Duff McKagan Defends Guns N Roses Three & A Half Hour Long Sets: “People Stay For The Whole Thing”

Guns N’ Roses‘ bassist Duff McKagan recently defended the band’s decision to play three and a half hour long sets at their live shows. According to Setlist.fm, the band has been playing shows with extensive setlists which span to about 24 songs.

During a new interview with Heavy Music on YouTube, McKagan addressed the long set times saying: “What songs do you take out, you know, if you wanted to play shorter? Don’t get me wrong – my body would love it if we only played two-and-a-half-hours… 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’. 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 went on to call vocalist Axl Rose’s longevity a “monster” and explained that they have only had to cancel one show and that was due to Rose’s vocal chords being swollen. “He’ll still wanna play the show, and the doctor will be, like, ‘You could ruin your voice forever’,” he said. “We canceled one [show] in Glasgow a couple of years ago. We made it up.”