If Chris Jericho and Theodore Roosevelt can justify three volume biography sets, then the bass player from GnR, Loaded, Velvet Revolver, Walking Papers and more will have me back at the book store for round three as well. With all of the excitement of Guns ‘n Roses successful reunion as well as the popularity of McKagan’s daughter’s band The Pink Slips, one can only suspect that McKagan will have plenty of material for another installment in his biography series. The van tour by Walking Papers was probably the backbone of the book and served as an interesting anchor to keep coming back to, however the shadow of the Guns ‘n Roses reunion hangs over the book as the mega event that the reader knows the outcome of but knows will take place after the book is over. The section on books to read was less successful as it was much more limited in its variety. I loved the section on 100+ records every dude should own which gave me some solid education on punk rock. While McKagan certainly has a rock and roll attitude to much of his writing, he also comes across much more intelligent in most of his writing that he does when boiling things down to life lessons. Much of the advice begins “Make sure your chick….” or something in similar vernacular. My main criticism of the advice portions of this book is that McKagan seem to be writing as a character. There are also several short chapters on subjects like dating and parenting, some more successful than others. Interspersed in those biographical chapters are life lessons from Duff. The events stop short of the Guns ‘n Roses reunion however, which is unfortunate because the story of Axl and Slash patching things up would probably be the most fascinating story in any Guns ‘n Roses biography. That includes some very cool events, including a book tour, a new band (the excellent Walking Papers that I’d recommend any rock fans check out), and even some reconciliation with Axl Rose. The style of this book is about half life lessons and half biography of events since “It’s So Easy…” was published. I’m happy to pick up another book by McKagan based on that one, although where “It’s So Easy…” was a great biography for any music fan “How to Be a Man (And Other Illusions)” is definitely more in the vein of for hardcore fans only. ![]() ![]() Pink Slips leaded by Grace McKagan rocked Coco66 last night as part of CBGB festival in. Between the two, I preferred Duff’s book for several reasons: it was obviously written more by the musician than a ghost writer the book had more humor in it and the story extended to the Velvet Revolver era. Jeff Angell of Walking Papers the other night at CBGB festival. I originally read Duff’s first book, “It’s So Easy and Other Lies” shortly after reading Slash’s autobiography.
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