It’s So Easy and other lies Duff McKagan

 It’s So Easy and other lies

 Duff McKagan

The fact is that I wasn’t expecting much from this brain-dead alcoholic. I was aware of his reputation as a coke-addicted brain-dead alcoholic who won some kind of odd lottery in life. When Guns ‘n’ Roses's first album went insane on the sales charts.

The first few pages are fine. We learn all about the “King of Beers” moniker and how a particular tv network asked his permission to use the name in an upcoming animated show. Still, nothing here changes my mind about the man. 

Blah, blah words, words . . . and then I read the following, “My L.A. house was awash in the fetid effluvia of my derelict body.” Well, I nearly spat my Lipton’s Yellow Label Black tea across the room into the eye of Rod Stwart. Ok well, it was his eye on his biography.

 This was both disturbing and hilarious. It was disturbing to read that sentence in context but the words themselves are hilarious. So when you smack those words together they become even funnier. I knew at that moment that this coke-addicted brain-dead alcoholic had written something that I would be both surprised at and entertained by.

That is exactly what happened. I was entertained by most of the stories in the book. There are times, however, when reading about his biking obsession that things kind of dragged. I’m happy that he found biking to get help get himself healthy. Biking is not for me and neither is reading about someone’s joy of biking. 

The formation of Duff’s most famous band, Guns ‘n’ Roses, was fun to read about. Duff’s journey from Seattle to L.A. has been well documented in other places and often by Duff himself in interviews. But it’s always fun to read stories about bands hitting the road and it's them against the world.

Duff often used the word gang to describe his GnR crew and himself. I think that kind of shows how tight this band was in the beginning. They often felt they were a gang and it was them against the world.

The second surprise from this coke-addicted brain-dead alcoholic is that Duff McKagan is anything but a coke-addicted brain-dead fool. Sure he was both addicted to coke and an alcoholic but it turns out that he was never really brain-dead. The smarts that Duff actually has are all hidden beneath the coke and alcohol.

Duff’s addiction is a theme of It’s So Easy but he doesn’t glorify drugs and booze. He merely explains what he did and how he felt during and after. But whatever he did it never interfered with his ability to rock the bass. 

It’s always good when you read something that surprises and enlightens you. Learning that Duff McKagan is an intelligent and gentle man was something of a surprise and a great surprise at that.

“It’s So Easy” opens with a quote from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Not many rockers would even know who Upton Sinclair is let alone be able to quote from The Jungle. I’m not so sure that brain-dead Duff McKagan hasn’t read The Jungle and thought the passage would apply well to his book. He wasn’t wrong. Either that or an editor at the publishing house thought it would be cool.

It was amusing to learn that Duff the King of Beers not only knew what Strunk and White’s Elements of Style but knew how to use it. This is the only rock and roll autobiography where the author not only knew what Strunks’ was but was able to employ it. 

Duff is an educated man. Sort of.  As you could have guessed he did drop out of high school. But as the millennium turned Duff the King of Beers found himself enrolled in Seattle University. While Duff didn’t complete a degree he was studying something business-related and doing well. That was another surprise.

Who knew Sly Stone would be living in Los Angeles smoking crack in a cheap apartment next to Duff??? The great Sly Stone is reduced to living like that. I found it sad. Sly Stone has a legacy in popularity, unlike anyone.

Did Sly smoke his fortune away on crack? Did he have the fortune to waste on crack or was he always struggling to make ends meet? This is a tale that many young rockers should learn from.

Aside from the sad story of Sly Stone, there are some sad stories about Duff’s life. Some are shocking or at least the words used are shocking and funny - fetid effluvia. I now understand that Duff actually knows what that means and that it just wasn’t added by some ghostwriter. Duff’s knowledge and use of Strunks gives me hope that he knows this stuff.

Who should read this? Well, it’s so easy to say that everyone should read “It’s So Easy and other lies” and that is not a lie.

The fact is that I wasn’t expecting much from this brain-dead alcoholic. I was aware of his reputation as a coke-addicted brain-dead alcoholic who won some kind of odd lottery in life. When Guns ‘n’ Roses's first album went insane on the sales charts.

The first few pages are fine. We learn all about the “King of Beers” moniker and how a particular tv network asked his permission to use the name in an upcoming animated show. Still, nothing here changes my mind about the man. 

Blah, blah words, words . . . and then I read the following, “My L.A. house was awash in the fetid effluvia of my derelict body.” Well, I nearly spat my Lipton’s Yellow Label Black tea across the room into the eye of Rod Stwart. Ok well, it was his eye on his biography.

 This was both disturbing and hilarious. It was disturbing to read that sentence in context but the words themselves are hilarious. So when you smack those words together they become even funnier. I knew at that moment that this coke-addicted brain-dead alcoholic had written something that I would be both surprised at and entertained by.

That is exactly what happened. I was entertained by most of the stories in the book. There are times, however, when reading about his biking obsession that things kind of dragged. I’m happy that he found biking to get help get himself healthy. Biking is not for me and neither is reading about someone’s joy of biking. 

The formation of Duff’s most famous band, Guns ‘n’ Roses, was fun to read about. Duff’s journey from Seattle to L.A. has been well documented in other places and often by Duff himself in interviews. But it’s always fun to read stories about bands hitting the road and it's them against the world.

Duff often used the word gang to describe his GnR crew and himself. I think that kind of shows how tight this band was in the beginning. They often felt they were a gang and it was them against the world.

The second surprise from this coke-addicted brain-dead alcoholic is that Duff McKagan is anything but a coke-addicted brain-dead fool. Sure he was both addicted to coke and an alcoholic but it turns out that he was never really brain-dead. The smarts that Duff actually has are all hidden beneath the coke and alcohol.

Duff’s addiction is a theme of It’s So Easy but he doesn’t glorify drugs and booze. He merely explains what he did and how he felt during and after. But whatever he did it never interfered with his ability to rock the bass. 

It’s always good when you read something that surprises and enlightens you. Learning that Duff McKagan is an intelligent and gentle man was something of a surprise and a great surprise at that.

“It’s So Easy” opens with a quote from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Not many rockers would even know who Upton Sinclair is let alone be able to quote from The Jungle. I’m not so sure that brain-dead Duff McKagan hasn’t read The Jungle and thought the passage would apply well to his book. He wasn’t wrong. Either that or an editor at the publishing house thought it would be cool.

It was amusing to learn that Duff the King of Beers not only knew what Strunk and White’s Elements of Style but knew how to use it. This is the only rock and roll autobiography where the author not only knew what Strunks’ was but was able to employ it. 

Duff is an educated man. Sort of.  As you could have guessed he did drop out of high school. But as the millennium turned Duff the King of Beers found himself enrolled in Seattle University. While Duff didn’t complete a degree he was studying something business-related and doing well. That was another surprise.

Who knew Sly Stone would be living in Los Angeles smoking crack in a cheap apartment next to Duff??? The great Sly Stone is reduced to living like that. I found it sad. Sly Stone has a legacy in popularity, unlike anyone.

Did Sly smoke his fortune away on crack? Did he have the fortune to waste on crack or was he always struggling to make ends meet? This is a tale that many young rockers should learn from.

Aside from the sad story of Sly Stone, there are some sad stories about Duff’s life. Some are shocking or at least the words used are shocking and funny - fetid effluvia. I now understand that Duff actually knows what that means and that it just wasn’t added by some ghostwriter. Duff’s knowledge and use of Strunks gives me hope that he knows this stuff.

Who should read this? Well, it’s so easy to say that everyone should read “It’s So Easy and other lies” and that is not a lie.