There are wild scenes in the McKagan household as Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan logs in to a video call for a chat with Classic Rock. Hadley, his puppy, is chewing up the room – which has stunning, peaceful views over a Seattle lake – desperate for someone to throw him a ball. It’s a scene of domestic contentment a million miles from the chaos of GN’R at their most hedonistic, and it’s the perfect backdrop for McKagan as he prepares to tour with songs from his solo albums Tenderness and Lighthouse, which themselves show his softer side.
“The way I wrote these songs is with an acoustic guitar up against my chest,” McKagan says. “I finally learned to listen to that reverberation of the guitar against your chest cavity, and that’ll tell you what to say and what melodies to sing. It just comes to you, guiding you.”
