Ryan's Book Review: It's So Easy (and Other Lies)

It's So Easy (and Other Lies) by Duff McKagan

Guns N' Roses, Patience

GN'R Lies (1988)

Synopsis: Guns N' Roses bassist tells his side of the story and then some.

Review: This is the best rocker memoir I have ever read.  Duff is so freaking cool.  He covers all of the sex, drugs, and rock n' roll stuff, but he's a way better writer than most of the dudes that put books like this together (as my pal/hero Sonny Rock pointed out to me, Duff also writes a weekly column for ESPN.com).  If you're going to read one rocker book, this one should be it.

Duff describes his childhood and growing up in Seattle and playing in a bunch of punk rock bands but eventually deciding to move to L.A. to try and make it there.  For his first few weeks he lived out of his car and then answered an ad from a guy named Slash to play bass in a band.  At the time, Duff had short spiky blue hair and was a punk rocker but then he morphed into a hard rocker as Guns N' Roses got going.  I knew a lot of the behind the scenes stuff from reading old articles and of course from Slash's book, but Duff is way better at telling the stories.  And I actually learned a lot of new stuff.  For instance, I didn't know that it was Duff who counts off to start Patience.  And Duff sat next to Kurt Cobain on the flight from L.A. to Seattle that Kurt took to go kill himself.  And Duff Beer on the Simpsons is actually named after Duff.  So there is new stuff, plus all the stories you'd expect, but those aren't even the best part of the book.  

The best parts of the book are where Duff details how he got hooked on booze and cocaine, but then got away from it by getting into reading, mountain biking and martial arts.  Once he sobered up, he got around to looking at some GN'R financial statements and realized that he didn't know what they meant, so to make sure he wasn't getting screwed he went back to college to study business and finance.  He figured out all the GN'R stuff, learned to invest (he was an early investor in Amazon.com and Starbucks because they were Seattle companies), and eventually started up his own financial advisement firm for other rock stars.  

But the best part is the part about how he met his current wife and had two kids and just how much he loves his family and how that gave him everything he was looking for with the rock and the booze and everything.  It's not just a really good rocker autobiography, it's a really good book.

One drawback is that the book doesn't go into any detail about Duff's recent, albeit brief, stint in Jane's Addiction.  I have a Guitar Center Session DVR'd with him in the band, and I guess he contributed to some of the new album (which, incidentally, is apparently shittastic), but I knew he was only with them for about six months.  The liner notes mention him being in the band, but the book doesn't talk about it at all.  I would have liked to have known a little bit about how that went, and whether Perry Farrell is a bigger douchebag than Axl (I probably would have been disappointed on that front; Duff is extraordinarily gracious to all of his former bandmates, although he is candid about dick moves made by Axl and Weiland).  Maybe that will be in the paperback version, because I'd love Duff's take on the abortion that Jane's Addiction has become.

Anyways, I love Duff. He is really cool and really smart and really funny.  I am pretty sure that if you read this book (and you should read it even if you don't like Guns N' Roses or Velvet Revolver or even if you have no idea who Duff is) you will love him too.