Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan will release his new solo album, Tenderness, on May 31st. It was produced by Shooter Jennings. The pair recently visited Los Angeles, California radio station 95.5 KLOS, where Duff's old bandmate from Neurotic Outsiders, and Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, hosts his own radio show, Jonesy's Juxebox. 

McKagan, Jennings, and Jones took to the Subaru Live Stage where they jammed out three songs from Duff's forthcoming disc: "Tenderness", "Chip Away", and "Feel".

McKagan and Jennings were also inteviewed by Jones about the music found on Tenderness; an excerpt has been transcribed as follows:

"The ideas for these songs were originally ideas for things I was gonna write for possibly a third book — observations I made while traveling," said Duff. "Not observations of Guns N' Roses, but of the actual things I was seeing. A very interesting time — inarguably — in all of our history, the two and a half years we were on tour. Without comment, really — just observing. Writing columns for Seattle Weekly for five years, I really became an observationalist more than, 'Oh, look at that.' I would stand back and look."

Duff continued: "A lot of times, I didn't get the cable news you see in America. And I don't check Twitter when I'm on tour; I just post something - 'Soundcheck.' And, man, I've gotta tell you, life is a lot cooler that way. I'd get back to where the news station, they're just screaming and yelling, and it's like three different things, and panels on there and all of this. It makes you feel like there's a divide. And me traveling without that stuff and talking to people and going places, I really realized there's not that divide and there's kind of two different things going on, and I wrote about it. And this record, Shooter was so great at kind of getting that whole method of the record and the lyric writing. I used his band, and one of my most favorite musical experiences was recording this record with Shooter."

Singer, songwriter, and Grammy Award-winning producer Shooter Jennings has announced he will join legendary Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan on the North American Tour in support of his forthcoming solo album, Tenderness. Jennings, who produced the album, and his band will serve as both direct support and McKagan’s backing band on the tour, which kicks off on May 30th in Philadelphia, PA and wraps on June 16th in Seattle, WA. Tickets for all shows are available now here. Prior to the tour, McKagan and Jennings will deliver a special performance at Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, CA on April 4th.

Tour dates:

April
4 - Los Angeles, CA - Grammy Museum

May
30 - Philadelphia, PA - TLA
31 - Washington DC - City Winery

June
1 - Boston, MA - City Winery
3 - New York, NY - Irving Plaza
6 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall
8 - Nashville, TN - The Cannery
10 - Austin, TX - Scoot Inn
13 - Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theater
14 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
15 - Portland, OR - Aladdin
16 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox

Duff McKagan has released “Chip Away”, a new track from Tenderness. Listen to the song below.

“’Chip Away’ is somewhat of a rail against cable news and divisive agendas... all for the almighty dollar,” says McKagan. “The song also highlights the fact that history repeats itself over and over, and that we will all get past this, together."

“Chip Away” follows the recent release of lead track “Tenderness” (lyric video below) and both songs are available as instant downloads by clicking here to pre-order Tenderness ahead of its May 31st release.

Also available for pre-order is a special limited edition Tenderness deluxe book, which includes the album on 180-gram yellow & red starburst vinyl, the CD, and features an exclusive lithograph signed and numbered by McKagan. The hard cover book contains 40-pages of photos from the recording sessions and also presents liner notes written by Duff detailing his experiences with each song and the project as a whole. The vinyl features 10 tracks and a unique sequence carefully selected by McKagan and the album’s Grammy-winning producer Shooter Jennings, while the CD includes 11 tracks.

Tracklisting:

“Tenderness”
“It’s Not Too Late”
“Wasted Heart”
“Falling Down”
“Last September”
“Chip Away”
“Cold Outside”
“Feel”
“Breaking Rocks”
“Parkland”
“Don’t Look Behind You”

“Chip Away”:

"Tenderness" lyric video: