Duff McKagan has shared the song “Lighthouse”, the title track from his third solo album, arriving everywhere on Friday 20th October. Pre-orders are available now. The album will be available in several variations, including CD, deluxe CD with fold-out photo print, cassette, standard black vinyl, and deluxe vinyl in a host of colors, each with lithographs, booklet, sticker, and guitar pick. Signed versions and exclusive store versions will be available as well. For more information, head over to his official site.
McKagan comments on the song:
The crashing….the cresting waves, the falling through of all that surrounds you. Life sometimes tosses us around, and we feel the want of comfort and the pull of home. A ship tossed like a toy through the Cape, sails ripped and the wood groaning with the scraping of its ballast….a soul trying with all its might to find peace and a center. Find a lighthouse. I have my lighthouse….its beacon swirling in the darkness with her warmth and promise of nurture, love, laughter, and all that is true. Won’t you be my lighthouse, give me light,…and bring me home.
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For more than 40 years, Duff McKagan has been an unstoppable creative force, spanning a multitude of bands, tours, collaborations, and writings. Now, with his long awaited new solo album, Lighthouse, the veteran musician proves to be, at his heart, a gifted singer-songwriter with a distinctive knack for authenticity and introspection.
In 2019, McKagan opened his own recording studio, allowing him a long hoped-for opportunity to “Finally explore songs that I may have written the night before or some of those old riffs from years ago. This is a big deal for me.” He spent much of the next two years working with longtime producer/collaborator Martin Feveyear (Mark Lanegan, Brandi Carlile), chipping away at a series of intensely personal new songs.
Lighthouse now marks the first full length collection born in McKagan’s studio. Songs like “Hope” (featuring veteran Paul McCartney drummer Abe Laboriel Jr and melodic lead guitar from Slash) and the philosophical “I Just Don’t Know” (featuring contributions from McKagan’s longtime friend, Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains) see McKagan baring more of his artistic spirit than ever before, fusing acoustic elements with hard-edged rock and roll to land at the sweet spot between soul-searching reflection and pure energy. The 11-song collection is further highlighted by an additional take on the title track, “Lighthouse (Reprise)”, ed by the one and only Iggy Pop.
McKagan first unveiled his new music earlier this year with This is the Song, a three-song EP honouring Mental Health Awareness Month alongside a call to action on Propeller. The EP – which was met by critical applause in Rolling Stone, Consequence of Sound, Loudwire, and American Songwriter, to name just a few – includes the deeply moving title track, “This is the Song”, ed by an official companion video streaming now on YouTube.
Produced by 3x GRAMMY® Award-winner Shooter Jennings, McKagan’s 2019 second solo album, Tenderness, marked a powerful new chapter for the ever-evolving artist, taking on societal ills and his own personal transgressions against a rich sonic backdrop of Americana-fueled arrangements. Named by Loudwire as one of that year’s “50 Best Rock Albums” and hailed by Rolling Stone in a three-and-a-half (out of four)-starred rave as “an album full of beauty and heart…It’s music of conscience, heavy songs with a light touch,” the album includes the volatile rocker, “Chip Away,” which earned extraordinary praise from the Maestro himself, Bob Dylan, who recently declared the song a personal favourite, commenting to the Wall Street Journal:
There’s a Duff McKagan song called “Chip Away” that has profound meaning for me. It’s a graphic song. Chip away, chip away, like Michelangelo, breaking up solid marble stone to discover the form of King David inside. He didn’t build him from the ground up, he chipped away the stone until he discovered the king. It’s like my own songwriting, I overwrite something, then I chip away lines and phrases until I get to the real thing.
Along with his prolific musical efforts, McKagan is the New York Times best-selling author of 2011’s It’s So Easy: And Other Lies and 2015’s How to Be a Man: (And Other Illusions), and the co-host (with Susan Holmes McKagan) of Sirius XM’s popular Three Chords & The Truth radio show on Ozzy’s Boneyard (Ch. 38). McKagan currently serves as a core member of a modern day “Wrecking Crew” alongside GRAMMY® Award-winning musician/producer, Andrew Watt, and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith, recording and co-writing on such recent albums as Ozzy Osbourne’s Ordinary Man (2020) and 2x GRAMMY® Award-winning Patient No. 9 (2022) and Iggy Pop’s acclaimed Every Loser (2023). What’s more, McKagan – with Watt, Smith, and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Josh Klinghoffer – is part of the recently unveiled Iggy Pop & The Losers lineup, who made a high-profile televised debut earlier this year with an electrifying performance of the feverish “Frenzy” on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
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McKagan is currently traveling with Guns N’ Roses on an epic global tour. For complete details and remaining ticket availability, please see their website.
Header image by Charles Peterson
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