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Def Leppard Tour History Fan Archive.
Joe Elliott Interviews Duff McKagan - Transcript

Tuesday, 9th July 2013





Joe Elliott Sheffield 2008.
Pic by DefDazz/Darren

Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott aired a short interview with Duff McKagan on his Planet Rock radio show over the weekend and a transcript is available to read.

The show first broadcast on 6th July featured songs by Ian Hunter, Queen and Def Leppard. Joe chatted to Duff about songs and the Kings Of Chaos and in true interview style for him managed to talk almost as much as the person he was interviewing.

The show is also repeated on tonight at 9pm.

The Joe Elliott Show - Duff McKagan Interview Transcript

Joe - "Welcome back to the Joe Elliott Show I am very happy to announce that I am being joined by my very good friend and fellow King Of Chaos Duff McKagan. Now he's gonna pick a couple of tracks so I'm gonna let him introduce this first one. Duff over to you."

Duff - "It's just like that Joe, you're just gonna hand it over to me."

Joe - "I am gonna hand it over to you yeah."

Duff - "We are the Kings Of Chaos!."

Joe - "Indeed!."

Duff - "So much chaos goes on!."

Joe - "Organised chaos."

Duff - "Right now if people could see in the room that we're recording this from right now. Where we're broadcasting - there's just chaos around, well..."

Joe - "It's manky."

Duff - "OK what we're talking about songs?."

Joe - "Yeah pick a song man."

Duff - "OK. The obvious thing as an introduction to me where I kind of come from. Um punk rock was my thing. One of the first bands I heard that really turned me when I was about 13 was Iggy And The Stooges. I was in a band later that was lucky enough to do a cover and it was Guns N' Roses we did Raw Power on The Spaghetti Incident and I think Axl and I did it like a duet-ish type of thing. So this is Raw Power. Iggy And The Stooges as done by Guns N' Roses."

Joe - "Guns N' Roses version of raw Power featuring the wonderful Duff McKagan on part vocal let's call it shall we. Now you're about to become part of the team of Planet Rock so do you know what your roll is already or are you just gonna make it up as you go along?."

Duff - "I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing when I do it for Planet Rock. No I don't."

Joe - "Really? So you're just gonna turn up and record some shows. Maybe play some songs or just do loads of talking or?."

Duff - "They - I asked 'em today when does my show start? 'Oh we don't really know...just it's...July sometime'. So OK so my show starts in July. Yeah I recorded a couple of shows already and no I don't know what the hell I'm...."

Joe - "So all right, so the first two are done so we know what's gonna happen you're gonna pick a bunch of songs like I do. Share your iPod with the world and show everybody where you came from as a musician. Let's take that on my show a stage further. Pick another song and tell the world why you love it so much."

Duff - "OK we'll stay with the punk rock thing another band that when I was about....14 or 15 the Misfits kind of broke and they were a songwriting punk rock band and this song Attitude again we covered the song. I sort of sang it. I screamed it and so this is Attitude by the Misfits again as done by Guns N' Roses."

Joe - "Attitude by Guns N' Roses and I'm here with Duff McKagan. We're gonna talk about Kings Of Chaos briefly now. Now the Kings Of Chaos for those that don't know is a collection of reprobates that get together on occasion to play each others songs and it's mostly Guns N' Roses stroke Velvet Revolver with the occasional Def Leppard. Collective Soul, Steve Stevens from Billy Idol's band. Who else? Sebastian Bach and of course Myles Kennedy from Alter Bridge and Slash. We don't get to do that many shows but when we do they're pretty intense and they seem to be all over the world. When did you first get the call from Matt about doing this?."

Duff - "OK so what is it now? it's June of 2013. Probably - Matt has always kind of had this idea of putting something together like this. He has a band called Camp Freddy in L.A. If you've been n L.A. you've probably heard of it or seen it or whatever. They've been together for the last 12 years. So this is that sort of Camp Freddy idea where some sort of known guys play songs - cover songs but this is different. Kings Of Chaos, yeah we're playing cover songs but by the guys who are on stage. So if Joe Elliott's there we're playing Animal and we're playing whatever else you know. Pour Some Sugar On Me is a song for me as a bass player I never thought ever I probably play. Why would I think I'd play that song? And suddenly the first time we played that song Joe was in Asuncion, Paraguay together and suddenly me Duff the bass player. I'm looking over we start the song and people are losing their minds and there's Joe Elliott. I'm like I'm playing Pour Some Sugar On Me with Joe Elliott! this is so killer."

Joe - "I just wondered in what order it came. He sent me an email and said 'Are you in?' and I said who else is involved? cause obviously I just wanted to know and of course as soon as he mentioned all you guys I'm like yeah!. What I've found about this is from my experience is it's like doing your first gig but with 30 years worth of experience which is impossible to achieve. You know, you've got that like you mentioned you've got the nerves of going on stage because these people aren't your regular bandmates. You've got this situation where you don't wanna let them down or the songs down or the audience. So OK you've done it all before but you've never done it with these guys. So it is like being a teenager again but with 30 years experience and that's what I find to be such a buzz is doing songs that you don't normally get to play. Or doing songs that you play all the time but with totally different people. And that's what makes it chaotic! Hence the perfectly named band Kings Of Chaos."

Duff - "Yes - Ahh!."

Joe - "Ahh see?. All right listen we're gonna wind this down because my friend Duff has got to move on he has - he's in so many bands but he cant even remember which bands he's in. Forget all the early punk bands from Seattle back in the 80s or whenever so that's my good friend Duff McKagan. All round good guy and in so many bands it's making his head spin. Choose me one more song so we can shut this particular part of the show down and take a little break. What - pick me one more song that really does it for ya. Anything at all."

Duff - "Play some Kate Bush."

Joe - "Yeah."

Duff - "Play some Kate Bush. She's...."

Joe - "Yeah. Duff McKagan thank you very much."

Duff - "It was a pleasure being here Joe."

Joe - "Ha!. We're gonna play some Kate Bush. We'll be back after this with some more music. See ya!."






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