At the end of the ’80s, Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan was asked to name the best album of that decade. He chose Prince’s classic double album 1999.
Many years later, McKagan told Classic Rock why that album meant so much to him.
First, he recalled how he had cut his teeth as a musician.
“I played in twenty-nine punk rock bands in Seattle,” he said. "I counted. I was a drummer, bassist, guitar player, whatever.”
He also named the punk records that had the biggest influence on him.
“I loved Black Flag’s Damaged, and the Germs’ (GI) was a big deal for me. That record changed the course of American punk rock.”
However, McKagan said that his taste in music was always broad. “I listened to the Stones and Led Zeppelin too, and I was always into r&b stuff – Marvin Gaye and Prince.”
And he described how Prince’s 1999 album had a profound effect on him.
“It was a changing point in my life,” he said. “When that record came out, ’82, I was eighteen.
“All these punk kids from the suburbs had shaved their heads and started fighting at the shows, doing Nazi salutes and all that crap – just ruining punk rock in America. And there was a lot of heroin coming into Seattle at that time.
“The band I was in, 10 Minute Warning, got signed by [Dead Kennedys singer] Jello Biafra’s label Alternative Tentacles. It seemed like we were on our way to being the next big thing, and the heroin came in and just ravaged that band.
“At that point I was drinking, maybe more than average. But all my friends started using heroin. My girlfriend was strung out, my roommate was strung out – it seemed like it was closing in on me. And that was when 1999 became the soundtrack to my life.
“I loved what Prince did on [1981 album] Controversy. It was really cool, kind of punk rock and kind of Sly & the Family Stone. And with 1999, a double record, I was really diving into those songs.
“It was all the things that music is supposed to be – your solace, your best friend, an escape. And through that record I made the decision to move to LA.
“I’d seen what Prince had done by himself, and I figured if he can do all of that, the least I can do is go to LA.
“It was a scary thing to do when you’re nineteen, going to a place where you know nobody. But I figured I could sell my drum kit, so I had three hundred and fifty bucks. And yeah, it was 1999 that gave me the courage to do it.”
McKagan then described his experience of arriving in LA in 1984, and meeting the musicians with whom he would eventually join in Guns N’ Roses - guitarist Slash, drummer Steven Adler and singer Axl Rose.
“Two of the first people I met were Slash and Steven, and those guys were really cool, introducing me to stuff,” he said. “I suddenly had a new little social circle.
“And in the first month I was there, Slash took me to an L.A. Guns show, so I saw Axl singing for L.A. Guns, and for me he was like Henry Rollins. It was real, it was dangerous, he broke a glass on stage, and I was going, yes!
“And his voice was incredible – like, what the fuck? That was when I realised: I’m not in Seattle anymore….”
