Three-time Emmy-winning composer Bear McCreary is merging guitars and orchestra on his new solo album, and he’s got help from Slash, Tim Henson, Guthrie Govan, and Steve Vai.

McCreary has scored some huge films, including Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The Cloverfield Paradox, and Paws of Fury, and, having enlisted Serj Tankian for his 2024 hard rock record, The Singularity, he’s going bigger and bolder with its follow-up, The Singularity: Ekleipsis.

A concept record that picks up where its predecessor left off, it explores themes of disillusionment and perseverance in the face of struggle. Cool Kids, its lead single, pairs Guns N’ Roses stalwarts Slash and Duff McKagan with Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and his vocalist brother, Brendan McCreary.

“Cool Kids was born when Duff McKagan sent me a voice memo of a riff he was messing around with,” McCreary details. “My ears perked up instantly – his riff was undeniable! So Duff and I went into the studio the next week with my brother, vocalist Brendan McCreary, and Chad Smith to write the song together.

“When Slash got back into town, he added his signature screaming guitar parts, and there it was,” he adds. “It’s a song about all of us being proudly who we are, but I wouldn’t blame anybody for assuming the title was inspired by the fact that Brendan and I got to create this song with the coolest kids in rock and roll.”

Slash’s scorching blues rock licks are instantly recognizable, with a warm tone that plays off McCreary’s lush orchestrations for an effective double act.

Equally, Black Box, which has dropped simultaneously, hinges on grinding guitars straight out of the Duplantier playbook on a song with a heavy, anthemic edge.

Elsewhere on the tracklist, Steve Vai and Tim Henson double up on the track Blueshift, with Henson also tag teaming with Coheed & Cambria’s Claudio Sanchez on Sweet Misery.

Guthrie Govan (Alexandria), Gojira’s ESP artist Joe Duplantier (Black Box), and Alissa White-Gluz (Our Kingdom) – the latter of whom is fresh from launching her shred-laden new band, Blue Medusa, and joining DragonForce – also feature. It’s quite the lineup.

McCreary will take the album on the road, with dates in the UK and Europe in July and August, before hitting the US and Canada in September.

See Bear McCreary for more.

Slash reunited with his former Guns N’ Roses bandmate Gilby Clarke at a charity show in West Hollywood on Monday night, and they tore through a classic hit.

The pair, alongside longtime GNR bass player Duff McKagan, former drummer Steven Adler, and Faster Pussycat vocalist Taime Downe, performed the swaggering Appetite for Destruction cut, It’s So Easy at the Troubadour as the Rock For Jennifer – Loud And Legendary fundraiser.

The show was organised to honor the legacy of Jennifer Perry, the venue’s chief booker during the 1980s. That was a time when GNR made it their stomping ground, who passed away in February. She was also a vocal supporter of Poison and Warrant before they blew up, and was heavily involved in numerous editions of Ozzfest.

It felt right, then, that this throwback reunion of GNR alumni from various eras would be the feather in the night’s cap. And as video evidence from the night suggests, they nailed it.

“This is pretty cool,” Slash had said before McKagan propelled the group into the punk-tinted smash. “Jennifer would have wanted to be here.”

Clarke appeared on the band's covers album, The Spaghetti Incident?, but departed in 1994. Slash followed him out the exit in 1996, leading to a revolving door of players in his wake, which included Buckethead, DJ Ashba, and Bumblefoot.

The Slash-Clarke partnership continued into their collaborative project, Slash’s Snakepit, with Clarke left to dwell on what could have been had they stayed in the band.

“Slash went through the same thing as me – he had all these songs, but Axl wanted to go in a different direction,” he told Guitar World in 2024. “The truth is, between my songs and Slash’s, we could have had the next Guns N’ Roses record.”

More recently, Clarke was emergency cover for Alice Cooper after Nita Strauss had to step back from a tour, only for her stand-in, Orianthi, to be sidelined on the eve of the shows.

Slash, meanwhile, who paid tribute to Ozzy at the Grammys, has also teamed up with Joe Bonamassa for a special charity show, but the pair were shown up by a youthful shredder who appeared alongside them.

Mike McCready is currently prepping the release of rock opera Farewell to Seasons. In its initial graphic novel form, it tells the story of the Pearl Jam guitarist and Seattle itself through four fictional bands. But there’s one group that shares its name with a real band: McCready’s first project, Shadow.

The hard-rock outfit was formed when the guitarist was in ninth grade at Seattle’s Roosevelt High School, and he feels they deserve more credit for what they were achieving at a young age.

“I felt like we never really got the props that we should have gotten over the years, because we were young and 16 and playing all around the Northwest and doing shows,” McCready tells Guitar World. “We broke up when everything started happening. I spent my 10,000 hours with that band.”

In the mid-’80s, Seattle was not the place to be; but LA most definitely was. So when McCready’s contemporaries started moving to the West Coast to make it, he made sure that Shadow – whose sound owed more to Iron Maiden and Van Halen than anything foreshadowing grunge – followed.

“Duff McKagan stopped by the Shadow house in ’84, and said he was moving to Los Angeles. And we were like, ‘There’s something to that.’”

By the tail end of 1986, McKagan and his band Guns N’ Roses had built a reputation on the Sunset Strip and released their first EP, Live ?!★꩜ Like a Suicide. Things never quite took off for Shadow, however – and it wasn’t for a lack of trying.

“We played a bunch of places. We opened up for Andy Taylor. I got to see some cool stuff – I saw Jane’s Addiction at a club; I saw the Welcome to the Jungle video shoot.”

One year into the move, McCready got sick with Crohn’s disease which, combined with a lack of record label interest, sealed Shadow’s fate.

“It was a year of me working at Aron’s Records, drinking too much, getting Crohn’s, and going, ‘I can't do this anymore.’ So I moved back and I gave up. I quit playing music for two years from ’88, ’89. I was done. And then I got a call out of the blue from Stone.”

Guitarist Stone Gossard had recently lost singer Andrew Wood to a heroin overdose, bringing his own dreams of rock success to a tragic close. He was seeking a new musical sparring partner, and hit up McCready after seeing him playing along to a Stevie Ray Vaughan record at a party.

“I had known him since seventh grade. And when we started playing together, selfishly, I was like, ‘Okay, this seems to be my door. I better walk through it.’ After going through LA and not making it and being depressed, all of a sudden this thing happens when I'm not looking for it.”

From there, history was made. Pearl Jam would go on to make Ten and become one of the greatest success stories to emerge from the Seattle scene. But McCready never forgot about Shadow, the band who kickstarted his path to lead guitar stardom.

Farewell to Seasons is released on October 6 2026 via Z2 Comics. Guitar World’s full interview with Mike McCready will be published in the coming weeks.

Anthony Jackson’s longtime manager, Danette Albetta, has voiced her disappointment over the Grammy Awards’ tribute to the late bass guitar legend, commenting that the telecast “missed an opportunity to educate the public on a true pioneer.”

Jackson was included in the Grammys’ Ozzy Osbourne tribute, with an all-star lineup that included Slash and Ozzy producer Andrew Watt, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith on drums, and Duff McKagan on bass guitar.

The segment also paid homage to Brian James of the Damned, Mick Ralphs of Mott the Hoople, Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley, and Blondie drummer Clem Burke (although not Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds).

“To place Anthony within a tribute centered on Rock/Metal was a grave miscalculation of his musical identity,” wrote Albetta in an open letter to Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. “Anthony’s soul and career belonged in the segments celebrating R&B, Jazz, and Sophisticated Pop.

“His work with Chaka Khan, Steely Dan, and The O’Jays defines the very ‘Recording Excellence’ the Academy claims to uphold.”

“By failing to contextualize his brilliance within the R&B and Jazz lineage where he spent decades as a cornerstone, the telecast missed an opportunity to educate the public on a true pioneer.”

Having made his mark with his pioneering use of a pick and flanger pedal on the O’Jays’ 1973 smash, For the Love Of Money, Jackson perfected his craft as a first-call session ace, resulting in landmark sessions with the likes of Chick Corea, Al Di Meola, Paul Simon, Mike Stern, Wayne Krantz, Hiromi, and many more.

With a vision of the electric bass as a member of the guitar family, with the tone of a piano’s bass strings – Jackson also invented the 6-string contrabass guitar, launching the wave of extended-range basses.

“Our community expected – and Anthony deserved – a tribute that reflected the elegance and technical mastery he brought to the Great American Songbook and the R&B pantheon,” Albetta continued.

“I request a formal acknowledgment of this oversight and ask how the Academy intends to better honor instrumental innovators who operate behind the scenes but define the sound of generations.

“Anthony Jackson’s legacy is not a footnote; it is the foundation.”

Victor Wooten echoed these sentiments, commenting, “I love this Danette. You are exactly right!!!”

Aside from the Anthony Jackson tribute, the Grammy Awards ceremony was a successful evening for bass-playing acts, with Frank Bello, Christian McBride and Pino Palladino all scooping awards.

When Marcus Miller shared a photo of fellow bassist Pino Palladino at the 2026 Grammy Awards, it wasn’t just a backstage moment – it was a quiet summit of bass guitar history.

In fact, the term “bass guitar” next to either of their names somehow falls short of describing their enormous contributions, both on recordings and onstage.

Miller, the architect of modern funk and jazz fusion, stood alongside Palladino, whose lines have powered everything from pop to neo-soul, prior to a special tribute performance honouring the late Roberta Flack and D’Angelo.

“I’m performing with Ms. Lauryn Hill tonight in a tribute to Roberta Flack,” wrote Miller on social media. “She’s also doing an iconic tribute to D’Angelo. So of course the great bassist Pino Palladino is here too.”

Having put fretless bass on the pop music map in the 1980s, Pino Palladino continued to bolster his resume with stints in the Who – replacing the late John Entwistle – and D’Angelo’s heralded 2000 album, Voodoo.

“I met D'Angelo while doing a track for B.B. King's Deuces Wild, and we hit it off right away,” Palladino told Bass Player. “Whenever he sang, I played better!

“He saw me playing my '63 P-Bass and said, ‘That's a Bootsy bass, right?’ I mentioned that James Jamerson also played one, and he went crazy over that.

“It turned out the approach I'd been focusing on was the concept he wanted. He just said, ‘You've got the sound I'm looking for – come and play bass on Voodoo.’”

Following a medley of hit songs from D’Angelo’s back catalogue, Hill shifted into a homage to Roberta Flack, who Miller worked with in the early ‘80s.

Talking to Red Bull Music Academy back in November 2015 he said: “I was in Roberta Flack’s band for a couple of years. I met Luther Vandross in that band. It was amazing to play in her band and learn how to really play a ballad, how to use space, how not to play all the notes, just play the right notes. I think I was 19, 20, maybe just turning 21, right before I started with Miles Davis.

“A few years later in the mid-’80s I came back to Roberta Flack, but this time as a writer and a producer. I produced an album for her called Oasis, and I was very proud to return to somebody in whose band I had worked. It was fantastic to give back to Roberta Flack after I had received so much from her.”

With Lalah Hathaway, Miller later covered Flack’s hit Killing Me Softly on his 2002 live album Marcus Miller: Master of All Trades.

Other notable bass-driven acts to win at this year’s Grammys included Christian McBride, whose big band album Without Further Ado, Vol. 1 scooped Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.

Meanwhile, Guns n’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan was on hand to pay tribute to Ozzy Osbourne alongside Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and his GnR bandmate Slash.

To cap it off, That Wasn’t A Dream by Pino Palladino and guitarist Blake Mills won Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

The 2026 Grammys took place last night (February 1) and proved to be something of a guitar music love-in. From Justin Bieber wielding a 1988 Yamaha RGX 612S, to Turnstile winning both Best Rock Album and, perhaps more controversially, Best Metal Performance, pop stars and quintessential rock bands alike were out in full force this year, flying the flag for the instrument.

The Ozzy Osbourne tribute (or should that be tributes?) took center stage across the weekend. Machine Gun Kelly and Jelly Roll both honored the Prince of Darkness at record executive Clive Davis’ annual pre-Grammys gala on Saturday night – with MGK opting for 2007's I Don’t Wanna Stop and the country star giving a heartfelt rendition of 1991's Mama, I’m Coming Home.

The award show’s own tribute took place on the actual Grammy stage, with an all-star lineup that included a Les Paul-laden Slash and Ozzy producer Andrew Watt brandishing an SG, Duff McKagan on bass, and Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith on drums.

Post Malone – who collaborated with Ozzy on Take What You Want and It’s a Raid from Osbourne’s first new album in a decade, 2019’s Ordinary Man – took up vocal duties on an abbreviated rendition of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs, a version that visibly left the Osbourne family fighting back tears.

Aside from the Prince of Darkness, this year's In Memoriam segment kicked off with a voiceover from Bruce Springsteen, paying tribute to Beach Boys genius Brian Wilson: “The last of the Wilson brothers may be gone, but he leaves behind so many great songs, and good vibrations.”

John Mayer also paid his respects to Dead & Company bandmate and Grateful Dead legend Bob Weir, also in a voiceover: “He understood songwriting to its core, having written and performed some of the most enduring music in American history.

“Bob was a messenger, not only for the music he made with the Grateful Dead, but for the tapestry of influences that birthed it … Bob has left us, but the songs he sang will remain a road map for a better, more meaningful life. See you down the road, Ace.”

Neo-soul pioneer D'Angelo was honored by a host of artists and contemporaries: Lauryn Hill – marking her first Grammys performance since 1999 – Raphael Saadiq, Anthony Hamilton, Leon Thomas, and Jon Batiste.

And while guitar stars, including the likes of Ace Frehley were included in the segment, Mastodon fans pointed out that Brent Hinds was noticeably omitted, with Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert and Zappa Plays Zappa bassist, Pete Griffin, taking to social media to call out the institution: “Shame on @grammys for not including my brother (and fellow Grammy winner) Brent Hinds in their ‘in memoriam’ segment.”

The omission seemed particularly odd, given Hinds had been nominated for no less than six Grammys, and won one in 2018 – Best Metal Performance for Sultan's Curse – during his tenure with Mastodon.

Yungblud, Ozzy’s mentee and part of the new vanguard leading rock into the future, won his first-ever Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance for his career-making rendition of Changes at Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning concert.

“To grow up loving an idol who helped you develop your identity, not only as a musician, but as a man, is something that I’m truly grateful for,” he said in his acceptance speech.

“But then to get to know them and to form a relationship with them, and to honor them at their final show, and receive this because of it, is something that I and I think we are finding a bit strange to comprehend.

“We fucking love you, Ozzy,” he continued. “We would all like to thank Sharon, Jack, Kelly and Aimee [Osbourne] for this opportunity, and everyone at the Back To The Beginning show. Six generations of rock musicians came together in the name of our genre, in the name of Sabbath and in the name of Ozzy Osbourne.

“I deeply love this genre, it’s all I’ve ever known. I want to dedicate it to everyone in the guitar shop that I grew up in, and everyone in a guitar shop or in a bedroom with a dream. Rock music’s fucking coming back – watch out pop music, we’re gonna fucking get ya.”

And speaking of rock music's comeback, Turnstile bagged Best Rock Album for last year's triumphant album, Never Enough.

Accepting the award, frontman Brendan Yates commented, “The community we found through punk and hardcore music has given us a safe place to swing in the dark and land somewhere beautiful. So to our family, our friends, our partners, our peers, and to Baltimore, thank you. We love you.”

Perhaps more surprisingly, the genre-blending band also managed to win Best Metal Performance for Birds, beating the more metal through-and-through acts Dream Theater, Ghost, Sleep Token, and Spiritbox.

More standout guitar moments came by way of Bruno Mars, who, together with K-Pop star Rosé, delivered an overdriven rendition of their global hit APT.

Armed with a black Les Paul – as opposed to his signature Fender – Mars added some extra grit, as well as a squealing guitar solo, to the pop-punk-inflected track as the duo, who were nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, opened the show.

And it very much seemed like Justin Bieber went full-on Mk.gee with a stripped-down, guitar and looper performance of Yukon – from last year's album Swag (which, fun fact, included the contributions of both Mk.gee as well as his frequent collaborator Dijon).

Bieber’s guitar of choice was a left-handed purple 1988 Yamaha RGX 612S that definitely stood out on stage – an off-kilter choice that continues the trend of pop and indie stars à la Kesha and Phoebe Bridgers opting for ’80s and ’90s guitars more typically associated with metal or hardcore, whether for aesthetics or tone (or both).

Here's the full list of winners and nominees in the big four categories – and the guitar-adjacent ones:

Song of the year

Billie Eilish - Wildflower

Lady Gaga – Abracadabra

Doechii – Anxiety

Rosé & Bruno Mars – APT.

Bad Bunny – DtMF

Hunter/x – Golden

Kendrick Lamar feat SZA – Luther

Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild

Record of the year

Kendrick Lamar feat SZA - Luther

Bad Bunny – DtMF

Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild

Doechii – Anxiety

Billie Eilish – Wildflower

Lady Gaga – Abracadabra

Chappell Roan – The Subway

Rosé & Bruno Mars – APT.

Album of the year

Winner: Bad Bunny – Debí Tirar Más Fotos

Justin Bieber – Swag

Sabrina Carpenter – Man's Best Friend

Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out

Lady Gaga – Mayhem

Kendrick Lamar – GNX

Leon Thomas – Mutt

Tyler, the Creator – Chromakopia

Best new artist

Olivia Dean

Katseye

The Marías

Addison Rae

Sombr

Leon Thomas

Alex Warren

Lola Young

Best pop solo performance

Lola Young – Messy

Justin Bieber – Daisies

Sabrina Carpenter - Manchild

Lady Gaga – Disease

Chappell Roan – The Subway

Best pop vocal album

Lady Gaga – Mayhem

Justin Bieber – Swag

Sabrina Carpenter – Man's Best Friend

Miley Cyrus – Something Beautiful

Teddy Swims – I've Tried Everything But Therapy Pt 2

Best pop duo/group performance

Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande – Defying Gravity

Huntr/x – Golden

Katseye – Gabriela

Rosé & Bruno Mars – APT.

SZA With Kendrick Lamar – 30 For 30

Best traditional pop vocal album

Laufey – A Matter Of Time

Laila Biali – Wintersongs

Jennifer Hudson – The Gift Of Love

Elton John & Brandi Carlile – Who Believes In Angels?

Lady Gaga – Harlequin

Barbra Streisand – The Secret Of Life: Partners, Volume 2

Best rock performance

Yungblud ft Nuno Bettencourt, Frank Bello, Adam Wakeman, II – Changes (Live From Villa Park) Back To The Beginning

Amyl and The Sniffers – U Should Not Be Doing That

Linkin Park – The Emptiness Machine

Turnstile – Never Enough

Hayley Williams – Mirtazapine

Best rock song

Nine Inch Nails – As Alive As You Need Me To Be

Sleep Token – Caramel

Hayley Williams – Glum

Turnstile – Never Enough

Yungblud – Zombie

Best rock album

Turnstile – Never Enough

Deftones – Private Music

Haim – I Quit

Linkin Park – From Zero

Yungblud – Idols

Best alternative music album

The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World

Bon Iver – Sable, Fable

Tyler, The Creator – Don't Tap the Glass

Wet Leg – Moisturizer

Hayley Williams – Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party

Best alternative music performance

The Cure – Alone

Bon Iver – Everything Is Peaceful Love

Turnstile – Seein' Stars

Wet Leg – Mangetout

Hayley Williams – Parachute

Best metal performance

Turnstile – Birds

Dream Theater – Night Terror

Ghost – Lachryma

Sleep Token – Emergence

Spiritbox – Soft Spine

Best country solo performance

Chris Stapleton – Bad As I Used To Be

Tyler Childers – Nose On The Grindstone

Shaboozey – Good News

Zach Top – I Never Lie

Lainey Wilson – Somewhere Over Laredo

Best country duo/group performance

Shaboozey & Jelly Roll – Amen

Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton – A Song To Sing

Reba McEntire, Miranda Lambert, Lainey Wilson – Trailblazer

Margo Price & Tyler Childers – Love Me Like You Used To Do

George Strait & Chris Stapleton – Honky Tonk Hall Of Fame

Best country song

Tyler Childers – Bitin' List

Shaboozey – Good News

Zach Top – I Never Lie

Lainey Wilson – Somewhere Over Laredo

Chris Stapleton – A Song To Sing

Best contemporary country album

Jelly Roll – Beautifully Broken

Kelsea Ballerini – Patterns

Tyler Childers – Snipe Hunter

Eric Church – Evangeline vs The Machine

Miranda Lambert – Postcards From Texas

Best R&B performance

Kehlani – Folded

Justin Bieber – Yukon

Chris Brown feat Bryson Tiller – It Depends

Leon Thomas – Mutt (Live From NPR's Tiny Desk)

Summer Walker – Heart Of A Woman

Best African music performance

Tyla – Push 2 Start

Burna Boy – Love

Davido feat Omah Lay – With You

Eddy Kenzo & Mehran Matin – Hope & Love

Ayra Starr feat Wizkid – Gimme Dat

Best Latin pop album

Natalia Lafourcade – Cancionera

Rauw Alejandro – Cosa Nuestra

Andrés Cepeda – Bogotá (Deluxe)

Karol G – Tropicoqueta

Alejandro Sanz – ¿Y ahora qué?

