Back when Duff was just a brown-haired kid who couldn't make up his mind whether he wanted to play electric guitar or bass or drums, the Seattle music was thriving. "There where millions of bands and places to play," He remembers. That's barely an exaggeration: Duff passed through over 31 bands during his early days in Seattle - including a hardcore punk band called the Fartz. While there was an overbundance of opportunities to meet other musicians and jam, playing Seattle clubs was ultimately a dead end for a serious musician. "You wouldn't get anywhere, except for Queensryche, who got signed; but for me, Seattle was a good training ground."

Like future bandmates Slash and Axl, Duff was totally into The Sex Pistols; in fact , Duff cites Sid Vicious as his sole musical influence because... he was the coolest bass player ever. Little wonder then, that upon arriving in L.A., Duff chose to devote himself entirely to bass playing. He traded all his gear for a bass and a small bass amp speculating: "There's a million guitar players down here and I wasn't that good. So just to get my foot in the door, I said, ´Okay, I'll come playing bass, because bass players are pretty rare to find. ´Basically, that's how I got started. I wasn't really that good at the beginning."

Nineteen-year-old Duff McKagan, who'd earned his living as a musician for the past four years, found himself starting from scratch. He didn't know a soul in town, except for a brother who lived out in the San Fernando Valley, but he was thrilled nonetheless: "It was good learning experience for me in a lot of ways, to move to a big city and not know anybody. It was an exciting feeling, just coming here not knowing what the next day was going to involve."

That sence of the unexpected Duff sought caught up with him one day when he answered a local newspaper ad reading something like, "Looking for a bass player - Aerosmith, Alice Cooper. Slash." Judging by the name, Duff expected some punk with a penchant for '70s rock; but when he kept the appointed rendezvous at Canter's (L.A.'s "legendary" 24 hour deli and rock hangout) he found two long-haired guys instead. "When I met Slash and Steve Adler for the first time, it was weird, ´cause I'd never met guys like this before - L.A. locals. We went out that night and got drunk, and then we had this illfated band. It was Slash's band, Road Crew."

Before Guns N' Roses became Guns N' Roses, they (Duff, Slash n' Steve) played together in L.A. GUNS. After a while W.Axl Rose left his band ´Hollywood Rose´ for L.A. GUNS. This created some problems cause in the meantime Izzy (who played in the same band as Axl) had booked a gig for Hollywood Rose, and there was no band left, then Tracii booked a gig for L.A. GUNS and there was no band there either. The problems in those 2 bands was the begining of a new band, they mixed what was left of them and Guns N' Roses was born. The new line-up was finalized on June 6th, 1985. Duff became the band's bassist, and after two days of rehearsal Duff & Co. played their debut gig with GN'R on a Thursday night at ´L.A.'s Troubadour´.

Duff has just like Slash and Gilby made a solocareer, and in 1993 he released the album "Believe in me". Amongst others he has also been recording together with Iggy Pop and former bandmate Gilby Clarke (on the album Pawnshop guitars).

But nowadays (1997) he's playing together with GN'R drummer Matt Sorum, The Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones and Duran Duran bassist John Taylor in the punk-rock-band Neurotic Outsiders. In 1996 they released an album, simply called Neurotic Outsiders. They have also made a lot of live performances at various Night Clubs. The last time Duff was on a tour as a solo artist was during 1993, then he looked wasted and totally out of shape. But now together with ´NO´ he seems to have cleaned up his act, sporting a pumped-up physique. Apparently he's been exercising quite a lot, going on long trips with his mountain bike.