Guns N’Roses’ Duff McKagan has defended the band for playing three-and-a-half -hour sets at their live shows.
This comes after reports had suggested that the ‘Sweet Child O’Mine’ hitmakers had been performing live shows, lasting between three and a half to four hours long, comprising of 24 songs.
Their bassist, McKagan addressed the band’s decision to perform these sets in a recent interview.
“what songs do you take out?” – McKagan Defends Long Live Sets
In a fresh interview, Duff McKagan defended the long set times, insisting their back catalogue is simply too big.
Speaking about these long set times, McKagan said, “Man, Axl [Rose] loves – you know, I think it’s – goddammit, it’s like, what songs do you take out, you know, if you wanted to play shorter?”.
He continued, “Don’t get me wrong – my body would love it if we only played two-and-a-half-hours. Most bands, like, play two hours. Two hours and 10 minutes or something, and we’re playing three [hours and] thirty [minutes]”.
“I’d love to play shorter because, just, I’d be in less pain the next day. But, there’s just too many songs, and people stay for the whole thing. Nobody leaves, so it’s like, “Okay, they must be enjoying this.” We’ll whip out ‘Coma’ or ‘Locomotive’”.
McKagan went into detail over the songs which he likes to play on stage.
“We’re whipping out other songs. I really love playing ‘Bad Obsession’, you know? ‘Pretty Tied Up’. It’s so great. . . . We’ll play it all. ‘Reckless [Life]’ and ‘Shadow [of Your Love]’. I’m looking at Axl, and I’m, like, “Yeah, you sure, man? ‘Cause we’ve gotta play again in a couple nights”, he explained.
“made it up”
The interview also saw McKagan reveal that the band have only had to cancel one show, which was due to Axl Rose’s swollen vocal chords.
Calling Rose’s longevity a “monster”, Duff McKagan also added that Rose would have performed the show irrespective of his vocal chords, if it was left up to him.
“He’ll still wanna play the show, and the doctor will be, like, ‘You could ruin your voice forever’,” he said. “We cancelled one [show] in Glasgow a couple of years ago. We made it up.”
Earlier this month, Guns N’Roses released their new single, ‘The General’. Check it out here.