Best música urbana album

Bad Bunny – DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS

J Balvin – Mixteip

Feid – Ferxxo Vol X: Sagrado

Nicki Nicole – Naiki

Trueno – Eub Deluxe

Yandel – Sinfónico (En Vivo)

Rob Reiner’s legendary spoof This Is Spinal Tap remains a mandatory VHS tape among rock bands everywhere. But what happens when moments from the cult music mockumentary enter real life?

“Everything that happened in that movie is based on shit that happened or easily could have happened to any touring band,” Rex Brown told Guitar World. “We were a professional touring machine and Spinal Tap shit happened every day.”

To mark the release of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, which features cameos from Paul McCartney and Elton John, we look back on 10 real-life ‘Spinal Tap’ stories from some of the bass world’s biggest names.

1. Victor Wooten

Over the years, we've collected dozens of real-life Spinal Tap stories. This Victor Wooten tale, however, is definitely one of our favourites so far.

“I was wearing these basketball-type pants that button down the side,” said Wooten in this clip from the Beneath the Bassline documentary.

“I was doing something crazy with my bass and the horn of the instrument caught the inside of my pants, and when I went to swing my bass my pants ripped down to my ankles. The show’s still going on, so what do you do?!”

2. Thundercat

Thundercat was recently recruited for a rendition of Spinal Tap’s 1984 track Big Bottom, but it was on tour with Erykah Badu that his real-life Spinal Tap moment actually took place.

“I was playing at the Opera House in Sydney, and I’m trying to make sure there’s a lot of bass onstage. So I’m using an Aguilar DB 751 and I’ve got the wall of doom speakers. There’s this moment where you think everybody’s cheering, but then I look back and the amp is literally on fire.”

3. Robert Trujillo

Robert Trujillo has played bass in the world's biggest metal band since 2003, but his real-life Spinal Tap moment dates back to before Metallica's self-titled 1991 album when he was performing with skate-thrash mob Suicidal Tendencies.

"I was warming up behind my bass amp and a bottle came flying over the backline and slammed me in the top of my head. I go to the front of the stage and I start calling everybody out. It was like I wanted to fight everybody.

“My bandmates actually went out into the audience and proceeded to knock a few people out. I got rushed to the hospital right after.”

4. Nathan East

It was back in 2010 that top session bassist Nathan East bounded across the stage in order to impress his bass hero, Verdine White, but his performance would become memorable for all the wrong reasons.

“It was a double bill with Earth, Wind & Fire and Toto, with probably around 30,000 people gathered around, and Verdine was in the front row.

“With him being one of my biggest influences I start trying to show off with this big high-step thing when all of a sudden it felt as if the stage had gone out from under me. I’d snapped my achilles tendon.”

The incident was captured on camera by a member of the audience, and if you watch closely you can pinpoint the exact moment where East’s tendon tears.

5. Bakithi Kumalo

One of the most memorable scenes from This Is Spinal Tap sees the band take a long walk through the backstage area as they try to get to the stage at Cleveland’s Xanadu Star Theatre.

Best-known for his epic bass break on Paul Simon’s You Can Call Me Al, Bakithi Kumalo is a bassist who can sympathise with this scenario.

“I had picked one dressing room for myself so I could stop being nervous, but I could hear them announcing the start of the show. I had to get out of the dressing room, but I couldn’t open the door! I still had my in-ear monitors, so I could hear the rest of the band saying, ‘Where’s Bakithi?!’”

6. Duff McKagan

One day a film will be made about Duff McKagan, the punk rocker from Seattle who moved to Hollywood, joined Guns N’ Roses and became a star. Needless to say Duff was happy to oblige when asked to reveal his own Spinal Tap moment.

“I had a belt that had crosses on it and it had this buckle, and I wore it to every gig. We also had this grated metal stage that we’d take around the world with us, but if it got wet outside that stage would get slick.

“I slipped and I fell, and my belt got stuck in one of the grates of the stage floor. We’re in the middle of a song and I’m stuck, and I’ve got roadies trying to undo my belt while I’m still trying to play!”

7. Andrew Gouche

Having held the bass chair with the likes of Prince and Chaka Khan, Andrew Gouche needs no introduction as one of the bass guitar world’s top groove players. Back in 2015 he told his side of the story surrounding the events of a tour bus altercation in Texas.

“We were in the middle of Texas when the air conditioning went out on the tour bus. In that kind of heat and with the frustration of being on a sucking gig that you weren’t making that much money on, two of the guys got in a fight.

“One guy pulled a knife out of one of those big holster things and almost sliced his thumb off. We dropped him off at the hospital in San Antonio.”

8. David Ellefson

Megadeth’s debut album, Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good!, was released on June 12, 1985. Two weeks later, the thrash metal band set off on their first US tour, an undertaking that could quite easily have been a scene from This Is Spinal Tap.

“It was the Killing Is My Business… album, which already had a fateful title for a tour! And after the second show our van broke down and I had to rent a car.

“Our drummer happens to be driving and he reaches back behind the seat to grab his DW foot pedals and drives off the road at 85 miles per hour, going over a concrete culvert and nearly killing us.

“So we pull into Cleveland to play the show that night complete with real whiplash, not just from headbanging!”

9. Nick Campbell

Having graduated from the University of Southern California, Nick Campbell has gone on to perform with the likes of Charlie Puth, Josh Smith, Peter Erskine, Vulfpeck, Pomplamoose and Scary Pockets. You may have also seen him in episodes of Glee and the Glee Project.

But his most memorable Tap-style fiasco occurred at Disneyland, and it is so Spinal Tap it makes you realise just how genius a parody the film is.

“A friend got asked to put together a band for Disney, and they wanted smooth jazz arrangements of classic Disney songs. They brought out all these pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean as we played the finale. We hung out there all day and the pirates didn't break character. They were all freaking terrifying!”

10. Billy Sheehan

As the world of bass guitar has evolved, we’ve watched Billy Sheehan ascend to its very zenith – touring relentlessly and still being a man that you’d love to sit down and have a beer with. That is unless you’re a short-changing club owner.

“We were set to play at this club, but when we got there the stage was so small that there was no way we could make it work. We contacted the agent and the owner was real pissed off.

“He said, ‘You guys will never play within 300 miles of this club!’ So I get on the phone and I call the fire department. All I said was, ‘We’re playing at this club and they told us it would be OK to hot clip onto the mains power. Are we liable if anything happens?’ They shut the guy down completely!”

11. Nik West

Known for her jaw-dropping stage persona, Nik West once had a spectacular wardrobe malfunction.

“I had this outfit, and I was going so crazy onstage that the skirt part of it started to slide down. I had on leggings, so I just let it fall. Then I picked it up and I threw it in the audience.”

A choirmaster, organist and expert in many archaic music styles, John Paul Jones also happened to play bass guitar in Led Zeppelin, the biggest heavy rock band there has ever been or ever will be.

Whether anchoring those chunky riffs with huge grooves or adorning them with subtle upper-register flourishes, Jones inhabited the bass parts with the greatest of ease.

“I grew up listening to Led Zeppelin, and that's when I realized how good John Paul Jones is,” Duff McKagan told Bass Player. “It really hit me when I was part of a Jimmy Page tribute in Seattle, and I went to the woodshed to learn his stuff. That's when I gained a true appreciation for John Paul Jones.”

Led Zeppelin made its debut in 1968, but it was Led Zeppelin II, released in 1969, that really shook the masses. The record's third cut, The Lemon Song, unwinds repeated cycles of a standard 12-bar blues framework that includes one of the finest rock bass solos ever recorded.

“When I was growing up, John Paul Jones was one of my favourite bass players,” said longtime Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony. “I remember when Led Zeppelin II came out and hearing The Lemon Song. It has this bass solo in the middle when it breaks down. That solo is one of my favorite bass parts ever. I still play that today and I still dig it.”

The song begins with an eight-bar intro in E; two blues cycles follow, followed by three faster cycles, and then one additional cycle at the original tempo before Jones steps up. His keen ear and technical manoeuvring conjure up concentrated, lyrical lines extracted directly from three blues scales: E, A, and B. (A blues scale consists of the root, b3rd, 4th, b5th, 5th, 67th.)

Jones' acute expression is clear throughout his solo, which begins at 02:58. His ideas modulate, outlining each chord change with its parallel blues scale – the E blues scale over E7#9, the A blues scale over A7, and the B blues scale over B7.

Sometimes Jones interjects an open string to keep a line moving or to pivot to another string, Jamerson-style; a good example can be found at 04:32. Jones also employs slides, which often occur over several pitches within a phrase.

Striking passages filled with melodic tension can be found at 04:20 and at 05:26, in which A# (the raised 4th of E ) plays a major role.

“It was all done with the same Led Zep ethic,” Jones told Bass Player back in September 1999. “Try everything, try what you know, don't constrict yourself, and find out what works and what doesn't work. If it doesn't work throw it away. If it works put it in, and that is what Zeppelin was all about.

“We would try anything, it just didn't matter! We were all honest with each other and so if something didn't work it didn't matter whose idea it was – if it didn't work we didn't use it. The only thing that matters is that you like what you hear.”

Jones's eclectic style can be heard throughout the other tunes on Led Zeppelin II – especially What Is and What Should Never Be and Ramble On.

But despite all of the basslines Jones would go on to record after cutting this classic record (not to mention his extensive studio work from his pre-Zeppelin days), The Lemon Song can be considered the peak of his melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic brilliance.

Grammy-winning producer to the stars Andrew Watt started his career working with a who's who of the pop world, including the likes of Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, and Camila Cabello.

However, the super-producer took a turn down a more rock-oriented lane when he was approached by Ozzy Osbourne for 2020’s Ordinary Man – the Black Sabbath legend’s first studio album as a solo artist in ten years at the time. Four days later, Ozzy had already announced that he was working on its follow-up, 2022's Patient Number 9, with Watt once again at the helm.

“Rock is something that I love – it’s the music that speaks to me the most,” Watt confesses in a new interview with Guitar World. “But as I found my way into this business, I had these gigs playing for amazing pop artists and ended up writing their songs, and that became my footing and the thing that I was doing – making pop music that had guitar in it.

“When the Ozzy thing came around, I was so excited at the chance to do it, but also kind of doubting myself. Like, these aren’t the records I really make. But with the push and love and guidance from both Duff McKagan and Chad Smith, who were friends at that point, they were like, ‘Come on man, you gotta make this. Of course you can do it. It’s everything you love.’”

Indeed, Ozzy's endorsement led to a host of other rock-fueled albums from Watt, including Eddie Vedder's Earthling, Iggy Pop's Every Loser, Pearl Jam's Dark Matter, and the Rolling Stones' Hackney Diamonds.

Speaking about his approach to producing rock records that pay homage to each of these artists' incredible rock legacies, while giving them a more contemporary twist, he said, “Once we started making music, I kind of felt that confidence and that became the blueprint. For the Iggy album, we just kind of made music and then Iggy chose the tracks he liked and sang to them.

“Then that led me into working with bands that I love, like Pearl Jam – they’re the best live band there is. And obviously the Stones are everyone’s favorite rock band. Getting to sit in the room with those guys and just record a band doing their thing, keeping it really live, became really important to me and just my favorite thing in the world to do.”

However, Watt has never forgotten the legend that nudged him in a more guitar-fueled direction. As he puts it, “It all started with Ozzy. He and Sharon were the first ones to believe that I could make them a great rock album.”

Watt recently talked about his experiences working with another rock behemoth – a certain Beatle who showed him how to play a widely beloved Beatles song.

Guns N’ Roses are back out on the road and have continued a heartfelt tradition by bolstering their setlist with a Thin Lizzy classic – which has seemingly been included as a tribute to the late John Sykes.

Slash and co. are currently out in Asia, and during their show at the K-Arena Yokohama in Yokohama, Japan, on May 5, bass player Duff McKagan assumed vocal duties for a cover of Thunder and Lightning.

The song is taken from Thin Lizzy's 1983 album of the same name, which proved to be the band's last LP following Phil Lynott's passing in 1986. It was the only Thin Lizzy record to feature guitarist John Sykes, who was brought in to replace Snowy White. The record was one Lizzy's heaviest outings, boasting a heavy metal panache with Brian Downey on drums and Sykes' union with Scott Gorham proving fruitful.

Sykes, who passed away aged 65 in December last year, would go on to join Whitesnake for a two-album spell afterward, and it seems Guns are using the song as a way to pay tribute to the underrated guitarist.

Going off fan-filmed footage, the song gets no introduction, but it does see Slash swap his trusty Les Paul for a black Gibson SG, which is a rare sight.

The bassist's voice helps give the song a strong punk flavor – it already had the snarling attitude – but it is Slash and Richard Fortus’ interweaving lead lines around the 2:30 mark that really steal the show. They have no right to make countering guitar solos work as well as that. Slash solos a handful of other times across the song, his wah pedal seeing plenty of action throughout.

“Mr. Duff McKagan,” Axl Rose can be heard bellowing above the applause once the final notes had rung out. “A little thunder and lightning.”

Tributes poured in for Sykes after news of his passing broke. Elsewhere, Steve Vai – who had to follow in his wake in Whitesnake – recently spoke about the challenge he faced when it came to following in his footsteps.

It's not the first time GNR have paid tribute to late guitar heroes during their sets. In the wake of Chris Cornell's untimely passing in 2017, Soundgarden's set list staple Black Hole Sun was weaved into their live shows as a mark of respect.

McKagan would go on to front the surviving members of Soundgarden during a charity show late last year, and it’s been confirmed the band will get together again for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction later this year.

Guns’ latest tour run, which began at South Korea’s Songdo Moonlight Festival Park on May 1st, is the first tour to feature new drummer Isaac Carpenter who was announced just 24 hours after the departure of long-serving stickman Frank Ferrer.

In April, Slash made a surprise appearance at former Hannoi Rocks singer Michael Monroe’s show at the Whisky A-Go-Go, Les Paul, top hat and all.

The announcement of Ozzy Osbourne's return – and last-ever live performance – on July 5 marks the historic reunion of the original Black Sabbath members for their first show in 20 years.

Dubbed ‘Back to the Beginning’, this homecoming – and, frankly, celebration of a great legacy – takes Sabbath back to where it all began: Birmingham.

However, instead of a traditional headliner-and-support-style show, this event will bring together some of rock’s most influential, generation-spanning talents – a supergroup, if you will, or a “very supergroup,” as Tony Iommi shared with Planet Rock – for what already looks like an event destined for the history books.

Most intriguing among the lineup is a Tool, Rage Against the Machine and Smashing Pumpkins supergroup, teased by Sharon Osbourne, who appears in the same interview.

“Tom Morello is going to be playing with Billy Corgan and you know the drummer from Tool [Danny Carey]. You wouldn't have thought that you would see those three guys together, but they're all from Chicago, so they're all home guys,” says Osbourne.

“Then you’ll see Slash and Duff [McKagan] and whoever they choose to play with,” she elaborates in an interview with NME. “David Draiman [Disturbed] is going to come up and sing, Jonathan [Davis] from KoRn is going to be here and he could be playing with [Red Hot Chili Peppers’] Chad Smith or whoever! Alice In Chains are coming and they’re playing as the band.”

As Osbourne explains, assembling all these big names was no easy feat – but their willingness to commit is a testament to Ozzy’s legacy and, by extension, Black Sabbath’s.

“People are coming in from all over the world – they're all gigging because it's the summer, so everybody's out doing festivals, and somehow, it worked. Bands like Anthrax, we asked them to be a part of it, and they said, ‘Oh, don't even bother to send us a ticket. We're going to be there no matter what.’”

After all, as Osbourne puts it, “This is a celebration – of the genre and the pioneers who started it and passed it on to all these bands. Usually, this thing is done when you’re dead – so it’s nice that these guys can be alive to be appreciated!”

Tickets for the mega-event go on sale on February 14, with proceeds from the show set to be shared equally between Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Acorn Children’s Hospice.

Visit Live Nation for tickets.

Soundgarden’s surviving members recently reunited for the first time since 2021 to perform a six-song set at a benefits concert in Seattle.

Stepping out for a brief encore as part of the 13th annual SMooCH concert in aid Seattle Children’s Hospital’s uncompensated care fund on December 14, Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, and Ben Shepherd enlisted some notable help for the occasion.

Seattle-based singer-songwriter Shaina Shepherd fronted the band in place of the late Chris Cornell. The set, made up almost entirely of Soundgarden songs, was bookended by Hunted Down and a cover of the MC5’s Kick Out The Jams. Guns N’ Roses star Duff McKagan provided support on Kickstand and that raucous set closer. Outshined, Flower and Beyond the Wheel also featured on the setlist.

Thayil, whose signature Guild guitars finally landed late last year, donned another interesting Guild for the performance. The electric guitar features Guild’s offset Surfliner body, but unlike the Fender-style headstock of the standard production models, it has the Gibson-esque shape as seen on his signature guitars.

He also brought out his go-to SG-alike Guild Polara guitars, while McKagan made light work of a Fender Telecaster on Kick Out The Jams.

The band were performing under the moniker Nudedragons, an anagram of Soundgarden. It was the first time Nudedragons had been used for a concert in 14 years, after Soundgarden debuted the name to perform a surprise set in 2010.

Thayil, Shepherd and Cameron had reunited in 2021 to perform with Brandi Carlile.

Since Soundgarden’s disbanding, Thayil has formed 3rd Secret, a supergroup of his own featuring Matt Cameron and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic. He’s also provided a guitar solo on I Quit, a solo track from Melvins' man Dale Crover, which features a new tuning he invented.

It is believed that Cornell’s final Soundgarden recordings will see the light of day after Cornell’s estate and the band’s surviving members settled their long-running lawsuit last year, but if anything happens beyond that is yet to be seen.

Duff McKagan has seen it all, done it all and survived it all – by the slightest of margins. The stories of his escapades as the bassist of Guns N’ Roses, a band whose members practically had their humanity ground out of them by sheer fame and debauchery, are legend.

Fortunately, Duff was in control of his intake during the band’s glory years, resulting in the classic Appetite For Destruction and Use Your Illusion double albums, on which the bass playing is a thing of rock ’n’ roll beauty. “My drinking never got in the way of writing bass parts,” Duff told Bass Player. ‘I was writing music with other drunks at the time! So we were all on the same playing field.”

Like his bandmates, the hell-raising stories about McKagan are numerous. And yet these frankly unnerving escapades seem worlds away from the now 60-year-old bassist who’s spent the last few years touring with the reformed Guns N’ Roses alongside guitarist Slash and singer Axl Rose.

“Axl was never a drunk, but he was never around for the writing of the music. He would come in once something was done. On Appetite we didn’t have a PA in our rehearsal room, so he couldn’t sing stuff even if he wanted to. But Slash and I have been songwriting partners for the major part of my career.”

We could fill pages with bullet-pointed lists of the mad things that Duff did before 1994, when a brush with death caused him to clean up, sober up, get ridiculously fit and go on to a very productive post-GNR career.

In a YouTube interview for Beneath The Bassline, Duff recalled the time his belt buckle gave him a problem during a Guns N’ Roses show.

“I had this killer Chrome Hearts belt that I wore for every gig. And we had this grated stage that we would take all around the world with us, but if it got wet out then that stage would get slick. One show I slipped and the belt got stuck in the floor. We were in the middle of a song!

