Quotes from Duff McKagan

I do love the term 'rocker.' The word itself imbues a ton of imagery and romance. But I don't think a rocker needs to have AC/DC and Metallica and the Black Keys rumbling through their car speakers speeding headlong into the night.

Read books and keep informed. The conversation can get old if you don't have some good new topics to bring to the table.

I'm down to Earth, a lover of music, making music and making love. I love to make people happy and I think I'm basically a good person … despite what you might read about me.

Playing with Iggy pulled me back in for a while and reminded me of what I love about music.

In rock n' roll, we don't sell records at all like we used to. Yet the artist still has to pay to make records. So you've just got to get out on tour and be smarter about your merchandising.

I started playing in punk-rock bands and touring when I was 15, so I missed high school.

By the time Guns n' Roses spent 28 months from 1991 to 1993 touring the 'Use Your Illusion' albums, the tour staff sometimes approached 100 people. We were carrying not only backup girl singers, a horn section, and an extra keyboard player, but also chiropractors, masseuses, a singing coach, and a tattoo artist.

My grandfather John came from Cork. I have six degrees of separation in Ireland.

I've had a panic disorder since I was sixteen, and they always said that's a subset of depression. And I'm like, 'I don't have depression.'

I don't have resentments towards anyone I played with or to the guy who bullied me in the sixth grade. I've worked through it.

I got to the point of insanity, but I also got out, but during the insane times, I felt invincible, and I felt creative and wonderful, too, but I was also hiding something.

'The Joshua Tree' was the soundtrack of my life when we were making 'Appetite.'

Writing's another expression of art, really, that I'm just kind of discovering as I go.

Back when I was single and Guns were on the 'Illusions' tour, chicks were, like, left and right. They were falling over themselves. And I saw the sadness in that. The first six months of that, it's like, 'Killer! Chicks are hot. They're into me.' And then you realize they're not really into you. They're into the guy they saw on the JumboTron.

'The Taking' is the closest thing to a 'concept' record that I have ever been involved with. Pain, loss, triumph, and redemption. Life. Bring it.

I made money in my 20s, became sober in my 30s, looked around, and didn't know who I could trust for money advice.

One of my first memories is marching with my mom. I was in kindergarten with with the Catholic ladies when Martin Luther King Jr. got shot. We wore the black armbands and marched downtown.

Keep a meter on your fear. Fear can cripple you.

My twenties were tumultuous at best... I think.

I learned, by the time I was twenty, I'm not gonna die from a panic attack; you feel like you're going to.

'Chip Away' is somewhat of a rail against cable news and divisive agendas... all for the almighty dollar.

It's a modern world we live in, with everything at our fingertips, and if it's not at our fingertips, you can dot-com anything.

When you start a band, you have to find people that are good, have the same sort of mindset as you musically.

Not to name names, but a lot of pop female artists you see, they don't write their own songs. Lot of top male artists and boy band artists, they don't write their own songs. They're just a product. They sell, they sell, they sell. They don't care about musical integrity, any of that kind of stuff.