In a new video interview with music journalist Joel Gausten, veteran musician and songwriter Richard Duguay (Personality Crisis, Duff McKagan, solo artist) discusses his history in the Canadian and Los Angeles music scenes, recording with Mike Hudson of Cleveland Punk legends The Pagans, touring in Duff McKagan’s solo band, and how he ended up performing on Guns N’ Roses’ 1993 album, The Spaghetti Incident? Excerpts from the interview appear below.
On watching his longtime friend McKagan achieve worldwide fame with Guns N’ Roses
Duguay: "Growing up reading Circus, Creem, and Hit Parader, you’d see Zeppelin, The Who, The Stones, whoever – like the biggest bands in the world. The dreamer in me would be like, 'Fuck, that would be amazing!' But then to see a friend’s band accomplish that — they were the biggest band in the world for three or four years, whatever it was. It was kind of like The Twilight Zone, a lot of it. There was the obvious drink and drugs and stuff like that, which probably didn’t help the surrealness of it all. At least in my opinion, nobody is prepared for that kind of leap into the stratosphere or however you term it. One minute you’re playing Raji’s or the Coconut Teaszer, and then the next minute you’re opening up for The Stones in front of 80,000 people or whatever – and then THEY were drawing 80,000 people on their own. I’ve been asked many times, 'Did it change him?' It HAS to change you. He was always super-cool, and he didn’t ever lose that part where he was friendly and a great cat, but it fucks with your head. Things would happen where, from my point of view anyway, obviously people were taking advantage of him. That goes with the territory; there’s just no way around that. But it also made not just him but some of the other guys in the band very wary of people."
On playing guitar on the cover of Johnny Thunders’ "You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory" that appeared on Guns N’ Roses’, The Spaghetti Incident?
Duguay: "I was sitting at home, and I get a phone call and it’s Duff. He was down at some studio down on Melrose, towards the freeway. He goes, 'Hey, do you know 'You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory'?' I’m like, 'Yeah.' He goes, 'Well, come on down.' It was for a solo record, originally. So, I went down there and got it done, and I really didn’t think much of it. Then his solo record (1993’s Believe In Me) came out, and I was like, 'What happened to the song? Is it going to be a B-side or whatever?' He goes, 'No. Actually, Axl (Rose) heard it and demanded that it went on The Spaghetti Incident? – which was interesting. People are always impressed with that stuff, (but) I can honestly say that I’ve had (my Platinum album award) for 30 years and have not once ever put it up. It makes me kind of feel weird. I don’t know. If it had been a song I wrote or co-wrote, would it be different? It’s not an ego thing; it’s just a fucking Johnny Thunders song. It’s a brilliant song; don’t get me wrong. I love it. I’m proud that it is what it is, of course, but I never wanted to live in the past. What’s most important is what I’m doing today. With bios and stuff, I would never put that I played on that record."
Richard Duguay’s latest solo album, Beautiful Decline, was released earlier this year and is available at this location.
Photo by R.D Cane