“I had roadies help me to take the belt off, but it was like that moment in the film where the mini Stonehenge comes down.”

The interview also finds McKagan looking back on the band’s appearance at London’s Live 8 event in 2005, and in particular, meeting Paul McCartney.

“There was a lot going on backstage. There was the Who, Madonna, and Pink Floyd were going to play. We hit the stage, and there’s Paul McCartney. He looks at me and he says, ‘Hey, Duff.’ You only play three songs, so there’s no time to warm up and you’ve got to hit your nut real quick, but all I can think is, ‘Paul McCartney knows my name. How the hell did that happen?!’”

While McKagan's punk-rock roots are well documented, his childhood musical education actually has its foundation in R&B heavyweights like Sly and the Family Stone. At the same time as he discovered punk, he also discovered Prince.

“Meeting Prince was the most freaked out I've been. He was on the Diamonds and Pearls tour in Berlin, and we had a night off, so we went and saw him. Suddenly some big dude says, ‘You can come back and say hi.’”

“I only started playing bass when Guns N’ Roses started, and at first it was more like Prince’s bass playing,” McKagan told Bass Player. “He played bass on his first four records and he had a high-end to his sound. I incorporated that into my sound in Guns N' Roses, which you can hear as early as Appetite for Destruction.

“It's all there, and you can hear the nice round bottom, like a full bottom, but very pronounced. I was at that age when I played drums, guitar and bass, and this guy was only six years older than me, making his own records and playing everything. I was completely enamoured by him.”

Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan has recalled the life-changing moment when he met his future bandmate Slash, just a few weeks after he decamped to Los Angeles. In typical Slash fashion, the over-the-top encounter left a lasting impression on McKagan.

“Moving down there, I met Slash and [drummer Steven Adler], like almost immediately, within a couple of weeks, through a newspaper ad,” he discloses in a career-spanning interview with Stereogum.  

“When I first met him, like the night I met him, was at Canter’s, a deli in LA. He was living in his mom’s basement because he’s like 18. And he starts playing guitar – and then he brings out his snake. And I’ve never been around a snake.”

Elsewhere in the interview, McKagan remembers how playing with Slash on Iggy Pop's Brick By Brick was a career-defining, pinch-me moment. 

“I got a phone call at my house. I just got my first phone and house. You pick up the phone back then. ‘Hello? Hey, is this Duff?’ ‘Yeah, it’s Duff.’ ‘It’s Iggy.’ I thought it was one of my friends fucking with me,” he says. 

“‘I want you to come play on my record, man. Would you be into that?’ And I’m like, ‘Who is this?’ And they won’t say who it was. I hung up the phone and the phone rang again. It was him. ‘Hey, man. No, really, it’s Iggy.’”

He continues, “We got these demos from Iggy on a cassette, me and Slash. We learned the songs and went in and played with Don Was. Kenny Aronoff played drums. Consummate professional. 

“Slash and I were good players at that time. But doing the thing with Iggy, we played a show with him, after the record was released, down in downtown LA. At that point in my life, I was like, ‘Man, I’ve done it, I made it. I fucking made it.’”

Duff McKagan has described the intense process behind Jerry Cantrell’s approach to guitar solos, with the Guns N’ Roses basis likening the experience to that of a “fight” between the guitarist and his guitar.

Cantrell guests on McKagan’s new solo album Lighthouse on a track called I Just Don’t Know. The record pulls several threads, weaving in older unreleased tracks among new material written during the Covid years at McKagan’s Seattle studio. 

Now, in a new interview with MusicRadar, the bassist discusses several of the guest solos on the record, including contributions from the aforementioned Cantrell (a fellow Seattle resident) and his GN’R bandmate, Slash.

“Jerry fights for his leads,” comments McKagan of Cantrell’s soloing approach. 

“I’ve seen so many different guitar players. Some guys can just come in and [do it]. And, ‘Wow, that’s fuckin’ amazing.’

“Jerry comes in and he fights. He fights his guitar and, by the end – by the time he gets the lead on – it’s like, ‘Wow man, that was a piece of work. I saw your brain working.’”

If anything, the insight makes us like Cantrell’s lead work even more. There’s a popular misconception that killer solos just come easily to big-name players, so it’s always reassuring to hear of a guitar great that has to wring it out of the neck.

“He fuckin’ swears,” says McKagan. “He gets through this thing. I’ve seen him do it plenty of times, and I knew he’d do it on [I Just Don’t Know].”

Elsewhere, in the same piece, McKagan discusses Slash’s lead spot on the track, Hope – one of the songs initially made for a solo release that McKagan’s then-label, Geffen, left on the shelf. 

“That’s a song I did in 1996 at my house in LA, in the Hollywood Hills,” says McKagan. “Slash had come over to my house one day and heard that song… He was like, ‘Hey man, do you want me to put a guitar on this?’ Yeah, for sure! I had an amp set up and I recorded it. This was back in the days of tape, of course, and I was good enough to record him. 

“So, I got those masters back during [Covid]... and it’s a very pretty song. Slash plays thematic things in there. He’s so good at that.” 

Amusingly, McKagan notes that more recent discussions with Slash have revealed the guitarist has no recollection of the session. 

“He doesn’t remember playing the song,” concludes McKagan. “It was during an interesting time in his life!”

To read the full Duff McKagan interview, head to MusicRadar, and for more from Duff, check out our interview where he names the seven bassists who shaped his sound and explains how Prince shaped the sound of Appetite for Destruction.

Meanwhile, Slash has been working on his own “blues-orientated” solo album, due in 2024, which he has described as a spiritual sequel to his star-studded 2010 solo debut – revealing he’s already got a recording with Demi Lovato in the bag.

Dave Kushner had been in several bands before joining Velvet Revolver alongside Slash, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum and Scott Weiland, but nothing could have prepared him for what was to come.

Sure, Wasted Youth, Electric Love Hogs, and Infectious Grooves had their cult followings, but Velvet Revolver was a runaway train. Just ask Kushner: "Not to get too deep, but there was a lot of prayer and some meditation," Kushner tells Guitar World. "I'm not a big Jesus guy, but there's something up there. But, really, the big thing for me was to try to stay grounded. To that point, I had lived a life where I knew better than to spend all my money as if it was just going to keep coming."

The music of Velvet Revolver, which combined the raggedy-assed imagery of the '80s with lionhearted guitar heroics of the '70s, was filled with bluster. But while successful, the situation was also akin to an unsuspecting boot hovering above a landmine, eager to detonate upon impact.

Looking back on it 15 years after Velvet Revolver's end, Kushner tells us, "Being in a band with Scott, and with the volatility of all the people involved, I went into it thinking, 'This all could end tomorrow; I need to make the most of it.' But Duff, who had gone to business school, said, 'Dude, you have to buy a house,' and walked me through it."

He continues, "It was a crazy situation with Scott; there were times I'd call up Robert DeLeo [of Weiland's former band, Stone Temple Pilots] and say, 'Dude, what did you do when this happened with Scott?' So, getting through this band situation far bigger than I'd been in before was a very 'it takes a village' deal. I'm glad I had the humility to ask those questions and have those conversations."

Volatility may have been par for the course within Velvet Revolver, but so was guitar-driven bombast. And Kushner – a riffsmith with a habit of playing alongside the best – was right at home.

"Most of the bands I've been in were two-guitar bands," Kushner says. "So, I was always used to that dynamic. And Slash was also used to being in a band with another guitarist. The big thing for me is to know my place and to keep my ego in check. There was no, 'Oh, I should be doing this,' or 'I need to do more of that.'"

As for what's kept him in such good company, Kushner elaborates, "There's a stupid saying that goes, 'Your ego is not your amigo,' and it's so true. The truth is there are probably a ton of people who have more skill than I do, but mindset and personality count for a lot. When you put all that together, that keeps you around for more than just an album cycle."

After Velvet Revolver, you dove headfirst into soundtrack work. What brought that on?

"In 2008, Velvet Revolver came to a halt while we were looking for singers to replace Scott. We'd been doing that for maybe a year, and a friend of mine, Bob Thiele Jr., said to me, 'Hey, I just got this job with a show called Sons of Anarchy; it's not out yet, but it's like The Sopranos meets the Hells Angels.' And then he said, 'If you have any ideas for music, you should come down, and we can try and write some stuff.' I thought about it and said, 'Okay, let's give it a try,' went over to Bob's, and we wrote that main riff for the show [This Life]."

What was the inspiration behind that riff?

"The way it came about was I had written with a friend of mine, Shooter Jennings, and we had done some stuff together. When I went to Bob's, I had that type of thing in mind, along with the riff. We ended up writing the whole theme song that same day. It took us a few hours, and that was it.

"But don't get me wrong – it wasn't easy; it took fucking months before we found out if they would use it. But once that happened, the floodgates opened, and I gained momentum. So, scoring was this skill set I didn't even know I had."

How did your years of writing rock music inform your approach to scores?

"With the Sons of Anarchy thing, it was an easy transition. But with everything else, there was a learning curve to get past. I grew up listening to and playing punk and hard rock, but I also listened to other stuff like Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, and The Ohio Players. So, I've always had an open mind regarding music, which helped me when I got into this."

Are you still using the same Fernandes guitars as your Velvet Revolver days?

"I still have those guitars, but literally, as I'm talking to you now, I'm looking at this Ibanez baritone [K-7] guitar that I borrowed from Munky [James Shaffer] from Korn. I've been using that for the stuff I'm working on for Gordon Ramsey's show, Uncharted.

"It's funny; I ran into Munky at the carwash, but I'd known him since before he was in Korn, as we grew up in the same neighborhood. We got to some bullshitting, and I borrowed his baritone. It's killer."

You seem to be perpetually drawn to off-the-beaten-path guitars. Why is that?

"I don't know… I was never really a Les Paul guy, you know? I've got a bunch of guitars sitting in racks in my studio, though. I still use the Fernandes guitars for Sustainer stuff, which is cool for certain soundtrack things. It's great for layering the Sustainer things and putting effects on.

"But another cool thing is this Mike Dirnt Road Worn Precision Bass. Mike is a good friend of mine, and he gave it to me for my birthday. It's cool because it's like a regular P-Bass, but it's got this Tele-looking headstock. It's fucking amazing."

Is that your primary bass for recording?

"It's definitely my favorite, but I've got another P-Bass from Fender, and I've got a Jaguar and a Mustang bass, too. I need a lot of options because doing scores requires me to be able to get a lot of different sounds. Hell, I even have a few different ukuleles, a mandolin, and a fiddle with a small push/pull knob to get a ton of sounds out of it."

What's your methodology for good rhythm guitar?

"My approach has always been to serve the song. You have to serve the band because it's about the collective, and that trickles down to the song. It's essential to walk the line between creativity and the absence of ego. Because, sometimes, as a guitar player, especially when you know you can play leads, it's easy to say, 'Hey, check me out over here.' But when you're in the kind of bands I was in, primarily two-guitar bands, you don't want to do that. You have to have humility and be able to assess the situation."

Your chemistry with Slash seemed particularly potent. Is there a secret to that?

"I always loved his solos, and it was incredible when I got to be in the band with him. I paid close attention to what he was doing, let him do what he does so well, and then worked around that.

"But the other thing about Velvet Revolver was I wasn't only in a band with Slash; on the other side was Duff, who played so damn loud that sometimes I could barely hear Slash [laughs]. So, I played what I thought was good and fit the song."

One school of thought says that rhythm players should double the bass, which can work but can get stale. It didn't seem like you did much of that, though. 

"That's true. I actually tried not to just double Duff's bass. But even if I did something unique, I didn't want it to be too unique to the point that it sounded weird. I also didn't want it to sound like I was trying to compete with what the other guys were doing, so it varied depending on the situation."

Velvet Revolver seemed to thrive off drama as much as chemistry. Would you agree that fueled the band, too?

"I think in the situation of Velvet Revolver, it definitely did. The volatility of the substance issues and the drama negatively impacted the band; there's no denying that. But, like you said, there was the 'dangerous band' element, which is something I often roll my eyes at. But with that band, it did apply.

"There was always an element of, 'Is this guy going to show up' or 'I don't know what's going to happen' present. That came across in the writing and approach to a song like Slither, for example."

How so?

"When we recorded Slither, Matt [Sorum] was getting really frustrated with all that stuff while Slash and the guys were in the room with him. So, we were playing along with Matt, and he said, 'Ah, it's too fast,' and kicked us out of the room and recorded the drums himself. I remember the guys were pissed, and Duff threw a beer bottle across the room.

"This sort of tense stuff was always happening, but that song ended up being the single and did well. Now, I can't say that without one, there wouldn't have been the other, but maybe if things were easy, we wouldn't have had that same edge."

And how would you say that situation changed you as a guitarist?

"Playing with Slash was an education in and of itself. But I've known Slash since middle school, and we also hung out in the same circles. I was always very comfortable around him, but there's no denying I looked up to him.

"But what was always so cool is that Slash is just a dude. That was never more apparent than when we were looking for singers, and people said, 'You just need to get someone.' But Slash said, 'No, it's got to be the right guy.' We waited, and it paid off.

"So, maybe more than anything, I learned to be a better band member. That's important, because when you're in a band you're sometimes a partner in a multi-million-dollar company, so there's a lot to learn."

Do you see yourself stepping into a traditional band setting again?

"If the situation were right, I would consider it. Because that's where I come from, and I love playing guitar on stage. I love being up there jumping around and messing with gear. The only thing for me is that I sometimes get bored on the road, but that's my problem.

"But I'd be game if the right situation presented itself. So, if you're out there and need a guitarist, and you want to call me, my number is… maybe I better not give that out [laughs]."

Having served as their bassist for nearly five decades, Chris Squire – who would have celebrated his 75th birthday this year – was the key ingredient in the envelope-pushing sound of prog rock icons, Yes. He’s also credited as a co-writer on many of the band’s greatest cuts, including Starship Trooper, Owner of a Lonely Heart, Yours Is No Disgrace and Heart of the Sunrise. 

“Chris Squire’s contributions as a songwriter were huge,” Rudy Sarzo once told BP. “As well as his bass playing. Chris made everything bigger with his tone. I’m a huge Yes fan, even though you might not hear it in my playing.” 

In addition to his work with Yes, Squire’s 1975 solo LP Fish Out of Water is revered among prog fans. In 2011 Squire also recorded with Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett in a side project called – you guessed it – Squackett. On the eve of release of Squackett’s self-titled debut album in 2012, we asked Squire to name the five albums that influenced him most as a bass player.

1. The Who – My Generation (1965).

“Of course, the iconic bass solo of all time is played by John Entwistle on My Generation. I’ve got to tell you that over the years, I’ve tried to actually imitate it, but I really can’t do it in the same way and with the same tone that he managed to achieve on the record. I thought I knew a thing or two about that sort of sound, but no,…. My education in bass guitar didn’t really precede the Beatles or The Who. I was 15 in 1963 when the Beatles came out and I learned to play their songs. I’d see jazz pianists with amazing bassists playing string basses, and I’d think, ‘I’m not sure what that is, but it’s not what I’m doing!”

2. The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967).

“Paul McCartney was a great influence on me. He really knew what he was doing. All his bass parts are amazing, even though he was really a guitar player. When he teamed up with George Martin and they started doing those descending basslines, he might not necessarily have thought of playing like that when he was doing Long Tall Sally in the early days, but then he started to move into this very English baroque style, especially with John Lennon’s influence. You couldn’t ask for a better recipe for success, actually.”

3. The Rolling Stones – Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967).

“I had a great choice of bass-playing talent to listen to when I was a young man, but Bill Wyman really impressed me when I was a kid. To me, he was a major part of the way the Stones swung, and they definitely did swing in a certain manner. Since Bill hasn’t been with them, they haven’t swung in the same way. It’s a shame: I used to like the rhythm of their music. Then again, they’re still a great band, even now that he isn’t playing with them any more. There really isn’t another band quite like the Rolling Stones.”

4. Cream – Wheels Of Fire (1968).

“Another big influence on me was Jack Bruce. I saw him play when I was at the exact age when I was learning to play: I remember being 15 years old, going to the Marquee Club and seeing the Graham Bond Organisation, which had Jack and Ginger Baker. Dick Heckstall-Smith played sax with them too, and that was a night of great music. Jack was really amazing in his bass playing and his harmonica playing. The Cream albums had great basslines: Sunshine Of Your Love is in the dictionary under the best-known basslines of all time.”

5. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Mother’s Milk (1988).

“Shall I put a modern bass player in here, after all the early albums I’ve just mentioned? In that case, I definitely have to say Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He’s a great player and he absolutely has to be in here, especially if you want to include Mother’s Milk, the album where they covered Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground, which is a real highlight of the record in my opinion. Later on, a long time after this album was released, I got to know Flea quite well: he’s a lovely man. A hell of a bass player, and his singing is very good, which is something that a lot of people don’t know.”

While he's best known as the bassist of sleaze-rock titans, Guns N' Roses, Duff McKagan also has two solos records, Believe in Me (1993) and Tenderness (2019), and two EPs, How to Be a Man (2015), and This Is the Song (2023) to his credit.

Considering the exhaustive schedule of Guns N' Roses' latest trek, it's hard to believe that McKagan is at it again. Moreover, for his latest solo outing, Lighthouse, he had 60 songs to choose from.

"Can you imagine that?" the veteran bassist laughs. "I did the EP [This Is the Song] in May [of 2023] just to try and shave off some of the songs because I had so many. I kept writing and recording more, which made it tough to choose just 11."

Of the 11 new tracks on Lighthouse, which ranks as McKagan's most personal record yet, the title track is perhaps most poignant, serving as an ode to McKagan's wife.

"When I wrote and recorded Lighthouse, I was like, 'This is definitely the opening song,'" he recalls. "It's got a grand meaning, is a beacon of hope, and sets up the rest of the record. I wanted to make a record that went through a journey of forgiveness, but at its core, Lighthouse is a simple love song to my wife."

Plaintive as Lighthouse's tender moments are, the record is not without its edgier moments. Yet wistful tracks like I Saw God on 10th Street are highlights. And that checks out, given McKagan's punk-rock roots, which have admittedly given way to a mellower side.

"I'm glad you noticed the mellow meets punk moments; that's a great observation," McKagan concurs. "I will always write punk-rock songs because that's where I came from. And my lyrics are always me telling the truth and are often based on my own experiences."

"But I think the more mellow side came in when I met and played with Mark Lanegan after I got sober in the '90s. We started hanging out a bunch, playing acoustic guitars, and that stuff really hit me. I was like, 'Fuck, I hope to one day be able to do what he's doing.'

"Mark could fill up a room with an acoustic guitar. And his fucking voice, man, he could fill up the biggest of rooms with that, too. I may never be able to do that, but I’ve learned to keep it original, to chill the fuck out on pace and instrumentation, and appreciate the calmness and vibe of my studio."

All in all, Lighthouse, perhaps more than McKagan's other recordings, is the truest amalgam of the player and man he is today. But where does McKagan goes now? He owes his fame to the seemingly now stable Guns N' Roses. But it's his solo work where he shines, through open-hearted vocals, stripped-back instrumentation, and tell-all lyricism.

"I have songs that maybe you'll hear one day where you'll say, 'Oh, hey, there's he is doing his Killing Joke thing," he says. "I can get my post-punk on as much as possible, punk and hard rock. And there's stuff like Shakedown, which is like a pure Vibrators track. The music I'm making now really combines my journey, which includes learning how to play acoustic guitar and telling stories based on what I've experienced and been influenced by in life."

And what of those experiences and influences? Given his punk-meets-hard-rock pedigree, one would assume that McKagan's influences would fall decidedly in line. And they do – but the bassist still experienced some mysticism surrounding his role.

"When I think about the players who influenced me, I have to start with a caveat," he admits. "I didn't get serious about being a bass player until Guns N' Roses formed. The truth is I wasn't sure if I was going to be a drummer, a guitar player, or a bass player. And then, when this thing formed, I was like, 'Okay, now I'm a bass player; how do I do this?'"

"But it was deeper than that," he insists. "I wanted to be fucking good at it. I said to myself, 'Yeah… I want to be good but also be different.' So, that's what I was originally going for as a bass player – to be different."

