Your Financial Advisor Is Duff McKagan
Austin Convention Center, Thursday, March 17“Lawyers have made a lot more out of G’N’R than anyone in the band has.” That’s the financial reality of Guns n’ Roses, the band that founding member Duff McKagan called “a multimillion-dollar company with five knucklehead principles.” Even though the original lineup has long since scattered, from a business point of view, “We’re still G’N’R Inc.,” he acknowledged, and keeping track of the finances has become a second career. Swapping alcohol for accountancy wasn’t a big transition, he explained, because “musicians are mathematicians.” Plus, coming from a frugal blue-collar family made him the kind of spendthrift rock star that buys Corvettes instead of Ferraris. Elder brother Bruce McKagan even turned up at the panel to probe the business plan for his sibling’s new band, Duff McKagan’s Loaded. “We’re practicing what I’m preaching,” the younger McKagan said. Take getting producer Terry Date (Soundgarden, Pantera) for upcoming album The Taking. No one pays producers $200,000 anymore, so Date made a bold offer: Make him a partner, and he would produce for free. With that personal investment, McKagan said, “His management, his machine, will be pushing the record as hard as we are.” Duff McKagan’s Loaded takes the stage at the Austin Music Hall tonight, Friday, March 18, 10:20pm.
This article appears in March 18 • 2011.
