Guns N' Roses bassist has revealed that he learned about 'The Troubles' in the North of Ireland via Belfast punks , and his mum. In a new interview with the newspaper, McKagan talks about his family connections to Ireland - his grandfather hailed from Cork - and recalls how his mother educated him about the political situation in the North after hearing him playing Stiff Little Fingers' debut album on the family stereo. "I borrowed a Stiff Little Fingers record from a friend when I was 14 or so, and I was playing it on our living room stereo," he remembers.
"My mum's dad came from Cork, so she was connected with what was going on in Ireland at that time, and she heard me playing this record. I didn't know it was political. I din't know what a was.
I didn't know it was a bomb. "She heard this, and read the lyrics. She said, 'Oh, these poor boys, they're growing up in war in Belfast.
So I learned history through Stiff Little Fingers and my mum. I got to get my worldview education through a lot of punk rock." In the same interview, McKagan talks about global unrest, and reveals how his mother passed on some wise words about such conflicts.
"Two of my brothers were in the Vietnam War when I was a kid," he says. "I would ask my mum, 'Why? What's a war?' She said, 'Well, two old guys don't agree, and they send all the young men to go fight. I've found no better answer than that.
To this day, that is the correct answer. It's still the old fucking men doing this for the most part..
. there's just so much bullshit right now." McKagan will kick off his European tour promoting his current solo album, , in Dublin, Ireland, on September 30, at Dublin Academy.
After that, the tour will call at: Oct 02: Glasgow Oran Mor, UK Oct 03: Manchester Academy 2, UK Oct 05: London Islington Assembly Hall, UK Oct 07: Utrecht Grote Zaal, Holland Oct 08: Cologne Kantine, Germany Oct 09: Munich Freiheitshalle, Germany Oct 11: Brno Sono Centrum, Czech Republic Oct 13: Warsaw Stodola, Poland Oct 14: Berlin Heimathafen, Germany Oct 16: Milan Magazzini Generali, Italy Oct 17: Solothurn Kofmeh, Switzerland Oct 19: Liege OM, Belgium Oct 20: Paris Trianon, France Oct 22: Stockholm Nalen, Sweden The latest news, features and interviews direct to your inbox, from the global home of alternative music. A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller and Metallica ( , co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography ( in the UK, in the US) emerged in 2021.
He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal. This Viking folk version of Slipknot’s Wait And Bleed is the weirdest thing you’ll hear today "Imagine if Guns N' Roses were the worst band you've ever heard": How hardcore punk titans Discharge went glam metal and sabotaged their own career ”Every time you go into the mainstream, I get really uncomfortable”: Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt declined to join an Abba tribute band at Eurovision this year.
