Duff McKagan Story of the Day #1: Bassist Returning to Guns N’ Roses for Realsies?

Update, 6:00 p.m.: So it turns out that Duff is indeed makin’ like Izzy Stradlin in 1993 and re-joining the band only for a handful of dates. Tommy Stinson tells Billboard (via The PRP):

“I had those Replacement shows come up the same time the (South American) tour came up, and it got to be a scheduling issue right out of the gate.I didn’t want to fuck anyone up in Guns by saying, ‘Hey, I can’t do this tour’ or anything like that. Luckily someone was able to reach out to Duff and he was amenable to the idea and was into doing it. It’s Duff being the kind of good sport he is, trying to help Axl (Rose) out. So I’m like, ‘Thanks dude, for covering my ass on this one.’ I think people are gonna be really stoked about it. It’s gonna be fun for everyone.”

Dates featuring McKagan back on bass are as follows:

April 6 — Buenos Aires, Argentina
April 9 — Asuncion, Paraguay
April 12 — La Paz, Bolivia
April 15 — Recife, Brazil
April 17 — Fortaleza, Brazil

Stinson played today’s show in Florianópolis, Brazil, and will also play in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Stinson re-joins the band full-time for their May 13 gig in Bethlehem, Pa.

Original story follows:

In 2010, bassist Duff McKagan performed with Guns N’ Roses for the first time in eighteen years, and then, in 2011, Duff McKagan’s Loaded featuring Duff McKagan opened for Guns N’ Roses on two dates of their North American tour. Both times, fans got excited that it might mean McKagan was returning to Guns N’ Roses, which, of course, did not turn out to be the actual case in either instance.

But now people are getting excited that McKagan might return to GN’R for really real! The cause of this sudden speculation? This tweet from Mr. McKagan himself:

Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil! See y’all in the next few weeks, Si? GNR. pic.twitter.com/nO0GvreaH7

— Duff McKagan (@DuffMcKagan) March 31, 2014

Those countries are all the ones GN’R are scheduled to play on their South American tour, which kicks off tonight in Florianópolis, Brazil. And that picture, no duh, is of a bunch of Guns N’ Roses song titles, which people are assuming is a set list. Add to this the fact that current Guns bassist Tommy Stinson is reuniting with his original band, The Replacements, at Coachella this month, and, well, REUNION RUMOR TIME!

It seems unlikely that McKagan would be such a tease if he wasn’t doing something with GN’R on this tour (although this could be his sick idea of an April Fools joke I suppose), but who knows if he’s re-joining the band or just guesting for a few songs again or what. He could be filling in just for this tour, the way Izzy Stradlin did in 1993 when Gilby Clarke broke his arm. Theoretically, we’ll know what the deal is by this time tomorrow.

While we wait to find out if the man who wrote “Paradise City” is actually returning to the fold or not, here are some random observations about this dramatic turn of events:

• Stinson has now been in the band for sixteen years — longer than anyone besides Axl Rose and Dizzy Reed.
• Stinson’s Coachella performances with The Replacements don’t actually overlap with GN’R’s tour — The Replacements shows are on April 11 and 18, which both just happen to be off days for GN’R. So in theory, Stinson could play both gigs. That being said, the flight from California to Brazil and/or Bolivia is roughly eleven hours each way, so, yeah, it does seem kinda unlikely, especially when you consider that Stinson is probably expected to attend some more Replacements rehearsals before the big shows.
• If that is a set list that McKagan posted, it seems unlikely that it’s in the right running order. The band hasn’t opened with anything besides “Welcome to the Jungle” or “Chinese Democracy” this century.
• Three of those songs — “So Fine,” “Attitude,” and “Raw Power” — feature McKagan on lead or co-lead vocals.
• Some of those songs are from Chinese Democracy, which means a founding member of Guns N’ Roses who isn’t Axl Rose will perform songs from that album. Which is really just weird when you think about it. Duff McKagan could be standing next to a Slash-wannabe covering songs he didn’t write for his own band.

That’s it. I have nothing else to say about this right now.

[via Metal Insider]