In a recent chat with Classic Rock, Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan reflected on his addiction problems.
“If I can do it, anybody can do it. Because I was just really a lost cause, I couldn’t figure out a way out,” the bassist revealed about those difficult days. “And I finally did, and once I got out around the corner there was no looking back on that. So there’s hope for you.”
Last year, McKagan shared his journey to sobriety after years of addiction. He said meeting his wife Susan changed his life and he wouldn’t go back to his old partying habits. He said, “I ain’t going back ever because I don’t want to let this woman down, who I cherish.”
The rocker added, “I ain’t going to let her down. I’m not going to let [my kids] down. [The alcohol] sitting there on the shelf over across the room right across from me is going, ‘Come on, come on.’ Every day: ‘Come on.’”
“And I look at it, and I go, ‘Not today,’” McKagan continued. “I have too much goodness in my life, man. At 15, I had this romantic, Norman Rockwell vision of sh*t, and I didn’t think I was going to get there at 27, 28, 29, 30. But some things happened to me that switched my direction in life, and here I am.”
Duff also shared what life was like for him in the first two years of sobriety, explaining, “After I got sober, those first two years, I was in martial arts twice a day. I was reading books; I was riding my mountain bike. I was looking in the mirror and trying to figure out who the f*ck I was. Being sober after being f*cked up for so long is like you’re on acid for the first six months. Everything’s so real.”
McKagan got sober in his 30s after his pancreas burst from drinking too much. This made him stop drinking, but he later had issues with Xanax, which he used to handle stress.