters, the photos, the performances and I have the receipt that I paid for it all ... LOL ... open and shut." The EP, "Ready to Rumble," is available for purchase. Fans can learn more about the band on its Facebook page and even listen to a snippet of the music below.

  • Guns N' Roses Biopic in the Works, Confirms Author Marc Canter

    Hollywood loves stories of rock 'n' roll debauchery, so it is not a huge surprise that Tinseltown is eyeing up Guns N' Roses for a biopic. The classic lineup includes a captivating list of characters like drummer Steven Adler, guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, lead guitarist Slash and, of course, frontman Axl Rose. Their history has been written in multiple books, and filmmakers intend to make a movie based on Marc Canter's 2007 release, "Reckless Road: Guns N' Roses and the Making of Appetite for Destruction." The news first popped up on the fan site MyGNRForum.com, Ultimate Classic Rock points out, and Canter ended up disclosing a few pieces of information on the project. Canter, who has known Slash since childhood, said the biopic has "been in the works for about four months." The author added that the film will be made "by people that will do it right ... I do have a big say-so on the script, which is still being put together now but so far looking cool."
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