Duff McKagan's (VELVET REVOLVER, GUNS N' ROSES, DUFF MCKAGAN'S LOADED) much-anticipated autobiography, "It's So Easy (And Other Lies)", is scheduled to arrive on October 4 via Touchstone Books (formerly Touchstone Fireside), a division of Simon & Schuster.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, McKagan stated about the 304-page hardcover book, "It's not really my story, it's really not even my autobiography or memoir. I think that term is overused. It is a story of some shit that happened to me, but probably not the typical [things] what people might expect. It's not my story of GUNS N' ROSES or VELVET REVOLVER. All of those things are sort of in it, because they're things I bounced through as I was getting deeper and deeper into addiction and finding my way out. It was challenging going through some of these things that I hadn't thought about for a long time. And writing forces you to take your own part of your life, of what role you actually played — as opposed to the one you make up later on."
Back in January, McKagan wrote about the autobiography on his Seattle Weekly blog. He said, "Many of you already know that I have been writing a book over the past year or more. Well, this week I got back a first and very rough edit, and I have, for the first time, sat down and read the whole thing. Here's the deal: In writing so much about my own life, I have found so many places where for so long I have placed blame on others for this failure or that shortcoming. It's not like I haven't worked on resentment in my sober life, because I really have. Or so I thought. Both of my parents passed away within the past 10 years. My mom was a saint in my eyes, and raised us eight McKagan kids with the courage of the whole Allied Forces in WWII. I think she knew how much I loved her and appreciated all her lessons shared, but did I tell her all this when she was still alive? Surely not like I would now."
Based on the 40-page proposal that made the rounds of publishing houses in February 2010, McKagan's book will begin on the day in 1994 when his pancreas burst from alcohol abuse. It will recount his rise through the music scene, his fall into drug abuse and his recovery, which included two years of celibacy and a degree in finance from Seattle University.
A sample of Duff's writing which may, or may not, end up in the forthcoming book can be found at SeattleWeekly.com.
Duff's VELVET REVOLVER/GUNS N' ROSES bandmate Slash has published his own book, as has ex-GUNS drummer Steven Adler, who released his life story, "My Appetite for Destruction: Sex, and Drugs, and Guns N' Roses", in July 2010.
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