Darryl Sterdan from the Toronto Sun spoke with bass legend Duff McKagan (VELVET REVOLVER, LOADED, ex-GUNS N' ROSES) recently about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Toronto Sun: Music or finance: Which takes up more of your time these days?

McKagan: "Oh, they go hand in hand. And these days, they have to. Because nobody's selling records. There's no more million-selling rock records. So bands have to adapt. And young musicians know more than anybody what it takes to make a band work. They know how much gas is in every state. Or that if you're in a bus in England, it's going to cost you £250 to go into London, so you should park outside and take the tube in. To have any sort of success nowadays, you have to know about licensing and t-shirt costs and inventory and everything."

Toronto Sun: The new Loaded album seems a lot more aggressive than the last one.

McKagan: "Yeah, this was the first record we ever made coming off a tour. We went on tour with our last album Sick, and when you play a record live, it gets heavier and heavier because you got four guys on adrenaline and caffeine. And then when you start writing riffs, that's where this record came from. We came off the road and started making demos. Then Terry Date heard a couple of songs and said, "I really want to do this record." And this is how money always plays a part: He usually gets $200,000 to produce a record. But we don't have that kind of money."

Toronto Sun: Every interview, you're asked about reuniting with GN'R and getting a new singer for VR. You must get sick of it.

McKagan: "It's just part of life. I've learned to understand it. I had to. I could f---ing fight it but there's no use because there's so many people on the planet. I did this signing at a guitar show in England a few weeks ago. There were 1,000 people each day. And the first day, I got asked those questions 1,000 times. Every single f---ing person asked. So the second day, they put up a sign that said, 'No, Guns N' Roses are not getting back together, and Velvet Revolver is not doing anything right now.' It was hilarious."

Read the entire interview here.