Duff McKagan Quotes

I started taking the bass more seriously when I heard Jaco Pastorius.

When I heard Elvis and his 'Sun Sessions,' I went mad for it. I was about thirteen.

I started making music with my band in the '80s, so I am more product of post punk than classical music, and I have always carried on this way.

I'm touched by rock n' roll. I'm touched by the Beatles. I want some of the music I do to reflect that.

I like the way Billy Idol sings. Mommy turned me on to him.

I like Patti Smith's lyrics, and sometimes think I could be influenced by them. But she has a kind of cool that's beyond me.

There's a focus that hasn't been there for ages and ages and some American bands are sounding quite English like they did in the late 70s and early 80s.

Jack Bruce, as soon as I saw him, it changed me. I didn't even know what bass players did until I saw Cream.

When I play a gig and look out at the audience, you're literally looking at a sea of Joy Division T-shirts.

One overlooked great 1980s rock n' roll band, maybe punk rock - they were on SST Records, same label as Black Flag - is this band called the Leaving Trains.

When I listen to Joy Division, it doesn't sound particularly English.

A lot of people don't know that the Go-Go's came from the L.A. punk scene.

The Rolling Stones... The Rolling Stones have a reflection to my music; I wouldn't deny it. I think that's honest.

When The Fall pummeled their way into my nervous system, circa 1983, it was as if a world that was familiar - and which I had thought too familiar, too quotidian to feature in rock - had returned, expressionistically transfigured, permanently altered.

We've never been shy to admit that Metallica is a huge influence in our lives and on our music.

I was a big fan of the Rain Parade, Green on Red, X, the Rolling Stones.

My first records were KISS's 'Love Gun,' Twisted Sister's 'Stay Hungry,' and Motley Crue's 'Shout at the Devil.' That had immense influence on me.

If it wasn't for guys like Gary Moore, I wouldn't exist. He not only proved that the blues could rock but it could draw a crowd as well. All of which made a huge impression on me.

I love Eighties rock.

What is remarkable about Joy Division is the way they are bereft of two of the mainstays of most other rock and pop: longing and supplication.

I remember Simple Minds, Echo and the Bunnymen, Nina Hagen, Elvis Costello and Duran Duran. And the best concert I ever saw was the Rolling Stones, in the stadium of Sporting Lisbon.

Everything I ever learned about rock, I learned from Led Zeppelin.

The lion's share of what I listened to in the Eighties, what really affected me, was coming from Britain.

Bowie's 'Hunky Dory' influenced me. 'Ziggy Stardust' influenced Johnny Ramone a lot, especially his guitar parts.

'Uprising' was one of the first three or four albums I ever bought in 1980 when I was 13, and that had a strong impact on me.