In a recent interview with Spin, Duff Mckagan talked about what it was like to work with Iggy Pop and revealed the three most influential singers for him. Reflecting on his experience recording and touring with Iggy Pop, He said:
“(Producer) Andrew (Watt), (Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer) Chad Smith, and I have a little group together. We did these two Ozzy (Osbourne) records, and we did it for Iggy, too. To do something like that with Iggy, who, for me, is one of my most influential people, along with Lemmy (Kilmister) and Prince… So, when he asked if we could be his band for these shows, we were all into it. To do those shows and rehearse with Iggy was like rehearsing with James Brown, I imagine. Do you know how many bands he has run in his career? Probably 150, I’m guessing. We wanted to be the best band Iggy ever had. I think there were moments where we achieved that at those gigs.”
While listing the three most influential singers for him, it was noteworthy that he did not mention Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose.
Duff McKagan On Working With His Idol
Duff McKagan has worked with artists like Jerry Cantrell, Mark Lanegan, Manic Street Preachers, Ozzy Osbourne and many more. But now he has the opportunity to make music with one of his idols. McKagan spoke to Classic Rock about Iggy Pop, who he has been a fan of since his ‘The Stooges’ days. He said:
“It’s hard for me to have a regular relationship with him, cos he’s been Iggy Pop to me since I discovered The Stooges when I was twelve or thirteen years old. I’ve been lucky enough to play on two of his records. He’s such a hard worker; he’s kind of like James Brown in how he runs a band. The last time, it was me, Chad Smith, Jamie from The Kills. And he called Chad ‘drummer’. Like: ‘Drummer – can you hit that on the up beat?’ And this is Chad Smith!”
Then he added:
“But he’s very appreciative of musicians, and he’s a lovely, lovely man.”
McKagan proved to us that famous artists at this level can still be starstruck even though they play in the same band.
His New Album ‘Lighthouse’
In October, Duff McKagan released his latest solo album ‘Lighthouse.’ He added his personal opinions about the album as follows:
“It’s an arc of a story to me, which begins with the song Lighthouse. In the past six or seven years, lyric writing for me has become like a deeper craft. I read such great authors and I have for years, and I’m finally starting to be able to apply that to my lyric writing, and that means I carve at my words the whole time to try to get the clearest meaning in the least amount of words.”
He then revealed how many songs did not make the 11-track ‘Lighthouse.’ He said:
“I had 60 songs to choose from to build an arc – this story if you will –”
You can listen to ‘Lighthouse’ below.
