Duff McKagan admits he was “fucking pissed” when his record label forced him to abandon his 1999 solo album.
The LP, titled Beautiful Disease, would have been McKagan’s second solo effort. The entire thing was recorded and ready to hit store shelves, but a massive merger put the kibosh on those plans.
“I remember going over to whoever it was, Universal, Interscope, whoever bought Geffen, the big evil Omni Group bought them all,” McKagan recalled during a recent conversation with Stereogum. “And there was, like, all these well known musicians in this waiting room, I guess, to see if your record was going to be put out or not.”
One meeting in particular left the Guns N’ Roses bassist furious.
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“I remember, I talked to a record executive,” McKagan explained. “I go to the office. We’re just on Christmas vacation now. My record was supposed to come out. There were end caps in stores. I’d done all the press tours. Artwork. It’s done. Pressed. He said, Well, you know, me and my kids, we went through a lot of the music to decide…’”
“Oh, your kids,” McKagan responded, double checking he’d heard correctly. “Yeah, I’ve got a nine-year-old and a 14-year-old,” the executive responded. “And they’re helping you decide whose records come out?” McKagan replied, dismayed.
“I was so fucking pissed at this guy,” the bassist continued, detailing the moment. “I said, ‘You fucking kidding me?’ Yeah, so my record is not coming out because you guys went on up to Aspen and decided, not my record. So that was that.”
Duff McKagan Got Ownership of ‘Beautiful Disease’ More Than 20 Years Later
McKagan eventually got ownership of the album’s masters, more than two decades after the material was intended to be released. One of the songs, “Hope,” was included on his 2023 LP Lighthouse, and he plans to continue unveiling more of the previously unheard tracks.
“I’m going to slowly put [the unheard songs] out like that because they sound just as current now, they fit in well with the stuff now,” the bassist noted. “So, yeah, little by little. I got stuff with Kurt Bloch on there. I’ve got some cool shit. Abe Laboriel Jr. from Paul McCartney’s band is on there, it’s a bunch of friends on it.”
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Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening
