In his latest blog for Seattle Weekly, former GUNS N' ROSES and VELVET REVOLVER bassist Duff McKagan writes about "summer in the Southern Hemisphere." An excerpt follows:

"Back in the 1980s, when I first started touring in rock bands, playing gigs in South America was just way too exotic, and really an unproven and sketchy place to try and book gigs. Did they have gear there? Were venues safe from collapse at 120 decibels? And what about political stability and police corruption filtering over to us rock bands?

QUEEN was really the first major rock band to bust out and tour down in Brazil and Argentina, and they became a beloved entity because they went all the way down there. I could only imagine the stories that the surviving guys in that band have to tell about those first times in South America.

I've written about the first time I went to Rio de Janeiro with GN'R (the very first Rock in Rio). It was such a far-removed locale to go to, and none of us even had the slightest idea of how far or near Rio was to Los Angeles. It seemed like kind of a straight shot down the coast... 'Maybe a six-hour plane flight,' I remember somehow thinking back then.

Only 20 years later, long-distance plane travel has become something most of us have done at least once. And also, with the Internet Age, the world is a lot smaller than it was back then.

Brazilian, Argentine, and Chilean fans... and South and Central American fans in general, had been starved of live rock music. When a band did finally show up, they would experience what we now call Beatlemania: the locals down there would just lose their shit, and often run headlong at the band's van, bus, car, or whatever. (If you've seen the RAMONES documentary, where they are in a van from the Sao Paulo airport... scared to death... then you would get the idea).

But it is all different. A lot of rock bands come here now, and as I found myself on a plane with the members of FAITH NO MORE, ALICE IN CHAINS, BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB, MEGADETH, and DOWN, traveling all together from Santiago to Sao Paulo, it dawned on me that now everybody is coming down here to play shows.

And the audience has matured as well. Where it was once a sort of Beatlemania (as I stated above), the fan base in general is now simply smart, loyal, and passionate. Loyalty and passion are big attributes down here."

To read Duff's blog in its entirety, click here.