2019.06.03 - WAAF FM Boston - Duff McKagan backstage with Mistress Carrie

Good to finally have some more information on Axl's pre- and post-show vocal exercises. Not that it surprised me, but so many fans claim he doesn't warm-up or care.

Excerpts from Blabbermouth:
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In a brand new interview with Mistress Carrie of the Worcester/Boston, Massachusetts radio station WAAF, Duff McKagan spoke about how his Guns N' Roses bandmates Axl Rose and Slash inspire him to be a better musician.

"Watching Axl prepare for a show — an hour and a half [of] vocal warmups," Duff said (hear audio below). "And then when he goes onstage and just kind of the thing that comes over him… That guy couldn't phone in a gig… He couldn't do it. He would die first, I think; you would have to shoot him in the head. And then the hour-and-a-half warmdowns. And watching Slash play guitar all day long, and then lose himself when we play the shows. Sometimes he's just gone. When he's [doing] his solo, I have to sometimes actually tap him on the foot, like, 'Dude, come back into the song.' 'Oh, what? Okay.' So that makes me work."

He continued: "I don't know if I'm as talented as those guys, so I feel like I always have to work twice as hard, and I love that. So I go in my basement. And my wife knows — I go to the basement. I'm there for six hours or seven hours. It's just where I go to do my thing. Sometimes she'll come down and I'll play for her, and then she'll go back, but she knows that's the time when I've gotta put in my work, my hours. And I love putting in my hours."

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/duff-mckagan-how-axl-rose-and-slash-inspire-me-to-become-better-musician/

Another excerpt from Ultimate Guitar:
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During a separate conversation with WAAF, Duff remembered how radio stations were initially reluctant to play GN'R material, particularly "Welcome to the Jungle," saying (transcribed by UG):

"Rock radio then... it was not that, it wasn't real stories of dirt, you know. Real, like, dirt underneath your fingernails, and cockroaches crawling on you.

"That's what 'Appetite' exposed - real-life things of people our age. So, your station [WAAF], you guys played 'Jungle,' you guys started playing it, and it spread.

"So I remember when we came to Boston, there was a bunch of people at the show, like, 'They're playing you on the radio station there.' I guess that brings people to the show, and it spread down to New York, they didn't want to be second - but they were - so they started playing, so it spread."

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/duff_mckagan_says_reuniting_classic_gnr_was_impossible.html