Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan revealed the top eight songs that saved his life during a recent interview with Louder Sound and his list includes ‘Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)’ by Prince from his ‘1999’ album which made him realize what he had to do in order to be a musician as well as giving him the courage to do it years ago.
As many of you know, Prince released his fifth studio album, ‘1999‘ on October 27, 1982, and it became the musician’s first record that found itself a place in the top 10 albums on the Billboard 200. Since then, it became one of Prince’s most recognizable albums with countless hits such as ‘Delirious,’ ‘Little Red Corvette,’ and ‘International Lover’ all of which gained huge chart success and award nominations.
According to many music critics, ‘1999’ is Prince’s breakthrough album and has been ranked as one of the greatest albums of all time by several publications and organizations such as being included on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in addition to being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
“This record was huge to me. At that time I was still living in Seattle and heroin had decimated my whole scene – my girlfriend, my roommate, guys in my band – and this record was an escape for me. Everyone has that one record that ‘saved their life,’ and 1999 made me realize that I had to leave Seattle if I wanted to be a musician and gave me the courage to do it.
I went to see Prince once in Germany on a night off during the Use Your Illusion tour, and one of his security guards said, ‘Prince would like to say hi’ and right at that moment I realized I was far too drunk, I literally couldn’t form a sentence. He was so nice, but I was a mess. But years later, in a tour program, he used something that I wrote about him, so the fact that he knew I existed was cool.”
You can listen to ‘Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)’ below.
