While he doesn't mention him by name, Rock & Roll Hall Of Famer and author, Duff McKagan, writes of seeing Philip Seymour Hoffman the night he died of a drug overdose. In his memoir How to Be a Man, excerpted in this week's Village Voice, McKagan recalls he and friend Jerry Cantrell (of Alice in Chains), now both sober, wondering if they should intervene - Hoffman looked like he might be trying to score.

"Should we offer our friendship and a safe place?" they wondered. The duo, from Seattle and in the city for the Super Bowl, saw Hoffman a few times over the course of the weekend, as they were staying in a friend's apartment near his in the West Village.

Here's how Duff explains the story:

“The place we were staying at in the West Village was on a tiny street with very little car traffic. The din of the big city seemed miles away. On Saturday, we had plans to go to Times Square to see Super Bowl Lane. We were going to go see the Foo Fighters later that night and maybe get some Super Bowl T-shirts for friends and family back home. Exiting the apartment, we ran smack-dab into a very famous actor. Being as this was an almost private street, we simply nodded to him and kept on our way, not wanting to intrude on his private life. Ed commented that the actor had been clean for something like 23 years, but he'd heard that he'd recently started using again. Should we turn around and offer to take the guy for a coffee? As I said, keeping sober is a group effort. We trudged on through the cold, discussing the matter.

Later that afternoon when we came back, we saw the actor in the street again and could tell that he was waiting to score. Should we offer our friendship and a safe place? This is sometimes the dilemma for sober guys - as we all know, you can't force a guy to get sober. He has to come around to it himself. We went back into the apartment.

After the show, we were visibly giddy about the game, which was only a few hours away. We took a cab back down to the apartment and got dropped off in front of the place at about 1:30 AM. We ran smack-dab into the actor again. On the street. Waiting. Again. Shit, man. We thought that maybe he was on a last run before getting clean. Surely if we saw him again in the morning, we'd have to say something.

Bro, c'mon. We've been there. Come on out of the cold. We understand. We've been there. Really. We've been there.

The next morning - Sunday, February 2nd, 2014, the morning of the Super Bowl - I heard a ruckus outside our front door. I went out to take a look. There was an ambulance and police, and a whole crowd of press people and fans. The actor had OD'd and died sometime after we saw him at 1:30 AM the night before. (Out of respect for his children and our joint association with a "fraternity," I don't feel comfortable calling him out by name.)”

Read more at this location.

McKagan is gearing up for the May 12th release of How To Be A Man (and other illusions) (Da Capo Press), the follow-up to his critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling memoir, It’s So Easy (and other lies). The book is available for pre-order through Amazon (widget below).

On the same day as the book drops, Duff will also release the How To Be A Man EP, a 3-track set featuring special guests Izzy Stradlin (ex-Guns N’ Roses), Alice In Chains‘ Jerry Cantrell, Stone Sour drummer Roy Mayorga and Burden Brothers drummer Taz Bentley. A pre-order for the EP will launch on May 5th.

 

 

In How To Be A Man, McKagan shares the wisdom he gained on the path to superstardom - from his time with Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver to getting sober after a life of hard living to achieving his personal American Dream of marrying a supermodel, raising a family and experiencing what it’s like to be winked at by Prince.

 

 

Among the book’s many highlights:

* McKagan discusses the need for communication in your relationships, especially when you want to see the Buzzcocks in Manchester and your lady has her sights set on Duran Duran in the tropics.

* Together with Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, he solves one of life’s most staggering math problems: if you’ve seen a million faces, is it truly possible to rock them ALL?

* He spills the beans on some of his fellow rock stars (“Gene Simmons is a kick-ass dancer,” “Perry Farrell is an NFL historian and aficionado”).

* Travelers will benefit from his plethora of globe-trotting tips, including what shots to get for malaria, how to pack lightly (“hair conditioner makes for good shaving cream, so no need  to bring both”) and of course, “don’t smoke crack on a leased private jet - the smell gets into everything.”

* McKagan, who still uses a Blackberry (“because loyalty is important”), stresses the importance of not being a d*ck (and don’t be a p*ssy, either). Oh, and get a dog.

* He recalls the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony and reuniting with GNR frontman Axl Rose for a handful of South American dates.

* He runs down the list of albums that every man should listen to (from Abba’s Gold to ZZ Top’s Tres Hombres), the books they should read (Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage and Dexter Filkins’ The Forever War are particular favorites) and what they should tell the first dude who shows up at the door to date daddy’s little girl (“you pull him aside and tell him, ‘everything that you do or try with my daughter tonight, I will do to you when you get back to my home’”).

* Of course, no advice book would be complete without tackling the age-old question: when given the choice of taking a private jet to a yacht to hang out with Steven Tyler for a trip to San Juan Islands or going home to stain your deck, what do you do? (Remember, “those boards in the backyard are not going to stain themselves”).

McKagan’s wisdom has been sought out on everything from financial planning and relationships to surviving the summer festival circuit and escaping a military coup. Expanding on his popular weekly columns inSeattle Weekly, Playboy.com and ESPN.com, McKagan equips readers with the knowledge they need to rock fatherhood, manage their money, and remain a good dude in spite of it all.

 

 

Fans can meet Duff during the following book signing events:

May

11 - Ridgewood, NJ - Bookends
12 - New York City, NY - The Strand Bookstore
13 - Long Island, NY - Book Revue