During a break from Guns N' Roses' ongoing tour, Duff McKagan dialed in with Guitar World to dig into the seven bassists who shaped his sound.

1. Prince

"Like I was saying, early on, I wasn't a 'bass player' per se, but once I decided that I was going to do that, I wanted to be different. And during that time, I was very much influenced by Prince's bass playing in the studio. He had a high-end to his sound, and I incorporated that into my sound in Guns N' Roses, which you can hear as early as Appetite for Destruction. It's all there, and you can hear the nice round bottom, like a full bottom, but very pronounced. So, Prince's awesome bass playing helped me as I came up with my sound."

2. Lemmy Kilmister

"Lemmy's bass playing reminded me that you can still be punk as fuck on bass. But the thing with that is you have to hit the notes, you know? You've got to hit the notes; you can’t go out there and be a sloppy motherfucker. Lemmy showed me the importance of being aggressive, and that when you play with a pick, you can jump, but don't be playing two notes at once.

"It's so important to hit your notes, and that guy was so fucking good at doing that. His sound was massive; it sounded like it was just a mess of bass, but he was fucking hitting all the notes. If you ever saw Mötorhead live, you'll know he knew what he was doing; it was obvious. But also, come on, man, Lemmy was an amalgamation of all the best things within punk and metal. He didn't take any bullshit, and I loved that."

3. Paul Simonon

"Paul Simonon from The Clash is amazing. I saw The Clash in '79 when I wasn't even sure what I wanted to be, and it was life-changing. Was I going to be Joe Strummer [guitar], Terry Chimes [drums], or Paul Simonon [bass]? That's what was going through my mind. But I saw Paul, and I knew that his vibe would win.

"And it's kind of obvious to me looking back, because his basslines, if you listen very closely, are so stellar. He crafted his own style, and I give him a lot of credit for that. He's just another player I looked up to when I started getting serious about bass guitar in '84. There were so many good players to look up to then, but Paul is one that stood out."

4. Donald' Duck' Dunn

"Duck Dunn was another guy with a unique style I admired. I actually got to talk to him a few times during the last few years of his life and grab some words of wisdom. I met him and said, 'Hey, man, I'd love to take lessons from you,' because I was taking a bunch of lessons around 2008, 2009, and 2010.

"That was an interesting time because I was learning a lot, and pulling from all these great bass players from different genres that I was observing and trying to learn from. And with Duck, I didn't actually take lessons, but I did get to grab some great words of wisdom about the bass, and I'm thankful for that."

5. Randy Rampage

"Another player I love is Randy Rampage from D.O.A. – he really influenced me. If you look at pictures of Randy Rampage from the late-'70s, you'll be like, 'Oh, yeah, that guy influenced Duff's whole thing.'

"I don't know if he gets the credit he should, but Randy was a great bass player and a bad motherfucker. He was just like Lemmy: a fucking badass. That rhythm section he formed with Chuck Biscuits [drums] was second to none, especially in punk rock. They were seriously repping that scene and were so incredible.

"I remember being a teenager in that scene, thinking, 'Okay, I've got to be at least that good.' I guess having high water marks to try and reach is good."

6. Steve Jones

"If you listen to Steve Jones' bass playing on Never Mind the Bollocks, that's some great stuff that was extremely influential to me early on. People don't realize it when listening to that album, but Paul Cook is such a good drummer. He's groovy, and you don't really notice it, but his kick drum is in one place, and his snare is behind the beat. That created this sweet groove that set the tone. And so, when Steve Jones – who plays bass on nearly the entire record – lays in there, it really became about the placement of his licks.

"For me, Steve's bass placement within those grooves was super-important. I took that to heart. So, if you're reading this and you're a young bass player, no matter what you're doing, listen to where the bass placement is within the beat. Sometimes, you need to be ahead of the beat; other times, you need to be behind it, and sometimes, you need to be right on top. But Steve Jones found the sweet spot with Paul Cook, which really influenced how I approached bass grooves for the rest of my life."

7. John Paul Jones

"When I was in sixth grade, my older brother taught me three chords on guitar: G, A and D. And then he taught me The Birthday Song on bass, which is a blues major scale, but I didn't know what I was doing, so I didn't learn what it was until years later.

"But once you understand that 12-bar, blues major scale, you'll recognize it in other things, you know? So, I grew up listening to Led Zeppelin, and that's when I realized how good John Paul Jones is. But I also realized that it was almost unattainable. I didn't know what he was doing and got it in my early 20s. 

"Not to get too deep about it, but he'll put a minor note – I don't know exactly what it's called because I'm not a musicologist – but he will put a minor note in a major blues scale. He does that shit effortlessly, like not even thinking about it.

"It really hit me when I was part of a Jimmy Page tribute in Seattle, and I went to the woodshed to learn his stuff. Man, I’m talking like seven hours a day; that's when I gained a true appreciation for John Paul Jones. He was fluid, effortless, and beautiful. I could say so much about John Paul Jones; he was a bad motherfucker."

• Lighthouse is out on October 20 via BFD/Orchard/Sony.

Smashing bass guitars on stage, declaring war on the shadowy elite and insisting that Guns N’ Roses were the best band ever, Nicky Wire was a mighty force when his band Manic Street Preachers emerged some 30 years ago.

Inspired by the celebrations of the tenth anniversary of punk, and a year later by the release of Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction, the Manics realised what the music scene at the time was lacking. Armed with heavy make-up, political sloganeering and a diatribe against everyone and everything, the punk-inspired band from the Welsh valleys quickly gained a devoted fanbase.

They listed their favourite albums as including The Clash’s London Calling, True Blue by The Faces, and What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye, with The Black Crowes and Hanoi Rocks also getting a name check. 

“Hanoi Rocks gave us Guns N’ Roses,” Wire told BP back in 2014 in defence of his glam rock heroes. “Guns N’ Roses were such a moment for us in the '80s. They really felt like our band, because all the music we loved until that point was kind of second-hand, whereas Guns was the perfect mix of punk and rock ’n roll.”

Speaking of Guns N’ Roses, Wire has fond memories of bassist Duff McKagan contributing to the Manic’s track A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun. “Duff was an absolute blast. We sent the track over to him and he played such a fantastic bassline. The trouble then was the I had to copy it live! He’s very much a plectrum man and I hadn’t used one for around 15 years, as I can’t really connect with my bass without using my fingers. He loved the song, though, and was like, ‘You guys have done it again – it sounds like Lindsey Buckingham mixed with the Clash.’ You can’t get much better than that, can you?”

Throughout his career, Wire has kept his set-up relatively basic, although he did experiment with different pedals early on. “I did have a really good Hiwatt because of John Entwistle, but that got trashed. I also had a Trace Elliot to try and be Duff McKagan, but it was way too twangy. If I’m honest, I have no idea if I have a specific set-up. In the studio I tend to use a lot of Avalon U5 preamp/DIs. Loads of my favourite records from the ‘70s are just straight DI. I’m pretty sure most of London Calling is just straight DI.”

Renowned for playing his bass low, Wire said: “It’s ruined my shoulders and back jumping around with it, but I could never do it any other way. Peter Hook was a hero and even Ronnie Lane had it in a really good place, as did Sid Vicious. Duff plays it low too. I do regret it, as it’s so much easier to play it a little higher.”

Asked for advice for aspiring bassists, Wire said: “For me it’s about keeping out of the way of great melodies and great riffs. Obviously, if your band is based around a bass riff like the Red Hot Chili Peppers it’s different, but for us I always felt there was no need for me to interferer with that.”

In tandem with Mental Health Awareness Month (May), Duff McKagan has released a three-song EP, This Is The Song, his first solo project since 2019’s Tenderness.

McKagan wrote the title track while in the throes of a panic attack, an often debilitating and misunderstood condition he has struggled with since age 16. The song was released with an accompanying video and written message, and an additional video message about mental health.

Guitar World connected with McKagan to discuss This Is The Song. [Responses have been edited for space.]

Let’s begin with the guitars you used to write and record This Is The Song. 

“I have a 1989 Guild, not sure what model it is. I have two others, one I used in the Patience video in ’88, both the same model Guild. That’s what I mostly record on in my studio in Seattle, acoustic guitar-wise. 

“I used a variety of basses. My two signature Fender models. I use the newer model with the drop D thing and I’ve kept the same strings on there forever, so I’ve got a really cool sound that I like, especially for more acoustic recordings. I have a Burny Les Paul, probably from 2000, that I just love. I’ve got a Junior that Slash gave me that I use. 

“As far as writing songs, I have a Fender acoustic in my living room that I always use whenever I sit down. I just put it on my lap. I think that’s the key with writing songs – always have a guitar in your hand. In this process I taught myself how to fingerpick. [During] Covid, I had time to figure out a bunch of stuff bass-playing-wise and guitar playing. I really studied.”

In keeping with its message and purpose, This Is The Song is obviously raw. How did you ‘revisit’ the original emotions while tracking it?

“I was actually having a panic attack, and they come out of nowhere. I was in bed with my wife. Sometimes I don’t want to alarm her when I’m having a panic attack, so I went downstairs and what I found was that when I picked up the acoustic guitar, put it on my lap, and I started playing, I start singing a melody, and that song came.

“I record all my demos on my GarageBand. I just use the microphone, and I have a million little demos, so I had a demo of this song and I didn’t have to go there emotionally. I had the lyrics written, so it’s easy for me to emote that feeling, as it comes from a place of truth.”

What are your memories of your first panic attack? 

“Panic attacks aren’t like I hear people say, ‘I’m anxious.’ It’s not that or ‘nervousness’. I work out every day; you can’t be physically strong and just ‘get over it’. It has nothing to do with that. I’m wired a little bit differently, to put it quite frankly, and I’ll just spin out and go into overdrive, unbeknownst to me, and it’ll happen in the craziest places when there’s nothing even happening. 

“I had one getting a massage once. Everything was great with my family, my wife, my kids, and my band. There’s nothing you can pinpoint like, ‘Ah, this is why it’s happening.’ If my receptors take a little left turn, it just happens. It’s like a cut that keeps reopening. You have no control over it. 

“My first panic attack was in my mom’s house. I was 16, I was in the shower, and I thought there was an earthquake, because the shower dropped three feet and I literally went down to my knees. I come crawling out of the shower and I realize nothing’s upside-down or turned around. It was me. That realization that first time was like I just thought I’d gone crazy. My mom took me to the emergency room, and some psychologist in the emergency room figured it out. They gave me some drugs to calm me down. 

“I thought I was alone for the first year-and-a-half or two years of having these, which is really not cool to feel like you’re all alone. A friend of a friend had heard about it, and she read this book and said, ‘Millions of people get these panic attacks.’ This is back in the early ’80s or late ’70s, and to hear that other people had it was a big weight off my back. I didn’t feel so all alone, and that was something.”

Have the frequency and intensity changed over the years? What are some of your coping skills? 

“The frequency and intensity hasn’t really changed. Coping skills: crossword puzzles, playing guitar, I’ve done all kinds of stuff, drinking water and eating almonds – something to keep my airwaves going. It sounds crazy, but it’s a thing.  They aren’t even skills. I just do whatever I can. 

“I have professional help. I talk to a doctor once a week and just go through stuff, and it’s nice to be able to do that. I’ve got great insurance, and so, you know, the mental health industry. I’ve utilized it and it’s been great for me.”

In the accompanying press release, you state, “I have thankfully found my acoustic guitar as a refuge.” Tell us more about the healing aspects of playing guitar.

“I think I discovered my acoustic guitar as a refuge due to Covid. A lot of things happened during Covid where the world just stood still and you discovered a lot of things. I think we all did. I discovered that my acoustic guitar is a serious refuge to stop the panic attack, lessen it. I’ve got a few tools, but that one is my favorite right now.”

There was a time in your life when coping came in the form of self-medication. 

“A lot of people know me for being the ‘king of beers’ – being sauced on sauce in my 20s. I discovered alcohol as a coping mechanism not long after I first started having panic attacks. It makes total sense why. My band was taking off and I was getting panic attacks. I had no outside help. I had nothing except for a bottle. 

“Once I got sober, that was one of the first thoughts I had in the hospital, the different reasons why I had to get sober if I want to live. And then, of course, how am I going to deal with panic attacks? What the fuck? How does a person do this? 

“I don’t want anybody to think I am constantly on the verge of a panic attack. I get these pings, you lose your breath, and sometimes it goes all the way to a panic attack. I’m pretty good at stopping them. I get pings, like, once a week, and I get a panic attack a few times a year now, so it’s not absolutely terrible. It is what it is. I’m so used to it.

“I’ve tried to talk about it before, just to help others, because being sober, it really helps to be of service to others. And that helps you in sobriety as well. Mental health is a huge part because I was just self-medicating. A lot of alcohol [and] opiate use – you’re medicating something else. Mine were just panic attacks. 

“I’ve had some things with depression that came in the last year and later part of my life. It’s not fun to have, and again, it’s nothing you can do to stop it. It’s not like your strength or your willpower or ‘I got no reason to be depressed.’ It has nothing to do with that. It’s a medical condition. Now I understand it, and I can talk about it and help others.”

As with many mental health conditions, panic can cause us to isolate. How does the creative process help keep you from doing so?

“In my case, panic attacks have never caused me to isolate. But panic disorder is such a varied monster. It gives a wide variety of things a name, so my attacks can look completely different than another person.”

Those of us battling mental health issues often find comfort through community – support groups, for example. Trying to explain to those who don’t know is another matter. What is your message to readers with lived experience and without?

“I wrote about this a bit in my statement on the EP. I said, ‘If you’ve experienced this stuff, then you’re not alone.’ I’m here to say, I’m raising my hand up. If you haven’t experienced this stuff, consider yourself blessed, man. I am almost jealous! You should count yourself lucky for that.

“To this day, I don’t know how to explain it for someone that doesn’t really want to know, or thinks you’re weak, or something like that. I kickbox in a ring. It’s not a thing with how macho you are. I’m an A-type personality. I strive to be the best in everything I do. [Panic] is just a thing I got, a cut that reopens and you put a Band-Aid on it. Hopefully it goes away forever, but if it opens back up, you deal with it then. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Resources

• National Institute of Mental Health
• Anxiety & Depression Association of America

When people discuss age-defying frontmen, usually the first name to come up (deservedly so) is Mick Jagger.

Shout out to Iggy Pop, though, who – at the ripe age of 76 – is still prancing shirtless on stages across the world, bringing the many ne'er-do-well anthems he's recorded on his own and with proto-punk legends the Stooges to rapturous audiences.

During one such show – held last Thursday (April 27) at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles – Pop invited Guns N' Roses electric guitar legend Slash and bass guitar player Duff McKagan to the stage to assist him with a supercharged version of I Wanna Be Your Dog, the proto-punk classic Pop recorded with the Stooges in 1969.

You can see fan-filmed footage of the performance below.

Also onstage with Pop that evening was Andrew Watt, the super-producer who manned the boards on Ozzy Osbourne's 2020 LP, Ordinary Man, and its Grammy-winning 2022 follow-up, Patient Number 9. 

Watt also produced and played guitar on Pop's 2023 album, Every Loser, and has played with the legendary frontman as part of his most-recent all-star backing band, The Losers.

With that in mind, Slash humbly lets Watt take the first solo – which Watt, Gibson Les Paul in hand, does with aplomb – before burning one of his own a few minutes later. 

Mind you, this was far from Slash and Watt's first meeting. Watt's band, California Breed, opened for Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators on the latter's 2014 UK tour, and the two met again during the sessions for Ordinary Man, on which Slash guested.

“Working with Andrew [on Ordinary Man] was great," Slash told Guitar World in a 2020 interview. "He has a really youthful approach and great energy. And as a guitar player he’s not trying to be a Zakk [Wylde] or a Gus [G] or any of those guys. He has his own thing. He’s definitely somebody to watch out for.”

This wasn't Slash's first recent onstage guest solo, either. Just a month ago, the top-hatted guitar god got his Jimmy Page on in a fiery onstage guest spot with hard-rockers Dorothy at LA's Troubadour.

"I don’t buy into the idea that the bass player is the quiet one,” said New Order and Joy Division bassist Peter Hook in an interview for MusicRadar. “I’ve never liked to be hidden and I don’t like to be patronised.”

Frequently viewed as the quietest member of any band, bass players have historically been pigeon-holed as reluctant rock stars. “This is an important thing to remember,” said Duff McKagan. “If you are a bass player and you want to be the front-centre guy… Well, let’s just say that usually won’t happen for you. Unless you’re Lemmy! If you want to do that, use him as your guy.”

While many bass players choose to blend into the background rather than take center stage, there are some with a hard-earned reputation for going overboard. From Gene Simmons, to Nikki Sixx, to Duff McKagan. In their prime, this elite group became icons of spectacularly bad behavior. Luckily their bass playing was always a thing to behold. You can make your own mind up as you peruse this list of the 5 most notorious bass guitarists in rock and metal.

1. Nikki Sixx – Mötley Crüe

Never has one man left such a slipstream of carnage in his wake as Nikki Sixx, bassist for metal icons Mötley Crue. Reflecting in Neil Strauss’s book The Dirt, Sixx recalls swallowing light bulbs, biting Eddie Van Halen on the stomach and nailing someone’s head to a table. The band were thrown off a KISS tour, and banned from drinking by Sharon Osbourne while playing alongside Ozzy.

Finally after one titanic hit, Sixx’s heart stopped. Pronounced medically dead, he was shocked back to life by doctors. His reaction to his near-death experience was to slip on a pair of leather trousers and discharge himself from hospital.

Heroin made Sixx a somewhat patchy songwriter, but his bass playing was always tight and in the pocket. “I get grief sometimes,” he told BP. “Some people say, ‘Oh you’re not a real bass player because you’re not all over the place’, but my job is to support the song.” He might be humble in his outlook, but Sixx still rates himself highly as a bass player. Back in 2020, in response to a tweet asking who the most underrated bass guitar player ever is, he replied, “Me”. 

2. Duff McKagan – Guns N’ Roses

Nicknamed the ‘King of Beers’ by his bandmates, Duff McKagan moved to Hollywood in the mid 80s, joined Guns N’ Roses and became a huge rock star. As the band’s success snowballed into the '90s, Duff claims he was drinking a gallon of vodka a day. Something had to give, of course, and it turned out to be Duff’s pancreas, which burst in 1994 due to the abuse.

“The amount of alcohol that I drank wasn’t just a nice go-to-the-pub-for-a-couple-of-pints type of thing,” said Duff. “It was full-on. A gallon of vodka a day, plus whatever drugs I could ingest. That will take its toll on your body pretty quick.”

Fortunately, Duff was in control of his intake during the band’s glory years, resulting in Appetite For Destruction and Use Your Illusion double albums, on which the bass playing always stood out among the layers of screaming guitars. “My drinking somehow never got in the way of writing bass parts. I was writing with other drunks at the time, ha ha! So we were all on the same playing field.”

3. Lemmy – Motörhead 

“Many of us play rock ‘n’ roll, but a rare few among us are rock ‘n’ roll,” said Dave Grohl when asked about the contributions of Ian ‘Lemmy’ Kilminster. “His bass playing was just so insane,” added Duff McKagan. “You can’t talk about distorted bass guitar without mentioning Lemmy.”

After his spell with psychedelic rock group Hawkwind ended in Canadian jail, Lemmy returned to England to form Motörhead in 1975. Describing his new band as ‘the kind of band that if we moved in next door to you, your lawn would die,’ Lemmy began a heady program of alcohol abuse, running up a bar tab that could be seen from space.

The crunch came in 1980. Having applied for a blood transfusion, Lemmy was told by doctors that he couldn't. Lemmy recounted the story in his autobiography, White Line Fever. "Pure blood will kill you," the doctor said. "You don't have human blood anymore. And you can't give blood either. Forget it, you'd kill the average person, you're blood is so toxic." While others may take this as their cue to hit the treadmill, Lemmy merely saw it as confirmation of his immortality. He remained the yardstick for anyone who thought they could handle their drink until his death in 2015.

4. Sid Vicious – Sex Pistols

Without question, Sid Vicious is the worst technical bassist on this list. Generally regarded as the worst bassist of his generation, even Lemmy couldn’t teach him to play. "I tried to teach him to play bass one time," he told Classic Rock, "it was fucking hopeless. We did two days and I said, ‘Sid, you can’t play bass,’ so he said, ‘I know,’ and he went off all sad. The next thing I know, I was in The Speak[easy], and he comes up to me and says, ‘Hey Lemmy, guess what? I’m in the Pistols.’"

