Guns N’ Roses fans will be glad to hear that Duff McKagan has released a solo album and new track, “Tenderness” which is soothing to the ears and heartwarming to the soul. Society at large can come together through music. McKagen emphasizes this through lyrics, “Blackened days, we’ve lost our way. So Gather round these lost and found stormy clouds. A little tenderness is what we need. O tenderness can’t you feel it spread around. O tenderness won’t you feel it come on down.”
In a press release, McKagen admits, “The real point of ‘Tenderness’ is not for me to be some damn politician or some other voice to add to what is already way too much noise,” he says. “This is a song of unity and peace…and I want this record to be a meditation and to bring maybe some healing, if that is not too high-handed or lofty of a goal.”
One fan shared, “I’m speechless with this song. How amazing you are Duff! your voice touched my heart so deeply, the melody, everything is perfect! thank you for sharing with us your art, heart and soul through this amazing song.”
McKagan and Jennings began recording back in March 2018, working out of Station House studios in Echo Park, CA. McKagen was inspired by looking at the world outside his tour bus window, noticing a landscape filled with disillusion, injustice and fear. He says, “The heartbreak, anger, fear, confusion and divide I have experienced traveling this globe of ours coerced these words into songs that tell my truth, and one that I hope will spread and help us all.”
Shooter Jennings produced the albums and said, “I was almost scared to cut it too early – before we had really mined the sound of the album. I knew we had one shot to do it right with feeling. After it was done and we had a first mix, I wrote Duff and said ‘this song has to come out right now!”
About his collaboration with Jennings, McKagan says, “Shooter has a brilliant mind, and a seemingly endless musical catalogue bouncing around in his head that he’s ready to tap into at any moment. He believed in this thing from day one, and that gave me the confidence and energy to forge on. He made me a better acoustic guitar player, and more at ease as a singer.”
The upcoming album is McKagan’s musical follow-up to 2015’s bestselling book, How To Be A Man (And Other Illusions). Guns N’ Roses have also confirmed plans for a new album via their lead guitarist Slash. Fans of the rock and roll legends have much to be excited for, with Slash revealing that the band has already started working on their slated record.
It has been more than 10 years since Guns N’ Roses’ previous studio album, Chinese Democracy. In 2018, the band released a single titled “Shadow of Your Love,” as well as a 30th anniversary reissue boxset of their first album, Appetite of Destruction.
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