Drafted into the Sex Pistols to replace Glenn Matlock, Vicious reputedly learned his instrument by playing along to Ramones records on speed. While gigs would often find him playing the wrong song, in the wrong key, often with his amp turned off.

Lemmy recalled Vicious squaring up to The Jam bassist Bruce Foxton at the Marquee club, an encounter that ended with Vicious picking shards of pint glass out of his face, and later battering a bouncer who tried to stop him entertaining a groupie in a venue toilet.

In February 1979, aged just 21, Sid was found dead from an accumulation of fluid on the lungs, prompted by a heroin overdose. A suicide note requested he be buried in his boots, jeans and leather jacket. 

5. Gene Simmons – KISS 

Ever since making their debut in 1974, Kiss’s blood-spitting, fire-breathing, make-up slapping, six-and-a-half-foot-tall bassist, Gene Simmons has always had a keen interest in blood. For years the group’s stage show featured Simmons – in full devil regalia – puking up lungfuls of it. It was fake, of course, but convincing enough to have America’s Christian fundamentalists denounce him as the devil.

Simmons has always abstained from alcohol and drugs, but his serial womanising, as Simmons attests, is precisely why he formed the band in the first place. Not a master technician, but puking up blood while keeping the rhythm takes some doing.

As you probably know, Gene also has his own line of bass guitars, including the Axe and the Punisher, and a range of basses in collaboration with Gibson. How else does a bass player amass a personal fortune said to be in excess of $300m?

Nikki Sixx’s autobiography, The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx, is available now.

On June 6, 1992, Guns N’ Roses headlined the Hippodrome de Vincennes in Paris. Touring on the strength of their hugely successful 1991 Use Your Illusion albums, the band wanted to make a big splash in the French capital, and thought that inviting some special guests to the stage with them might do the trick.

Three of the band's classic rock heroes – Aerosmith's Joe Perry and Steven Tyler, and Jeff Beck – were among those contacted. Perry and Tyler were to join Guns N' Roses for a version of Train Kept A Rollin', with Beck set to play the Use Your Illusion II cut, Locomotive, with the band.

While Tyler and Perry would indeed take the stage that summer night, performing Aerosmith's Mama Kin, in addition to Train Kept A Rollin', with GN'R, Beck did not, having abruptly pulled out prior to the show.

Luckily for us, though, a local television crew happened to be on hand during Beck's initial rehearsals with Guns N' Roses, capturing their loose but nonetheless fascinating soundcheck jam on Locomotive.

The video above begins with a look at Beck – playing, of course, his trademark Stratocaster – soundchecking. While that may not sound particularly interesting, those initial shots do provide some tantalizingly close looks at Beck's fingerpicking and whammy bar techniques. 

Gilby Clarke and Slash – both wielding Les Pauls – soon emerge and, with Beck in tow, Guns N' Roses (sans Axl Rose) launch into Locomotive. Beck and Slash go on to trade some blistering, characteristic leads, as Tyler and Perry look on.

In a recent interview with Total Guitar, Perry told the story of how the gathering came about, and his theory on why Beck ultimately pulled out.

"We played with Guns N’ Roses when they were starting to get rolling," Perry said. "It was after they opened for us. It was great watching that happen because it’s the most exciting time in any band, when you realize you’re not just trying to fill the club with your friends. 

"In ’92 they were playing the racetrack in Paris. There were 100,000 people or something, and they invited me and Steven and Jeff to play Train Kept a-Rollin’. It meant us doing dropping everything and getting on a plane, but of course we would do it. It’s one of those things you just do." 

It's unclear whether or not Beck was originally supposed to join Guns N' Aerosmith for Train Kept a-Rollin’ that evening, as Perry recalls, but either way, he can be seen playing the song with them at soundcheck at around the 9:20 mark of a second rehearsal video (which can be seen directly above).

"At the soundcheck I really didn’t talk to Jeff much," Perry recalled to Total Guitar. "I don’t think he liked the sound he was getting at the soundcheck. I knew it was bound to be a lot of fun, and again, Guns N’ Roses are a great band. We went through the soundcheck, and the next day Jeff’s gear was gone. I said, ‘Where’s Jeff?’ I mean, that’s kind of the reason I wanted to do this. They said, ‘Well, he wasn’t feeling right about it so he went home.’

"There were the stories about [Beck] leaving a tour with The Yardbirds and that kind of thing, but it was the first time that that side of his personality touched me. But the soundcheck was fun. I thought it sounded good, but he is what he is. 

"When you’re going on to somebody else’s stage like that you have to have to adapt a little bit to what they’re doing," he went on. "You don’t have the same kind of control as when it’s your own gig, so I wasn’t surprised. When you go and jam with somebody you want it to be as good as it can be, but very often you’re not using your own amp. Playing outdoors like that in a huge arena, you’ve really got to feel comfortable with it if you’re gonna do your best, and that’s what Jeff’s all about."

Beck, however, went on record saying that it wasn't his live sound that bothered him at the soundcheck – and subsequently discouraged him from performing with Guns N' Roses – but rather his ongoing struggle with tinnitus.

In a 2010 interview with Clash, Beck remarked that, in the early '90s, he "was going through misery with the tinnitus, I was thinking I was gonna die, and I couldn’t deal with it. 

"I went over to Paris to do a show with Guns ‘N’ Roses," he went on. "We’d rehearsed in the dressing room and went out to do a soundcheck. Matt [Sorum, the band's then-drummer] hit one bass drum and it was like forty million watts going through me, and I had to walk away."

Fascinatingly, after the aborted performance with Beck, Guns N' Roses not only didn't play Locomotive that evening, they didn't perform it again for 27 years. Only at an October 2019 show in Wichita, Kansas would the band perform the lengthy, complex rocker live again.

To read Joe Perry's full interview with Total Guitar – which also covers the time he accidentally stole a pedal from Beck, and gave him one of the first Klon Centaurs in return – pick up a copy of the new issue of the mag at Magazines Direct.

The debate surrounding 5-string bass guitars has changed radically over the years. With increasing competition for low frequency real estate, bassists have often been forced to expand into the lower registers just to be heard. “When I had to emulate hip hop that was done with a keyboard or drum machine, the fifth string allowed me to hit those low tones," said Grammy-winning MD and bassist Adam Blackstone. "It really took over as a part of my overall sound.” 

"I’ve never even played a 4-string," says Korn bassist Fieldy. "I’ve always played a 5-string. I just like that low, thick string."

Still, the majority of bass greats have all used a 4-string for their entire career without ever touching a 5-string. "I always feel slightly sorry for 5-string players," says Joel Graham, bassist with English thrash metal band, Evile. "I've noticed them onstage seeming a little unsure what to do with themselves. Four strings were always more than enough for my bass-playing heroes.”

So what does the world of bass actually think? We asked some of the biggest names in bass…

Duff McKagan – Guns N’ Roses

“Y’know, I see those 5-string basses around, and I feel sorry for the company who makes them, because they don’t know they messed up – you’re only supposed to put four strings on them! They should have counted more carefully – they’ve got some guy working down there who f****d up! I guess there’s a place for five strings, but not in what I do. There are guys who make you think, ‘It’s amazing that you can play that, it’s killer…’ and there are people who are a lot more talented than I am – four strings is gonna keep me busy for the rest of my life, you know?”

David Pastorius – Local 518 

“I used to play five, but I like the tone of a four and I like what I do better out of a four. I’m not opposed to playing a five or a six; if anything, the extra strings make it easier. I was forced to learn the neck better when I went back to a four. I could stay in one spot all night with a five!"

Glenn Hughes – The Dead Daisies

“I’ve had all the 5-string, 6-string and 8-string basses; I’ve been the active bass thing – I’ve done all that. Now I’ve gone back to the passive 4-strings."

Daniel Pugsley – Skindred

"I always used 4-strings with Skindred, but recently I have been playing a lot more 5-string. It’s actually the first time I’ve owned one, and I’m really getting into it. I think because all my favourite players were always predominantly 4-string guys I naturally leaned towards that.”

Jimmy Haslip – Yellowjackets (1977 - 2011)

“I played 4-string for a long time, then in the early 80s I got hip to the 5-string through Jimmy Johnson. I went to a show he was playing with Clare Fischer up in the Hollywood Hills, and after noticing he was playing a 5-string I went up and introduced myself and asked him questions about it.

"At the time I had an endorsement with Yamaha, so I approached them about building a 5-string, which they were somewhat opposed to. I kind of forced the issue, though, so they built me a 5-string out of a BB3000, which was a 4-string bass, so it had kind of a thin neck, but at least I had that low B string.

"So I got into that and toured with the Jackets with that bass, and before long Yamaha were getting tons of inquiries from people wanting to buy the new Yamaha 5-string bass! It forced them into manufacturing the BB5000, which was their first 5-stringer. Eventually I was looking for something to push the envelope and started noticing people playing 6-string, which I thought was kind of interesting. Being in the Yellowjackets with no guitar player opened the door for me to give it a shot."

Andy Sprakes – Failsafe

“I’ve tried 5-string basses before, and it didn’t feel right so I stuck with the 4-string. There’s nothing wrong with 5- or 6-string basses, but I think people who use them to their full potential are few and far between, so I wouldn’t recommend buying one just because it has more strings. So depending what you do with it, sometimes less is more!”

Cass Lewis – Skunk Anansie

“I used to use a 5-string for songs like ‘Charlie Big Potato’, but I prefer playing 4-string basses. I’ve always had that mindset. I got introduced to a company called Lakland that make 5-string basses and eventually I said, 'OK, OK, I will try one,' and it was the first time I had played a 5-string that was just as comfortable as playing a 4-string. It’s to do with the scale length of the B string; they just worked it out differently, but a good 5-string is a rare commodity."

Brian Marshall – Alter Bridge

“For recording, I only use a StingRay 5-string. It’s been a trial-and-error issue, but every record I’ve been on since [Creed’s 1999 album] Human Clay I’ve used that same bass.”

Andrew Levy – The Brand New Heavies 

“I was put under a lot of pressure in the late 90s to get into playing a 5-string, because when you make an album the record company likes to remix certain tracks so that DJs can play the songs in clubs, and sometimes those remixes become the songs that everyone recognises so, live, you have to replicate that particular mix. If the bass went lower than that low E I had to pick up a 5-string. Recently I’ve been relearning a lot of the songs without using the low B string, but there are certain songs that I have to use it on, like You Are The Universe, because I wrote that on a 5-string, and Sometimes as well.”

Colin Edwin – Porcupine Tree

“I’ve never really felt the need for a 5-string, but I sometimes need to go down lower than E, so I’ve been detuning to drop D with a Hipshot for a long time. I really like the idea of having the bottom four strings of a 5-string on a 4-string bass, so I had one of my Spectors set up for that. I was really happy with it. I have a 5-string that I mess about with at home, but it doesn’t really fit with what we need.”

Adam Blackstone – Justin Timberlake, Nicki Minaj

“It’s the rumble of the low B that does it for me. Having that option gives me a different sense of how I play the bass. I’m definitely a guy who holds the low end down. When I had to emulate hip hop that was done with a keyboard or drum machine, the fifth string allowed me to hit those low tones, and it really took over as a part of my overall sound.”

Yves Carbone

"If you play 4-string bass, you’re categorised as a 4-string player – and if you play an extended-range bass, people look at you as if you’re an alien. When the first 5-string bass was introduced, I don’t think it was possible to hear the notes on the low-B string – but today everybody is used to hearing them, and so it’s not a problem.”

Rhys Lewis: The Blackout

“Why don’t I have a 5-string bass in my collection?’ So I went online to order one and then thought, ‘I can do better than five – I’ll get a 6-string bass!’ I don’t gig with it, I just practise, although I do love playing it. When you go from a bass neck the size of an anaconda’s throat you can fly around a 4-string jazz bass easily.”

Oteil Burbridge – Dead & Company

“I remember when Anthony Jackson was the only cat who had a 6-string bass. I didn’t even think it would be possible that I’d ever get one. When they did start making them I couldn’t afford. I would tune a guitar in 4ths to try and get the shapes. When I finally got a 6-string it all came together.”

Patrick Dahlheimer – The Gracious Few

"I don’t play 5- and 6-string bass, because I told myself that I wouldn’t move onto five or six strings until I’ve mastered four, and let’s say that I still have a long way to go. I play around with a few 5-strings at home but the family dogs usually start barking."

Thundercat

"Sometimes I play a 4-string bass just to make people feel comfortable. When they see me with a 6-string, I can tell they’d rather see me play a 4-string, because they think all bass players should play a 4-string! Every now and again I’ll play a 4-string, but for the most part the 6-string bass is where it’s at.”

Alain Caron – UZEB

“I first started working with a luthier in Montreal and we started making basses with longer necks, so I had a fingerboard that continued almost all the way up to the pickups. And then George Furlanetto called me and said, ‘I see that you are working on a new instrument. I may have something for you.’ And then he told me that with the type of neck I had I needed a 5-string. So he built me a 5-string with a high C, and I loved it. But I had been listening to Gino Vannelli playing synthesizer bass, and I wanted to have that low D, E and C# and low B, so I asked George to build me a 5-string with a low B too, so then I had both, but what I really needed was a 6-string, so he built me a prototype in 1983 or ’84 and I’ve been playing 6-string for over 20 years now.”

Gaz Spencer – The Ghost Of A Thousand

“I stick to a 4-string bass; if I need to go lower I downtune, which I think sounds heavier than the B string on 5- or 6-string basses. I reckon unless you’re Les Claypool, more than four is unnecessary!”

If you are thinking about getting yourself a 4-string or a 5-string bass guitar, check out our buyer’s guide.

Rock legend and former Mott the Hoople frontman Ian Hunter has announced his new solo album, Defiance Part 1, is set to feature a seriously A-list guest line-up of guitar talent, including Slash, Jeff Beck, Mike Campbell, Jeff Tweedy and Billy F Gibbons.

Hunter has encountered much of rock’s great and good during his career and the new album features an extensive list of contacts from Hunter’s seriously big little black book. 

Among them are two sorely missed stars, Taylor Hawkins and Jeff Beck, as well as (strap in): Slash, Billy F Gibbons, Mike Campbell, Johnny Depp, Joe Elliot, Duff McKagan, Todd Rundgren, Jeff Tweedy, Robert Trujillo, Waddy Wachtel, Brad Whitford, Dean and Robert DeLeo (plus Eric Kretz) of Stone Temple Pilots, Billy Bob Thornton and JD Andrew (from The Boxmasters) and Ringo Starr.

“It was a fluke,” says Hunter of the stellar list. “This was not planned. Really, I’m serious. I really couldn’t believe some of them. I mean, it’s amazing what’s happened. It’s been such a buzz.”

The lineup reportedly came together as a result of the downtime in the 2020 lockdown, which saw musicians of all stripes homebound and off the road, looking for creative outlets.

“Everybody’s sitting around,” explains Hunter. “It’s Covid. Nobody’s going anywhere. We started sending them out. Slash started doing something. Robert Trujillo from Metallica. Ringo Starr, Mike Campbell. Joe Elliott is on a few tracks. Johnny Depp said ‘Jeff Beck’s with me and we’d like to do a couple of songs.’ 

“I know Todd Rundgren, I toured with Todd way back, he’s done an amazing job. Billy Gibbons. Billy Bob Thornton and JD Andrew from The Boxmasters. It’s never ending. I mean, every day we’d get a phone call, this guy wants to do it, that guy wants to do it. It was like, I can’t believe this.”

The first taster of the record is Bed Of Roses, featuring Mike Campbell and Ringo Starr, which you can check out above. Slash, Robert Trujillo and John Mellancamp drummer Dane Clark take on the title track Defiance. Trujillo reportedly used a bass formerly owned by Jaco Pastorius for his contribution.

Elsewhere, the late Jeff Beck contributed lead work to the song No Hard Feelings, while Taylor Hawkins contributed multiple drum tracks, including This Is What I’m Here For (with Joe Elliot), and Angel (with Brad Whitford, Waddy Wachtel and Duff McKagan) and Kiss N’Make Up (with Billy F Gibbons on lead guitar, plus Billy Bob Thornton sharing vocal and percussion duties).

It’s likely one of the finest rock line-ups cemented in the modern era, but also fair tribute to Hunter’s own legacy as a musician and songwriter. 

“There are a lot of reasons for calling this album Defiance,” says Hunter. “It’s like, people my age shouldn’t be making records, blah, blah, blah. But we’ve still got a bit left.”

Speaking of a bit left, Hunter also confirms that there’s more left in the tank and there will be a part 2 to follow, featuring yet more big names.

Ian Hunter Defiance Part 1 track list

1. Defiance (feat. Robert Trujillo & Slash)
2. Bed Of Roses (feat. Ringo Starr & Mike Campbell)
3. No Hard Feelings (feat. Johnny Depp & Jeff Beck)
4. Pavlov’s Dog (feat. Dean DeLeo, Robert De Leo & Eric Kretz)
5. Don’t Tread On Me (feat. Todd Rundgren)
6. Guernica (feat. Mike Campbell & Joe Elliott)
7. Angel (feat. Taylor Hawkins, Duff McKagan & Brad Whitford)
8. Kiss N’ Make Up (feat. Taylor Hawkins, Billy Bob Thornton & Billy F Gibbons)
9. This Is What I’m Here For (feat. Taylor Hawkins, Joe Elliott & Waddy Wachtel)
10. I Hate Hate (Alternate Version) (feat. Dennis DiBrizzi & Jeff Tweedy)

Defiance Part 1 is released April 21 on Sun Records.

Head to Ian Hunter’s site for more information and preorders.

In the wake of Jeff Beck’s tragic passing, countless names from the bass world have paid tribute to one of the most influential guitarists in the history of rock. Bootsy Collins, Billy Sheehan, Duff McKagan, Suzi Quatro, Stanley Clarke, Will Lee, and many more have offered heartfelt tributes. “Jeff Beck has left the building and it is a lonelier place without him,” Paul McCartney posted on social media. “God bless Jeff and his family.”

Gene Simmons called it “heartbreaking news … no one played guitar like Jeff. Please get ahold of the first two Jeff Beck Group albums and behold greatness.”

Beck, who rose to fame with the Yardbirds before fronting the Jeff Beck Group, worked with a series of phenomenal bass players during his career. One of those privileged few was Tal Wilkenfeld. “Playing in Jeff’s band was so fun,” said Tal. “It was never about playing for the sake of playing. Everyone had something to say, and something to learn from the conversation. We’ve lost our favorite guitarist, and one of the most intelligent, intuitive and hilarious people I’ve ever met.”

Doug Wimbish, who was hired to play on Beck’s 1985 album, Flash, wrote, “I will never forget Jeff and how kind he was to me. A great person, a great spirit and a total legend to the core.”

“He taught a lot while never claiming to be a teacher,” said Bootsy Collins, who recorded with Jeff for Malcolm McLaren’s House of The Blue Danube, at Pearl Sound studios in Detroit. “Thxs for the gifts u left us with.”

“Nobody had a sound or a soul to match what he had,” said Will Lee. “There’s never going to be another voice like his on any instrument. He was truly amazing.”

More tributes can be found below.

Paul Samwell-Smith      

“What a genius. We wrote Shapes of Things together and Jeff had a blank sixteen bars for a solo in the middle of the song. He not only played an extraordinary solo, but he changed the nature of guitar playing ever after. Jeff was a lot of fun, and very naughty, both in life and in music. What a great life he enjoyed."

Flea

In 2009 Flea joined Jeff Beck, Metallica and a few other very special guests for a rowdy performance of Train Kept A-Rollin at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony. “What an absolutely brilliant musician who carved out a world all his own. A huge influence on a zillion guitarists and a deep part of who I am as a bassist. We will listen to you always, Jeff. Thank you for your gifts. What a rocker. This is the end of an era.” 

Rhonda Smith

“I first met Jeff in 2009 in Montreux, Switzerland. I was there with Prince and I had just had my hair done. I was on my way back to my hotel room when I entered the elevator and there was Jeff Beck all by himself. I knew who he was, but I said nothing… I was in awe.  Who knew that we would spend the next 13 years together? Thank you Jeff for all the special moments and the invaluable things that I learned from you.”  

Will Lee

“Nobody had a sound or a soul to match what Jeff had. When I asked him to play a solo for my album cut of Driftin by Jimi Hendrix, I was blown away that he said yes. And once I heard the solo, I was literally on my knees crying. I replayed it over and over again in disbelief. His solo is the musical equivalent of the sun breaking through clouds. It only takes two notes and you’re on a magic carpet of sound, soaring across the sky on the Jeff-stream.”

Suzi Quatro

“I remember Jeff Beck was in Detroit with producer Mickie Most to record at Motown with Cozy Powell. They were all together in the audience watching me with Cradle when Mickie picked me out as ‘the one’, and the rest is history. I ended up going to the studio with them after the show and jamming on Cissy Strut. It was one of the fondest and most surreal moments in my younger life. Jeff did me the honour of playing on my version of Desperado.”

Duff McKagan

"I got to know Jeff ever since he tried to play with GNR in Paris in the early 90’s. He had to back out because his tinnitus flared up at the soundcheck. A few weeks later he came to a studio in London and played on my Believe In Me record. His guitar playing has remained some of my very favorite of all time.”

Doug Wimbish

“Jeff Beck was one of a kind. A true genius who played from the heart. In the Fall of 1984 I was working in NYC with Arthur Baker, who asked me to play bass on Jeff’s Flash album, which Arthur was producing. Arthur set up a jam session with Jeff, myself and Zack Alford over at Electric Lady Studios and Jeff and I hit it off.

"Flash was released in 1985 and was followed by a tour of Japan. Following the tour, Jeff and I started recording with Mick Jagger on his Primitive Cool album. A great person, a great spirit and a total legend to the core.”

Tal Wilkenfeld

“Jeff Beck’s light and power were so strong. I was convinced we’d be goofing around and making music until the day I leave this planet. Jeff, thank you for believing in me before anyone else did. You treated me like a daughter to the point where Wikipedia actually thought that was true!”

Stanley Clarke

"Jeff had so much fire and patience at the same time in his playing along with an unmatched uniqueness. I remember staying at his place outside of London in Tunbridge Wells along with Mike Garson. We were rehearsing for something and Jeff had his guitars laid out all over the place. We went from playing music to messing around with what I believe was Jeff’s greatest love…. his cars. He had this beautiful brown Roadster. I believe it had red fire decals on the side. I have so many great memories with him.”

Billy Sheehan

“Having a Rave Up with the Yardbirds is one of the most important records in my musical life. Paul Samwell-Smith is the inspiration for the neck-position EBO pickup on my original P Bass, and then, of course, Jeff Beck. Of the ‘Big Three’ (Page, Clapton and Beck), Jeff was my guy. From jamming Rice Pudding in a High School band, as well as performing so many others of Jeff’s songs. He was a beacon of creativity and improvisational expertise. Like no other.”

Gail Ann Dorsey

“Arguably the greatest guitarist ever? If not, very close to it. I got to witness his genius here in my hometown of Kingston NY back in 2010 at UPAC. I spent a few moments after the show in his gracious company. I am forever grateful for the innovative, captivating and passionate music he has blessed us with.”

Brian Ray

“For me, Jeff Beck was the true king of the electric guitar. He was a man who spoke a language no one else could speak, but one that we can all understand. Even Jimi Hendrix called him ‘the best living guitar player.’ He was the guitarist's guitar hero.”

Bryan Beller

“You can pretty much draw a line from everyone of note I've ever worked with straight back to Jeff Beck. His boundless creativity and inventive sonic artistry made instrumental guitar-driven rock and fusion a thing in the first place.”

Darryl Jones

“We have lost one of the most singularly gifted guitar masters ever to play the instrument. Jeff Beck influenced generations of players because of his completely unique approach to guitar playing. In my opinion, there is no one that comes close to playing the way he did. The music world has lost an irreplaceable talent.”

Paul McCartney

“Jeff Beck was a lovely man who played some of the best guitar music ever to come out of Great Britain. He was a superb technician and could strip down his guitar and put it back together again in time for the show. His unique style of playing was something that no one could match, and I will always remember the great times we had together. He would come over to dinner at our place or he and his wife, Sandra, would host an evening at their house. I will cherish forever the moments we spent together.

Jeff Beck has left the building and it is a lonelier place without him. God bless Jeff and his family.”

Michael ‘Duff’ McKagan, the punk rocker from Seattle who moved to Hollywood in the mid-’80s, joined Guns N’ Roses and became a star, is best known in bass guitar world for a slinky four-bar solo executed in the upper register over the intro to their best-known song, Sweet Child O’ Mine. But how did he come up with it?

“It just happened,” he told us a while back, adding: “Really, it’s all a product of what you listen to and what influenced you, and then what you hear and what you think is right for the part – and it’s either gonna happen for you or it’s not. I’ve never tried to force any sort of bassline; it’s either gonna come to me or it’s not.”

He added, “The first Fender I bought was in 1986: I got it at Guitar Center when GN’R got our record advance. I had some money to get some gear, and that was the bass I chose to get, and it really was that bass that was the core of my sound – the Appetite For Destruction sound. I played that bass on every record that I’ve played bass on. I’ve used that exact same setup.” 

Duff’s scooped tone had a crisp top end that stood out among the layers of screaming guitars, as readers of a certain age will remember. 

“Nobody advised me about my tone – I really didn’t know who to ask back then,” he explained. “I knew what I didn’t want to sound like – I didn’t want to have a big fuzz-tone bass where you couldn’t hear the notes. Izzy [Stradlin, guitar] had this real thin, sparse sound, and Slash had a big, Marshall-plus-Les Paul sound, and somewhere in there was a spot for me. 

“We all had to have our spot to make that band work, and I kinda knew where I wanted to go – and I really landed on it with that bass and the Rotosound strings and a Gallien-Krueger rig. It’s real simple what I use.”

He doesn’t hear his lines like the rest of us, he reveals: “I’ll hear those basslines, like the beginning of Sweet Child O’ Mine or the beginning of Fall To Pieces [by his later band Velvet Revolver], as a cello line for some reason.

“I don’t know why that is – I don’t play cello or anything. It would be a neat thing to learn it, but I’m busy right now learning how to play bass!” 

Matt Sorum has announced his Kings of Chaos supergroup will be releasing its first-ever studio album late next year, and has celebrated the news by dropping Judgment Day – the effort’s lead single, which also acts as a soft Velvet Revolver reunion.

Written by Sorum, Slash, Duff McKagan and Dave Kushner, Judgment Day – premiered exclusively today on Guitar World – is just as high-octane as you’d expect.

Tapping into the group’s well-established musical chemistry, Judgment Day sees Slash deliver a blitz of unrelenting blues rock progressions, with the odd pentatonic-fueled lick and upper-fret melody thrown in for good measure.

A tasty guitar solo acts as a brief interlude in proceedings, with Sorum’s energetic vocal performance paving the way for more than three-and-a-half minutes of full-throttle fretboard throwdowns.

Accompanying the single is the Judgment Day music video – a hot-rodded viewing experience, which takes inspiration from the 1971 action film Vanishing Point and boasts a cameo from ZZ Top legend and regular Sorum collaborator, Billy Gibbons.

Directed by Brian Cox, whose credits include Bring Me The Horizon and The Misfits, the video also features Sorum’s wife, Ace Harper, as an angel who – along with Gibbons’ character, The Reverend Willy G – guides “a man running from his demons” on the road to redemption.

The upcoming Kings of Chaos album is set to arrive late next year, with Sorum teasing the record will feature original music and even more guest collaborations with “some of rock’s biggest names”.

Sorum’s Kings of Chaos concept was originally devised as a touring project, which saw the Grammy-winning drummer call upon numerous musical A-listers for live outings across the globe.

With core collaborators such as McKagan, Gilby Clarke and Steve Stevens, Kings of Chaos have also shared the stage with the likes of Myles Kennedy, Nuno Bettencourt, Joe Elliott, Chester Bennington, Joe Perry, Brian May and many more.

Ann Wilson, Warren DeMartini, Robert DeLeo, Ace Frehley and Doug Aldrich have also served stints as part of the Kings of Chaos crew.

For updates on the upcoming album, and for future tour dates, head over to the Kings of Chaos website.

Eddie Vedder recruited Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan during his show at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington on Monday (February 21) for a cover of Precious, from The Pretenders' 1979 self-titled debut album.

Joining Vedder's backing band, The Earthlings – which boasts an all-star lineup of Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, former Chilis guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, Jane's Addiction bassist Chris Chaney, The Frames guitarist Glen Hansard and Ozzy Osbourne producer Andrew Watt – McKagan handles the track's low-end armed with his signature Fender Precision bass guitar. Check out the performance below.

The Pearl Jam frontman is currently on tour in support of his latest solo studio album, Earthling. The trek kicked off at the Beacon Theatre in New York on February 3, and the last originally planned show at Benaroya Hall in Seattle took place last night (February 22).

Due to an outbreak of Covid in Vedder's touring party earlier this month, shows at San Diego's The Magnolia and Los Angeles' YouTube theatre on February 15 and 17 will now take place on February 27 and 25, respectively.

Alongside a host of tracks from Earthling – like The Haves and Long Way – and a selection of Pearl Jam cuts, Vedder's Earthlings Tour setlist has included covers of The Beatles' Here Comes the Sun, Prince's Purple Rain and Jimi Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower.

And during his show at Benaroya Hall last night, as Setlist.fm reports, Vedder reportedly paid tribute to Screaming Trees lead singer Mark Lanegan, who recently passed away at the age of 57.

Vedder released Earthling – his first non-movie soundtrack solo album – earlier this month. Alongside contributions from Ringo Starr, Elton John and Stevie Wonder, the LP also features guest vocals from his late father.

“I didn't really get to know my real father,” Vedder said in a January interview with Mojo (per Louder). “I met him maybe three or four times as a kid, but he was, you know, a friend of the family. It would have been nice to have been in a room with him at some point before he died when I was 13. It would have been nice to share that I knew that he was my pop, but it didn't happen.”

Vedder then revealed that around 10 years ago, a contact gave him some photos of his father and, later, a disc of vocal recordings made by him.

“I carried that disc around for two, three months in my suitcase, not ready to hear it,” he continued. “Finally, I got the guts, and after a couple bottles of wine played it one night in Argentina. And he was good. It was incredible – like he left a message for me.”

The recordings were subsequently reworked by Vedder and producer Andrew Watt for inclusion on Earthling.

Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators' new album, 4, is set to drop tomorrow (February 11.)

To promote the album – the first-ever release on Gibson's new record label – the band have embarked on an extensive American tour, the first couple dates of which have seen some killer onstage moments. 

At the tour opener – on February 8 at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon – the band launched into a rendition of Elton John's timeless hit, Rocket Man, which you can check out below. 

Though the band contributed a cover of the song to the soundtrack of the film Stuntman, it was the first time they had ever performed it for an audience. Slash – who told the crowd that the band had been "dying" to play the song live – took the cover by the horns, deploying some beautifully mournful slide cries in the sing-along chorus, before returning to his Stones-y comfort zone for a piercing and evocative closing solo.

The tour then moved on to the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, where last night (February 9), Slash, Kennedy, and the Conspirators were joined for their encore by Guns N' Roses bass guitar player Duff McKagan.

Though they hadn't played a Guns N' Roses song the entire night up to that point, the occasion certainly called for one, and the band dutifully launched into Nightrain. 

You can see that performance – which features Conspirators bassist Todd Kerns taking up vocal duty – below as well.

The release of 4 has been preceded by the singles The River Is Rising, Fill My World and Call Off the Dogs.

To preorder the album, visit Slash's website.

Aside from 4, Slash is also reportedly working with Guns N’ Roses on new material, recently telling Classic Rock, "There’s new Guns material coming out as we speak – we’ll probably keep putting it out until the entire record’s worth of stuff is done and then put it out solid.

“It’s cool,” he added. “I’m enjoying working on the stuff and having a good time doing it.”

It’s been a busy few months for Guns N’ Roses. Despite being in the midst of a US tour with the Wolfgang Van Halen-fronted Mammoth WVH, the iconic rock band has still found time to release two new songs in as many months, Hard Skool and Absurd.

Now, it’s been announced that both of the tracks will feature on an all-new EP, titled Hard Skool, which will be the first time in 28 years that electric guitar titan Slash, Axl Rose and Duff McKagan have all joined forces for a studio effort.

The trio will be joined on the record by the current members of the GNR lineup, which is completed by Richard Fortus and Frank Ferrer, as well as keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Melissa Reese.

Due February 25 2022, the EP’s tracklist will contain the two already released ex-Chinese Democracy cuts, as well as live recordings of the band’s ‘91 power ballad Don’t Cry and Appetite For Destruction track You’re Crazy.

The last effort to feature all three members from GNR’s original lineup was 1993’s The Spaghetti Incident?, with Slash and McKagan permanently rejoining the fold back in 2016.

Since then, the band have embarked on various tours around the world, though hopes for new material were seemingly dashed after three years without a hint of any recording intentions.

That was until 2019, when McKagan came out and announced the reconciled Guns N’ Roses crew had begun preliminary work on a new album, telling Trunk Nation Radio (via NME), “There’s never been a direct schedule on how we do things. 

“I’ve heard some magnificent stuff that Axl has, really cool stuff he’s been working on. So I’m excited about the possibilities of that, of course.

“The album is real,” he continued. “But the fun part and the cool part about Guns N’ Roses is we don’t really talk about it. What happens next just happens.”

And, while Hard Skool isn’t the full-length album that McKagan and co hinted at two years ago, GNR fans finally have something to look forward to – even if they have already heard the two new tracks from the EP.

Nevertheless, it may yet be a sign of things to come, with Hard Skool potentially acting as a gateway towards even more records for the original cadre of GNR bandmates in the future.

As for now, the band are continuing to make their way through their hectic concert schedule, with only three dates in North Carolina and Florida remaining on the North American leg of the We’re F’N Back tour, after three Mexico dates were postponed.

During their recent show at Royal Farms Arena, Baltimore, on September 26, Guns N’ Roses reportedly performed Hard Skool live for the first time – footage of which can be found below.

• Hard Skool is available to preorder now.

Jerry Cantrell has taken to Instagram to share behind-the-scenes shots from a music video for his forthcoming solo album – and it looks like he's brought Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan, plus former Dillinger Escape Plan frontman Greg Puciato and drummer Gil Sharone along for the ride. 

Following filming at FD Photo Studio on Olympic Boulevard in LA, the singer posted two photos from the shoot, giving the first taste of the lineup for his new record.

Photos from the video shoot were initially leaked on Sunday 27, posted on Instagram by a woman who appears to be starring in the video, which led many fans identify McKagan’s involvement in the new solo outing. 

Targeting the leaked photos, Cantrell’s caption for his post reads: “Here’s a couple better pics than the ones leaked yesterday. May be time to upgrade that phone? Just saying”.

Puciato and Sharone have previously performed with Cantrell at two LA solo shows in December 2019.

While there is no official release date for the video or name for the associated track, it will form part of Cantrell’s as-yet unnamed third solo album – his first in almost 20 years, following 2002’s Degradation Trip. The AIC leader is no stranger to A-list collaborations – his last record featured Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo and Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin. 

In March this year, the guitarist took to Instagram to announce the record was complete, saying: “Finished my record tonight one year to the day from when we started recording it. What a crazy journey…always is. Look forward to setting it free upon your ear holes sometime soon.”

No official announcement has been made regarding the album's release date, but Cantrell’s brother, David, has speculated on social media that the record is expected in October this year. 

Duff McKagan is rumored to be playing bass on Jerry Cantrell's new solo album after the Guns N’ Roses bassist was spotted at a music video shoot with the Alice in Chains guitar hero.

Photos from the shoot on Sunday June 27 were uncovered on Instagram, believed to be posted by a woman who appears in the video. The video shoot reportedly took place at FD Photo Studio on Olympic Boulevard in LA, leading fans to believe McKagan could take a starring role on the record.

Former Dillinger Escape Plan frontman Greg Puciato also looks set to make an appearance after he was spotted in the studio with Cantrell.

Back in March, Cantrell took to his own Instagram account to announce he had completed work on his new, as-yet-untitled solo outing, which will be his first in almost 20 years, following 2002’s Degradation Trip, which featured Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo and Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin.

“Finished my record tonight one year to the day from when we started recording it,” the caption reads. “What a crazy journey... always is. Look forward to setting it free upon your earholes sometime soon.”

It looks set to be a busy year for the AIC leader, who joined the Gibson family in early 2020, leading the company to tease a signature Les Paul at NAMM 2021. Their first collaboration is listed as the “Wino” custom, hinting at a recreation of Cantrell’s ‘90s Wine Red Custom Shop Les Paul.

There is no official release date, title or label for the new solo effort as of yet, although Cantrell’s brother David has said on social media that it is expected in October this year.

We all know that Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan has deep punk roots with Seattle-based acts like 10 Minute Warning and the Fastbacks. But apparently there’s another early punk outfit in his history – the Living, with whom he played electric guitar as a teenager.

That period in Duff's musical life has now been unearthed on the new The Living: 1982, a seven-song collection of McKagan-penned tunes being released on Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard’s Loosegroove Records label on April 16.

You can check out the video for one of the songs, Two-Generation Stand, above.

The Living: 1982 features a 17-year-old McKagan alongside drummer Greg Gilmore, later of 10 Minute Warning and Mother Love Bone, as well as singer John Conte and bassist Todd Fleishman. 

Said Gilmore in a statement, “The Living was the beginning of all things Seattle for me – a turning point in my life. I joined a band and a community. These guys are still my brothers. I’ve cherished these recordings since the days we made them. This record is a fantastic document of a loaded moment. I love it.”

The songs, which were recorded in a single-day studio session, were lost for 39 years before being recently rediscovered by Gilmore.

McKagan, for one, appears thrilled it’s finally seeing the light of day. “Would this even ever get out of our basement?” he said in a statement.

“We had something magical then, and it was ours, so who gives a fuck!”

The Living: 1982 is available for preorder here.

Heart electric and acoustic guitar icon Nancy Wilson will release her first-ever solo album, You and Me, on May 7 via her new label, Carry On Music.

In addition to eight originals, the effort also features covers of Pearl Jam’s Daughter, Simon & Garfunkel’s The Boxer (with Sammy Hagar) and the Cranberries’ Dreams (with Wilson’s Roadcase Royale bandmate Liv Warfield), along with her previously-released take on Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising.

You and Me was recorded primarily in Wilson’s California home studio, working with band members and  guests remotely.

“Being off the road last year from touring with Heart, and at home with my good guitars and amps out, I felt like I was once again able to reconnect with my pre-Heart self, my college-girl self, creating poetic, intimate and romantic songs, which pretty much is what I first brought in to Heart,” she said.

The eight original tracks are mostly acoustic ballads, but also feature rockers like Party at the Angel Ballroom, with a backing band consisting of Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan and Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins.

The final song, meanwhile, is an instrumental tribute to Eddie Van Halen, titled 4 Edward. Wilson previously recounted a meeting between the two that inspired the song:

"I was the first one to ever give him an acoustic guitar," Wilson said. "When we were touring with those guys in the '80s, he was like, 'I like how you play that acoustic.' And I said, 'Well, why don't you play more acoustic?' And he goes, 'Well, I don't have an acoustic.' And I said, 'You don't have an acoustic? What?'"

You and Me will be available for preorder beginning March 8. The title track, a collaboration between Wilson and longtime co-writer Sue Ennis, will be released digitally the same day. Fans can pre-save the track here.

Wilson also recently teamed up with Epiphone for the new Fanatic electric guitar. 

Guns N’ Roses has been riding high for several years now on the return of glory days members Slash and Duff, but as far as the guitar/bass corner of the band is concerned, it’s actually Richard Fortus who is the longest-serving member of the band, having played electric guitar continuously alongside Axl Rose for roughly 18 years.

With that in mind, Fortus recently appeared on the Radical With Nick Terzo podcast and spoke about having to adjust to the various players that passed through the Gn’R ranks during his tenure with the band, including guitarists Robin Finck, Buckethead and Ron Thal  (aka Bumblefoot) and bassist Tommy Stinson.

Said Fortus, "I love Robin. I loved his playing. I loved working with him. And obviously, Tommy’s like my brother. We were all very tight. And then there was Bucket[head], who was just sort of out on his own. But it was very musical, and it was exciting to be a part of.

“He's a phenomenal talent. Man, he's pretty out there. And he definitely can be difficult to work with. I enjoyed working with him, because he's very musical.”

Fortus went on to admit that "It was a difficult dynamic to make three guitars work. He [Buckethead] did an excellent job, because he understood the dynamics of it, how the puzzle pieces have to fit together, and Bucket really understood that. Everything sort of has to have its place.

"Then when he left and Ron Thal came in, it was a different dynamic, because I think Ron had been used to sort of doing his own thing, with his own band and sort of didn't really get how that worked, or how to make it work. So it was difficult at that time."

When Slash and Duff came back into the fold in 2015, Fortus said it was an easy adjustment. "I wasn't uncomfortable in any way. It was a little bit… You're cautious at first, you don't want to step on anybody's toes; everyone's sort of feeling each other out. 

“You know, Duff and I had worked together before and were friends. And it fell together really quickly and very naturally. I think we have so much musical background in common, as far as where we came from and the bands that we sort of grew up listening to and the progression of our musical interests, with the whole background in older music and then punk rock and our love for the Stones. It sort of gelled. But as far as with Slash and I, it really came together very naturally and in a really easy way.

He continued, "This is sort of a dream scenario for me in that I'm playing with guys that all take it as seriously as I do and are as committed and dedicated. And that's really rare and awesome to be a part of."

If anything, Fortus said that it took longer for Slash and Duff to feel things out with current Guns drummer Frank Ferrer.

"I think that was the toughest fit, when those guys came back," he said. "For Duff, well, for both of them, sort of adapting to Frank and trying to get him to adapt to them, you know? It wasn't as natural. But it has ended up working out well."

When Andrew Watt says that he, Chad Smith and Duff McKagan worked fast to put Ordinary Man in motion, he’s not kidding. Just ask McKagan.

“Andrew called me on a Friday or Saturday and he said, ‘Are you in L.A.?’,” the bassist recalls. “I told him I was, and he asked, ‘Can you make a record for Ozzy… like, now?’ I said, ‘What does ‘now’ mean?’ He told me, ‘Monday.’”

Sure enough, come that Monday, the three musicians convened in Watt’s studio - “the Watt lab,” as Smith jokingly calls it - and began making music. “It was, ‘Who’s got a riff?’ ‘Who’s got an idea?’,” Smith recalls. “We’d get two parts together and then start recording immediately. That kept it fresh.”

“A lot of the stuff was first or second take,” McKagan adds. “And everything was miked up great, which is something Andrew really knows how to do. That might sound elementary but it’s not. He got my sound perfectly, and it’s not a simple thing. And his drum sounds are impeccable.”

McKagan says he met Watt in his California Breed days and recalls him as a “killer young guitar player - a very Page-y, Mick Ronson-y, '70s guy.” Working with him in a studio situation, he says, “he reminded me of a guy named West Arkeen, who was kind of like the sixth member of Guns N’ Roses back in the day. 

“Andrew has that same energy, and it was nice to be around that again. He’s super-smart - melodies always in his head, quick in recording. He knows how to capture the thing.”

Musically, “Andrew is an old soul,” says Smith, who has worked with Watt on numerous projects over the years and calls him his “little brother.” “His record collection growing up was the same shit I grew up on - Zeppelin, Sabbath, the Stones, the Beatles, the Who, Deep Purple. It’s in his DNA. 

"And because he’s younger he also loves the Chili Peppers and Jane’s Addiction and Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and all that. And then he has the modern pop thing, too. He’s just very musically open.”

“Between the three of us, the chemistry in the studio just worked,” McKagan says. “It’s pretty simple - three guys who can play and write songs together pretty well got in the same room for four days, and this record is the product.”

“And it was a blast,” Smith says, then laughs.

“Numerous times, daily, while we were playing we’d look at each other, like, ‘I can’t believe this is what we get to fucking do, man! This is fucking awesome!’”

Best of 2020: “I’m always saying the most ridiculous things out loud, because that’s the only way they’ll ever happen,” explains Andrew Watt, the 29-year-old songwriter, guitarist and producer who has charted hit singles for the likes of Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello and other modern pop stars. Now, he's the newest axe man for Ozzy Osbourne, taking his place in a rarefied space alongside iconic shredders like Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee and Zakk Wylde.

As for the “ridiculous thing” he said out loud that got him here? That involves another pop icon and frequent Watt collaborator, Post Malone - who, as the story goes, was at legendary Sunset Strip hangout the Rainbow one night when, motivated by his longtime love for the Prince of Darkness, he purchased an Ozzy photograph straight off the establishment’s wall.

Recalls Watt, “When I heard that, I got this vision in my head of Post: he’s got his face tattoos, he’s got a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other, and he’s walking down Sunset holding this photo. And I said, ‘How cool would it be to make a song with Post Malone and Ozzy Osbourne?’”

Not long after, Watt ran into Ozzy’s daughter, Kelly, at a party, and said as much to her. Kelly, in turn, took the pitch home to dad.

“She asked me, ‘Would you be interested in doing a song with Post Malone?’ ” recalls Ozzy, seated beside Watt on a couch at his L.A. home.

His response to his daughter?

“I said, ‘Who the fuck’s Post Malone?’”

With this, Watt lets out a big laugh. But suffice it to say, Osbourne also agreed to do the song. And the result, Take What You Want, became his first top 10 single in more than 30 years. And while Take What You Want is decidedly more Post Malone trap-pop than Ozzy-style hard rock, Watt, who produced the track, also tacked a shreddy, shit-hot solo to the outro.

Which means, Watt says, “there’s now a song with a tapping guitar solo on pop radio in 2019, which is amazing. For me as a guitar player, that’s the biggest victory I could ever have.”

Well, maybe the second biggest victory. Because not long after completing Take What You Want, Ozzy had an idea of his own: He asked Watt to help him write and record an entire album's worth of material, which became the new Ordinary Man, Osbourne’s first solo effort in a decade.

Sounds crazy? Perhaps. But before long-time Ozzy fans lose their metal-loving minds, let it be known that while Watt is something of a modern-day pop prodigy, the man can also play some mean rock guitar.

And don’t just take our word for it. For starters, check out the 2014 self-titled album from California Breed, the ridiculously rocking power trio that featured a then-very-young Watt alongside legendary Deep Purple singer/bassist Glenn Hughes and drummer Jason Bonham. 

Or pick up a copy of Watt’s guitar-heavy 2015 solo EP, Ghost in My Head. Or talk to the guy and hear him wax rhapsodic about a childhood spent worshipping six-string gods like Jimmy Page, John Frusciante, Tony Iommi and, most of all, David Bowie sideman Mick Ronson.

Better yet, just listen to Ordinary Man, which is jam packed with the sort of slamming riffs (Straight to Hell, Eat Me) and shredding solos (Goodbye, All My Life) that we’ve all come to expect, if not demand, from an Ozzy Osbourne record. But make no mistake: Ordinary Man is no one-trick metal pony. 

There’s also big, bold, melodic rockers (Today Is the End, Holy for Tonight) massively hooky anthems (first single Under the Graveyard Scary Little Green Men), a punky, MC5-meets-Motorhead rager (It’s a Raid) and, in the title track, a sentimental, strings-adorned ballad that is quite possibly Osbourne’s most affecting song to date.

Just how affecting is it?

“It made my sister cry,” Ozzy admits to us. “I said to her, ‘It’s not that bad!’”

That song, Ordinary Man, also features piano and vocal contributions from none other than Elton John. But he’s hardly the only star lending a hand on Ordinary Man. Watt also pulled in Slash (who solos on Straight to Hell and the title track) and Tom Morello (who adds trademark six-string squeals and scratches to Scary Little Green Men, as well as some jet-fueled riffage to It’s a Raid) and assembled the all-star band,  of Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan.

The result, with Watt as producer, guitarist, key songwriter, chief motivator and, in a sense, creative caregiver (Osbourne, who had been reeling from a year of injuries and illnesses, characterizes Ordinary Man as “life-saving”), deserves to be called an all-hands-on-deck, stone-cold Ozzy classic.

And Ozzy knows it.

“People have told me this is my best album,” he says. “And working with Andrew was so great. Some producers I’ve worked with in the past have been fucking assholes. You do what they say and they crack the whip. But Andrew, he’s like a brother now. I found a friend for life.”

Watt laughs. “Ozzy always says things like that to me - how he’s made a friend for life and he’s eternally grateful. And I’m like, ‘Why are you fucking saying this to me? You’re Ozzy!’ I just feel so blessed and so lucky to have been able to make this record with him. I don’t even feel like I made it. I feel like I left my body. It’s crazy.

“So for any little kids that are out there that play guitar? Dreams do come true.”

Ozzy, you first worked with Andrew on the Post Malone song, Take What You Want. What led to the decision to then record an entire album with him?

Ozzy Osbourne: "The way I looked at it, I’d been fucked up for the last year with the surgery I had on my neck and this fucking spinal problem. I was getting down and depressed. [Osbourne spent 2019 in and out of the hospital, dealing with a potentially deadly staph infection in his hand, a flu which turned into pneumonia and complications from a fall that required spine and neck surgery; in the process he canceled several tours and suspended all musical activity. Additionally, just after this interview he went public with a diagnosis of PRKN 2, a form of Parkinson’s]. 

"And doing what I do - music - it’s the best tonic you can have. And for whatever reason Andrew and I got on so well. So we went from making the Post Malone song to making an album. It was off the cuff, which is always the way I like to do it, because very often when you plan something it doesn’t work out. But it came together so quickly with Andrew."

Andrew, what was your first reaction to the suggestion of doing an album together?

Andrew Watt: "Well, Kelly suggested it first, and then Sharon [Osbourne, Ozzy’s manager and wife] wanted it and Ozzy was into the idea. And I was like, “That sounds awesome… but I don’t know if I’m the guy for that.” I mean, I know my history of rock and roll and it’s what I love. But I also didn’t want to make a shitty Ozzy album! He’s my favorite music ever. So I had to think about it - not because I didn’t want to do it, but because I just didn’t know if I was capable.

"But I picked up the phone and I called Chad Smith, who’s a really good friend of mine who I make so much music with, and I was like, 'They want me to make an Ozzy album. What do you think?' And he said, 'You’re fucking doing it! You’re an amazing guitar player! What are you even thinking about? It’s Ozzy! I’m coming over!' 

"He was pushing me and giving me the confidence to do it. And then I thought, We have to get a bassist - who would be the best rock bassist who’s not just a great player, but also a great songwriter? And I got in touch with Duff. And same as Chad, he said, 'When are we doing it?' So I was like, 'Fuck, OK… I guess we’re doing this!'"

How did the three of you work together as a band?

Watt: "Duff and Chad came over to my house, where I have a studio in my basement. We sat there, the three of us, and I pulled out some riffs. We started like that. Duff and Chad would help me make them better, and then Duff would start coming up with some shit, we’d move naturally to other parts, and we’d go from there. 

"And the whole time we’re just listening to Sabbath and getting influenced and playing music. And in four days we made 10 songs. Like, stream of consciousness. And those are the songs on the album."

You wrote the music for the album in only four days? How does that even happen?

Watt: "I can’t give you the answer to how it happens because I truly believe some things are ordained. We’re in the studio and I’m staring at Duff from Guns N’ Roses. I’m staring at Chad from the Chili Peppers. I’m the worst one in the room and that elevates me to go to another place. And we’re all thinking about Ozzy, right? He’s the hot girl we’re trying to impress."

Ozzy, what was your reaction when you heard all of this music?

Osbourne: "You know, I just got on with it. Because when things come that quickly, you go, 'Is it really good or is it my enthusiasm?' But then you play it for somebody else and they go, 'Fucking hell - that’s great!' And the proof is in the pudding."

Watt: "It was like lightning in a bottle. From start to finish we did the whole thing in a month. After we did the music, Ozzy and I wrote lyrics together, and then he sat in a chair in my studio and sang on a mic. I sat right next to him counting him in. That was it."

Osbourne: "But his fucking studio is downstairs, and for a long time I couldn’t even walk. I was thinking, I’m going to go there one day and fucking land at the bottom! But every day I’d go to the studio and I’d come home with a new song. And Sharon would ask, “What are you guys doing down there?”

"But you know, I’m just a singer. I don’t play an instrument. I feel music. I have the melody in my head. And I came with melodies and we bounced off each other, and that’s the way to do it.

"I’m not always right but I’m not always wrong. Neither is Andrew. So the best ideas got through."

Andrew, someone in your position wouldn’t be blamed for just writing a bunch of heavy riffs, playing some shredding solos and then just calling it a day. But you managed to do something more expansive, while at the same time including a lot of key “Ozzy-isms,” for lack of a better word, in the songs.

Watt: "Well, one thing that’s cool about Ozzy is that because he doesn’t play instruments, it gave us a certain freedom. We could go anywhere with the music. And he knows his way around a melody. He’s touched by something. You know, in a song like Ordinary Man, there’s a lot of switching from major to minor. He grabbed onto that and his voice just kind of floats above it.

"But I remember on the day before I first got together with Duff and Chad, I was listening to all my favorite stuff - all the Sabbath albums, all my favorite Ozzy albums, all those songs that I love and asking myself, 'What makes them great?' 

"I made little notes in my head: Why does everyone love War Pigs, besides the amazing riff? It’s because you’ve got Ozzy singing in the holes. [sings] Generals gathered in their masses. Nothing but the vocal… and then, bam!, a riff. So we’re coming up with the music for Straight to Hell and I go, 'We need a hole, and Ozzy has to sing in the holes. People will love that.'"

That song also starts off with a classic Ozzy phrase.

Watt: "Right. I’m like, “Okay, Ozzy Osborne is making an album for the first time in 10 years. The first fucking thing I want people to hear is, ‘All right now!’. That’s Sweet Leaf. You hear that and you’re in. And then a song like All My Life, I love the sound of Ozzy singing really melodic in front of the 12-string, like on Mama, I’m Coming Home. 

"So we tried something like that. Basically, my whole time making this album, I’m 12 years old. What do I want as a rock fan from Duff, from Chad, from Ozzy? What do I want to hear? What are fans going to want to hear? And that was kind of the idea behind it.

Osbourne: "The music was there, and the melodies just came. Scary Little Green Men, that came into a song in an hour. So did It’s a Raid. It’s great when that happens."

To put it bluntly, Ozzy is known for having hot-shit shredders in his band. Was that a lot of pressure to have on your head when it came to laying down solos?

Watt: "I tried to not think about that at all, because that can be your worst enemy. But you know, we’d write the songs and I’d be like, 'Who do you want to play the guitar solo on this?' Because I want to be precious to him and his fans. And Ozzy would say, 'You’re playing the fucking solo!'"

Osbourne: "He’s a great guitar player! And what I admire about Andrew is, in that space for the solo, a lot of people would just shred through it. I mean, we all saw the wheedle wheedle wheedle thing in the fucking '80s. Every fucking hair band was wheedle wheedle wheedle. On everything. And you go, 'Oh, for fuck’s sake!' 

"But Andrew thought melodically. He would start with the melody, and then he would go off, and then he would come back to it. He’s got a flair. And it’s tastier when someone can complement what I’m singing. I mean, Zakk Wylde, he’s fucking insane, he’s great. But so is Andrew. And Zakk’s heard a couple tracks. My drummer Tommy [touring drummer Tommy Clufetos] has heard it. He said, “I love this stuff. It’s great.” They understand."

Watt: "Zakk was so supportive. Everyone’s been so supportive. We worked so quickly and I just did my best. And Ozzy gave me the confidence to play these solos - there’s a reason why he’s had all these legendary guitar players in his band. We’d write the song and then he’d say, 'I want you to play this solo with a bottleneck.' 

"So in Goodbye, there’s four different solos on the song. He was like, 'Do this part this way, and then try this.' He knew exactly what he wanted and he was able to help me pick what to do."

How did you go about constructing your solos?

Watt: "In general, I like to have the solo quote the vocal melody or the phrasing. So I didn’t do any of the guitar solos until the end - I don’t ever put a guitar solo on a song before the vocals are there. Because you want to be able to pull from melodies of the vocal and then make the guitar solo a step up. 

"But I approached the guitar solos the exact same way I approach songwriting. When I’m writing a song, I try to always make sure that the verse has a certain note range and the pre-chorus has a different note range, and we don’t ever touch the chorus high note in any of the sections that precede it. 

"That way the chorus soars and it’s a different thing. It’s like that with solos. To me, the guitar solo is like a bridge, and I made sure we were either quoting notes that were there, so it’s familiar to the ear, or touching on notes that weren’t there before and it’s building. 

"For instance, the solo in All My Life is one of my favorites, because it has a theme. It does a thing and it repeats itself and goes back. And Slash’s solo on Ordinary Man quotes Ozzy’s vocal, which I think is really important. And then he put all his Slash-isms and stuff around that."

What was it like working with guitarists like Slash and Tom Morello, not to mention musicians like Duff and Chad? How do you direct them as a producer in order to get what you need?

Osbourne: "See, with Andrew… [Pause] He goes, 'Well, I can’t tell Slash what to play.' I said, 'Fucking tell him what you want him to play! You’re Andrew Watt!'"

Watt: "[Laughs] Well, I always start by letting someone do their thing and get it out. So that they don’t feel stifled. What are the things that make Slash the best? What are the things that make Chad Smith the best? I mean, it’s just my tastes and my opinions of what I think are those things. But I tried to get those things out of them, and then we collaborated."

Osbourne: "Andrew’s a fucking producer. I mean, with the vocals, I didn’t have to sing much. When I did the Black Sabbath album with Rick Rubin [2013’s 13], and this is no disrespect to Rick Rubin - I love him to death. But he goes, 'One more time. One more time.' And you go, 'How many fucking times…?'"

Watt: "The way I always like to record, and Ozzy likes it, too, is that there’s no control room/live room situation. We’re sitting in the room just like we’re sitting on this couch. He’s got a mic in front of him. We’re both on headphones. I’m sitting right next to him. We just finished writing a lyric, and the second it’s done we record it. So the emotion is fresh. It’s raw. And Ozzy, he does one take and it’s fucking perfect. 

"It’s just like, 'Okay, he did the take, double it. Next line.' It was all very quick, because he was just bringing it. And he came up with the coolest concepts for the songs. We’re playing a piece of music and he drew a picture of an alien. He said, 'We’re going to write this song about scary little green men.' Who else could sing 'scary little green men,' and turn it into a melody?"

Osbourne: "You’ve got to have fun, man. And with Andrew we were just having a jam. My sister said, 'This album’s the best album yet.' And I go, 'That’s because I enjoyed making it!'"

I think a lot of fans were wondering if we’d ever hear any new Ozzy album at all.

Osbourne: "And the whole thing was an accident. I didn’t plan on doing an album - I was in the middle of my farewell tour! And then I got that staph infection in my fucking finger. That was one. Combat that with pneumonia. I said, 'What the fuck?' But working with Andrew, it got me going. I was lying on my back for a fucking year. I’d been in so much fucking pain. This was the best medication to get me back in the game."

Ozzy, it seems to me a connection can be made between the effect Randy Rhoads had on you when he came into your life and what is happening now with Andrew. Just in the sense that, when you met Randy, you were at a distress point both health-wise and career-wise, and he helped you turn that around. Likewise, prior to meeting Andrew, you were dealing with so many medical issues, and while your career has been strong for decades, increasingly strong, you hadn’t made any new music in a long time. But Andrew has clearly had a huge impact on you personally and creatively.

Osbourne: "When I met Randy and when I met Andrew… sometimes fate is the fucking greatest thing in the world. And I’m a believer in fate. When you think of how many people are in the world and you only meet a handful of the population, certain things are meant to happen. 

"I was lying on the couch, I felt like shit. I was in pain and couldn’t fucking move. So your emotion dies. And when Kelly came in and said, 'Do you want to do the Post Malone thing?' I said, 'Fucking great. I don’t know who he is but I’ll do it.' 

"And if I hadn’t done it I would have never met Andrew. It’s like a fucking higher power, if there is one, has put him in my life. And we had so much fun making the album. We’re going to do another one soon. And not five years from now - like, now.

Andrew, are you in?

Watt: "Absolutely. Till he doesn’t wanna do it anymore, I’m making Ozzy Osbourne records. Sign me up!"

Osbourne: "It’s like a surfer. You’re waiting for that fucking wave, and you finally get it and you go, 'It’s bigger and better than I even thought.' There’s records that I go, 'Fuck, that wasn’t a good time.' But we didn’t have that with this one. With every track we had a giggle and a laugh… And that’s the way I want to make music."

Back in February, Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan announced a new solo album, Tenderness. Now, McKagan has shared another track from the album, "Don't Look Behind You." You can check it out below. 

Tenderness—which was produced by Shooter Jennings and recorded at Station House studios in Echo Park, CA—is set for a May 31 release. You can preorder the album here.

“'Don’t Look Behind You’ was truly inspired by a sense of peace that washed over me after a few months of turning off the TV and social media,” McKagan said of the track in a statement. “It was also inspired by the sense of real community I felt while traveling and talking to people around the world on tour during this somewhat tenuous time. This period of sturm und drang will indeed pass. The song seemed to be the final summation that rang loudly from the topics on Tenderness.”

“The recording sessions for this album also saw us re-assemble, for the first time since the Use Your Illusion recordings, The Suicide Horn Section, featuring my brother Matt McKagan on trombone, the great Chuck Findlay on trumpet and the impossible Brian Scanlon on sax,” McKagan added. “On the very last day of recording, they came down to the studio and laid down the amazing horn lines for ‘Don’t Look Behind You.’ I’ll never forget the culmination of Matt and The Suicide Horns mixed with the Waters singing group sending this song and album out, as Shooter and I just watched it all with goosebumps.”

You can check out the album art and tracklist for Tenderness below.

For more on Duff McKagan and his music, follow along on Facebook.

Duff McKagan—Tenderness:

1. “Tenderness”

2. “It’s Not Too Late”

3. “Wasted Heart”

4. “Falling Down”

5. “Last September”

6. “Chip Away”

7. “Cold Outside”

8. “Feel”

9. “Breaking Rocks”

10. “Parkland”

11. “Don’t Look Behind You”

Fender has debuted its new Duff McKagan Deluxe Precision bass.

The Duff McKagan Deluxe is based on the ‘80s Jazz Bass Special McKagan used during the recording of Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction.

The bass features a black painted “Modern C”-shaped quartersawn maple neck with a “Deluxe Jazz Bass Special” headstock logo and a rosewood fingerboard with pearloid block inlays, along with the number “12” at the twelfth fret.

The Duff McKagan Deluxe Precision also comes with a Hipshot Bass Xtender—for fast drop-tuning—a Precision Bass split-coil pickup with a Seymour Duncan STKJ2B Jazz Bass single-coil bridge pickup and a Fender TBXTM (Treble/Bass Expander) tone circuit.

A Pure Vintage ‘70s bridge, a Duff skull n’ crossbones neck plate and a deluxe gig bag also come standard.

The Fender Duff McKagan Deluxe Precision bass is available now for $1,199.

For more info on the instrument, head on over to fender.com.

Last month, Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan announced a new solo album, Tenderness. Now, McKagan has shared another track from the album, "Chip Away." You can check it out below. 

In addition to releasing "Chip Away," McKagan announced that Tenderness will be released May 31. You can preorder the album here.

“’Chip Away’ is somewhat of a rail against cable news and divisive agendas, all for the almighty dollar,” McKagan said of the song in a press release. “The song also highlights the fact that history repeats itself over and over, and that we will all get past this, together."

Tenderness was produced by Shooter Jennings, and recorded at Station House studios in Echo Park, CA.

“We’re becoming divided at a time when we need each other most,” McKagan said. “When huge industries get replaced because of modernization, it’s time to retrain and bolster up those who get swept aside. Homelessness and drug addiction are avoidable in this country if we come together and get private and public cogs turning together in a positive direction. We can at least try to tackle mental illness while we’re at it. But alas, we stump and lie, point fingers and divide. We’re way better than this.

"As a father, I must say and do something now because I love my girls and my wife, and I love my country, and I feel I must be strong and use my voice now, do it while I’m able or perhaps never get a chance ever again.”

You can check out the album art and tracklist for Tenderness below.

For more on Duff McKagan and his music, follow along on Facebook.

Duff McKagan—Tenderness tracklist:

1. “Tenderness”

2. “It’s Not Too Late”

3. “Wasted Heart”

4. “Falling Down”

5. “Last September”

6. “Chip Away”

7. “Cold Outside”

8. “Feel”

9. “Breaking Rocks”

10. “Parkland”

11. “Don’t Look Behind You”

Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan has shared a new song, “Tenderness,” from his forthcoming solo album. You can check out the tune, produced by and featuring Shooter Jennings, above.

McKagan and Jennings began work on the new album in March of 2018 at Station House studios in Echo Park, CA, where they wrote and recorded in between McKagan’s tour with Guns N’ Roses and the release of Jennings’ eponymous album, Shooter.

“Before beginning this project, I was asked more than a few times if I was going to write a book on my experience of the two-and-a-half-year GN’R Not In This Lifetime … tour,” McKagan said. “While, of course, it had been an amazing experience, in the end, I decided the ideas swirling around in my head were better suited for a record. The heartbreak, anger, fear, confusion and divide I have experienced traveling this globe of ours coerced these words into songs that tell my truth, and one that I hope will spread and help us all.”

Regarding the album, he said: “The real point of this record, and the lyrics for ‘Tenderness,’ is not for me to be some damn politician or some other voice to add to what is already way too much noise. This is a song of unity and peace…and I want this record to be a meditation and to bring maybe some healing, if that is not too high-handed or lofty of a goal. I can use what marginal voice I have as an artist, to hopefully help arrest what seems like a fall. As a father, I must say and do something now…because I love my girls and my wife, and I love my country, and I feel I must be strong and use my voice now, do it while I am able, or perhaps never get a chance ever again.”

Said Jennings, “From the start of the development of this record, ‘Tenderness’ stood out as a focal point. I was almost scared to cut it too early - before we had really mined the sound of the album. I knew we had one shot to do it right with feeling. After it was done and we had a first mix, I wrote Duff and said ‘this song has to come out right now!’ It has a simple message of celebrating life and each other and for everyone to take it easy on one another. It offered an empathetic solution for a divisive time in the world: Tenderness.”

About his collaboration with Jennings, McKagan said, “Fortune shone my way when Shooter and I began to work on the structures of the songs. Shooter has a brilliant mind, and a seemingly endless musical catalogue bouncing around in his head that he’s ready to tap into at any moment. He believed in this thing from day one, and that gave me the confidence and energy to forge on. Shooter, seemingly, can play any musical instrument, but instead of that being sort of daunting to me, he works in such an honest way that I never once felt like I was in the company of a guy trying to show me up. The contrary was in fact true. He made me a better acoustic guitar player, and more at ease as a singer. His ability to get real and authentic sounds in the studio are second to none, and making this record was one of the most inspiring musical experiences of my career.”

McKagan has also announced two shows, at TLA in Philadelphia on May 30 and City Winery in Washington, DC on May 31. He’ll be backed by Jennings and his band for both gigs. 

“Tenderness” is available for streaming or download here.

Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators were joined onstage at the Hollywood Palladium on October 16 by Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan, for a performance of the Gn’R classic, “It’s So Easy.” You can check out fan-filmed footage of the rendition above.

The Palladium show was the final date on the Conspirators' 2018 U.S. tour. The band, which in addition to Slash and singer Myles Kennedy includes bassist Todd Kerns, drummer Brent Fitz and rhythm guitarist Frank Sidoris, will head to Europe in February, 2019. Tour dates can be found here.

Additionally, in time for Halloween, Slash has also released a new seven-song playlist titled Universal Monsters Maze Music, available on Spotify, Apple, Pandora and Amazon here. The guitarist composed the original music for Halloween Horror Nights ‘Universal Monsters’ Maze, which fans can experience live at Universal Studios Hollywood from October 18-21, 25-28, 31 and November 1-3, 2018. 

The 'Universal Monsters' Maze pays homage to iconic classic monsters by underscoring each of their unique attributes and reimagining them into terrifying modern-day characters. The Wolf Man, the Invisible Man, the Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, Dracula’s Bride, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Bride of Frankenstein and the Mummy are among those featured. Tickets for “Halloween Horror Nights” can be purchased here.

Said Slash: “As a fan of horror movies and of ‘Halloween Horror Nights,’ I jumped at the chance to once again collaborate with Universal Studios Hollywood to produce a soundtrack for the maze. Similar to the way music affects a film, I wanted to compose a score for the legions of infamous characters featured in the maze to elicit a greater sense of terror. In the end, the goal was to ultimately make the guests feel as if they are playing an integral role in a classic Monster movie.”

Check out the cover and track list, with song descriptions, for Slash’s Universal Monsters Maze Music below:

1)     “We Belong Dead” - inspired by Frankenstein Monster’s immortal line from the explosive finale of The Bride of Frankenstein.

2)     “The Danse of the Dead” – inspired by “Danse Macabre,” the late medieval art movement that celebrated “the universality of death” and influenced the famous masquerade ball scene from The Phantom of the Opera.

3)     “The Final Scare” – this guitar-driven, up-tempo track combines punk with modern electronic where multiple monsters attack in the maze.

4)     “Universal Monsters Rising” – Slash's lead guitar joins with the mournful sound of a tolling church and the sharp, staccato stabs of violins to call guests to the graveyard, where Universal Monsters rise again.

5)     “The Collection Room/Dracula’s Lair” – composed to accompany the Mummy and Dracula sections of the maze, this track transitions between Middle Eastern and Eastern European instrumentation to bring to life these two classic monsters.

6)     “Monsters, Maniacs and Madmen (Universal Monsters Maze Medley)” – this compilation, takes a single haunting melody and transforms it.

7)     “Sweet Licks (music from “Clowns 3D”) – Slash composed this track with a creepy carnival vibe for 2014’s “Clowns 3D” maze.

During their set at the Firenze Rocks Festival in Florence, Italy, Foo Fighters surprised the assembled masses by bringing out none other than Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan for a fierce cover of Guns N' Roses' "It's So Easy." You can watch fan-filmed footage of the performance above.

This isn't the first time that Guns N' Roses' ongoing Not In This Lifetime tour and Foo Fighters' Concrete and Gold tour have crossed paths, resulting in a live cameo. Just last November, Guns N' Roses invited Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl onstage for a rollicking rendition of Guns N' Roses' "Paradise City" at a Tulsa, Oklahoma show.

Throughout the current, European leg of the Not In This Lifetime tour, Guns N' Roses have been pulling out some surprises of their own. Last week—at a show in Odense, Denmark—the band played B-side "Shadow of Your Love" live for the first time since 1987. The band also surprised and thrilled audiences with a cover of Velvet Revolver's "Slither" at a show at Olympiastadion in Berlin.

You can check out Guns N' Roses' full itinerary below.

Stop by gunsnroses.com for more detailed ticket information.

Guns N' Roses 2018 Tour Dates:

• 6/18 - Paris, France - Download Festival
• 6/21 - Dessel, Belgium - Graspop Metal Meeting
• 6/24 - Mannheim, Germany - Maimarktgelände
• 6/26 - Bordeaux, France - Matmut Stadium
• 6/29 - Madrid, Spain - Download Festival
• 7/01 - Barcelona, Spain - Estadio Olympico
• 7/04 - Nijmegen, Netherlands - Goffertpark
• 7/07 - Leipzig, Germany - Festwiese
• 7/09 - Chorzow, Poland - Stadion Slaski
• 7/13 - Moscow, Russia - Otkritie Arena
• 7/16 - Tallinn, Estonia - Tallinn Song Festival Ground
• 7/19 - Oslo, Norway - Valle Hovin
• 7/21 - Gothenburg, Sweden - Ullevi Stadium

11/8: Jakarta, Indonesia

11/11: Manila, Philippines

11/14: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

11/17: Taipei, Taiwan

11/20: Hong Kong, China

11/21: Hong Kong, China

11/25: Abu Dhabi, UAE

Last night—during their show at Dyrskuepladsen in Odense, Denmark—Guns N' Roses performed "Shadow of Your Love" live for the first time since 1987. You can watch some fan-filmed footage of the performance above.

"Shadow of Your Love" was originally released as a B-side on the "It's So Easy/Mr. Brownstone" single in 1987, and also appeared on the 1988 Live From the Jungle EP and (in a different version) as the B-side to the "Live and Let Die" single in 1991.

Recently, the song has been given new life as the lead single from the band's upcoming Appetite for Destruction box set. The box set will be available June 29 via Universal Music Group.

You can preorder the Appetite for Destruction box set right here, and check out the original recording of "Shadow of Your Love" below.

Last night, Guns N' Roses kicked off their European tour with a show at Olympiastadion in Berlin. During the show, the band surprised and thrilled the assembled masses with a cover of Velvet Revolver's "Slither," the first time the band has ever performed the song live. You can watch fan-filmed footage of the cover above.

Velvet Revolver featured then-former Guns N' Roses members Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, and released two albums before disbanding in 2008 following the departure of frontman Scott Weiland.

"Slither" was the band's biggest hit, and even won the band a Grammy—for Best Hard Rock Performance—in 2004.

Guns N' Roses are just getting started with their latest run of Not in This Lifetime tour dates. You can check out their full itinerary below.

Stop by gunsnroses.com for more detailed ticket information.

Guns N' Roses 2018 Tour Dates:

• 6/03 - Berlin, Germany - Olympiastadion
• 6/06 - Odense, Denmark - Dyreskuepladsen
• 6/09 - Donnington, UK - Download Festival
• 6/12 - Gelsenkirchen, Germany - Veltins Arena
• 6/15 - Firenze, Italy - Firenze Rocks
• 6/18 - Paris, France - Download Festival
• 6/21 - Dessel, Belgium - Graspop Metal Meeting
• 6/24 - Mannheim, Germany - Maimarktgelände
• 6/26 - Bordeaux, France - Matmut Stadium
• 6/29 - Madrid, Spain - Download Festival
• 7/01 - Barcelona, Spain - Estadio Olympico
• 7/04 - Nijmegen, Netherlands - Goffertpark
• 7/07 - Leipzig, Germany - Festwiese
• 7/09 - Chorzow, Poland - Stadion Slaski
• 7/13 - Moscow, Russia - Otkritie Arena
• 7/16 - Tallinn, Estonia - Tallinn Song Festival Ground
• 7/19 - Oslo, Norway - Valle Hovin
• 7/21 - Gothenburg, Sweden - Ullevi Stadium

11/8: Jakarta, Indonesia

11/11: Manila, Philippines

11/14: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

11/17: Taipei, Taiwan

11/20: Hong Kong, China

11/21: Hong Kong, China

11/25: Abu Dhabi, UAE

Guns N' Roses have released the previously unseen music video for the Appetite for Destruction song, "It's So Easy." You can check it out above.

Filmed live in 1989 at the infamous Cathouse in Hollywood, "It's So Easy" was never completely finished and remained in the vaults, unseen and unreleased. The footage was recently uncovered for inclusion in the band's upcoming Appetite for Destruction box set.

It has been digitally restored in 4K UHD from 16mm film transfers with the original conceptual scenes edited back in with the live footage, just as the band originally intended.

The Appetite for Destruction box set will be available June 29 via Universal Music Group.

You can preorder it right here.

Guns N' Roses have announced yet another leg of their Not in This Lifetime tour, one that will bring the band to Asia.

The dates—which are set for November—will take the band to Indonesia, the Phillippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates. You can check out their full itinerary—including the dates for their summer tour of Europe—below.

Guns N' Roses also recently announced a massive reissue of their blockbuster 1987 debut, Appetite for Destruction, featuring dozens of previously unreleased bonus tracks. The reissue is set to arrive in four different packages, and will be available June 29 via Universal Music Group. You can preorder any of one of the sets right here.

Guns N' Roses 2018 Tour Dates:

• 6/03 - Berlin, Germany - Olympiastadion
• 6/06 - Odense, Denmark - Dyreskuepladsen
• 6/09 - Donnington, UK - Download Festival
• 6/12 - Gelsenkirchen, Germany - Veltins Arena
• 6/15 - Firenze, Italy - Firenze Rocks
• 6/18 - Paris, France - Download Festival
• 6/21 - Dessel, Belgium - Graspop Metal Meeting
• 6/24 - Mannheim, Germany - Maimarktgelände
• 6/26 - Bordeaux, France - Matmut Stadium
• 6/29 - Madrid, Spain - Download Festival
• 7/01 - Barcelona, Spain - Estadio Olympico
• 7/04 - Nijmegen, Netherlands - Goffertpark
• 7/07 - Leipzig, Germany - Festwiese
• 7/09 - Chorzow, Poland - Stadion Slaski
• 7/13 - Moscow, Russia - Otkritie Arena
• 7/16 - Tallinn, Estonia - Tallinn Song Festival Ground
• 7/19 - Oslo, Norway - Valle Hovin
• 7/21 - Gothenburg, Sweden - Ullevi Stadium

11/8: Jakarta, Indonesia

11/11: Manila, Philippines

11/14: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

11/17: Taipei, Taiwan

11/20: Hong Kong, China

11/21: Hong Kong, China

11/25: Abu Dhabi, UAE

Well, I guess we know now what that mysterious Appetite for Destruction-themed Guns N' Roses billboard we told you about earlier this week was teasing. Guns N' Roses have announced an enormous reissue of their blockbuster 1987 debut, Appetite for Destruction.

The reissue will be available in a number of different packages, ranging from a single-disc, remastered version of the original album, (the first time the album has ever been remastered) to the Locked N' Loaded box set edition, which will set you back $999. We'll break the packages down in further detail below.

The Deluxe Edition of the reissue is a 2-CD, $19.98 set featuring the remastered version of the original album, plus a disc of 18 highlights from the Super Deluxe Edition of the set, including 7 previously unreleased tracks like “Shadow of Your Love,” the 1986 Sound City Session tracks and the 1988 acoustic version of “Move to the City.” It also features expanded album art, with unreleased photos from Axl Rose's archive, and memorabilia.

The Super Deluxe Edition of the reissue is a 4-CD, $179 set featuring 49 previously unreleased tracks, a 96-page hardcover book featuring unreleased photos from Axl Rose's archive and a number of assorted merchandise including replica concert tickets, a wall poster, temporary band member tattoos , a Robert Williams painting litho, and a replica “Welcome to the Jungle” video shoot invite flyer originally drawn by Slash. You can watch an unboxing video of the massive set below.

The Locked N' Loaded box set has all the features of the Super Deluxe Edition, plus seven 12-inch 180g audiophile vinyl discs, seven 7-inch singles on yellow vinyl, a dozen lithos newly visualizing each song on Appetite, 5 custom hand-made metal-cast band skull face rings, 5 hand-made metal-cast band skull face lapel pins, buttons, patches, replica concert tickets and gig flyers, 5 metal skull face and signature-stamped guitar picks, a turntable mat, wall posters, replica ‘85/’86 club days banner, a numbered certificate of authenticity and more.

Each of the reissue packages will be available June 29 via Universal Music Group. You can preorder any of one of the sets right here.

A mysterious billboard—featuring all five members of the Appetite for Destruction-era lineup of Guns N' Roses—has been spotted in the Camden area of London, Alternative Nation reports.

The billboard links to a site called gnr.fm, which is blank, save for a message that says "Destruction is Coming." It also provides links to the band's social media pages.

The gnr.fm URL is reportedly registered to Universal Music Group, which inevitably has led some to conclude that the publicity campaign is meant to tease a reissue of Appetite for Destruction. Others though, are speculating that the billboard is teasing a full reunion of the Appetite-era lineup of Guns N' Roses.

The band's ongoing Not in This Lifetime tour reunited Axl Rose—the hard-rock juggernaut's sole constant member through the years—with Slash, the band's long-estranged superstar guitarist, and bassist Duff McKagan. Original guitarist Izzy Stradlin and drummer Steven Adler, however, were not invited to join the tour full-time.

Adler has made occasional guest appearances onstage with the band during the tour, while Stradlin reportedly walked out on a reunion with the band after a soundcheck prior to one of the Not in This Lifetime tour stops.