Xpressmag.com.au recently caught up with VELVET REVOLVER bassist Duff McKagan to discuss the band's new album, Libertad. The following is a brief excerpt from the story:

Current Velvet Revolver and former Guns n’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan was not in a good mood when speaking to Josie Smith down the line from Georgetown, Washington DC, as the release of Velvet Revolver’s second album, Libertad looms. It was his candour and talkative good humour through his dour mood, however, which proved that McKagan is either an incredibly accomplished interviewee or a plain old nice dude. Or maybe both.

Two weeks into a touring schedule that Duff McKagan estimates will last over 15 months, he admits going on the road is not the romantic affair many suspect it is.

“I think that people really think that touring is like the cliché - glamorous and chicks and cocaine or whatever else,” he says. “But touring is about living out of a bag, going to an airport every day or every other day, going through security and sitting and waiting for a cancelled flight or a delayed flight. Getting to the next gig, checking into the next hotel, getting whatever you need out of your bag to get laundered you know?

“Like the great part, the easy part is the two hours you’re up on stage. The exhausting part is just the constant, constant travel. Like last night we went from the stage straight onto the tour bus to the border, back off the fucking bus, into the border patrol. So I don’t itch to go on tour anymore, you know? I’m not like ‘Oh cool, when do I get to go back through airport security again?’.”

Realising he’s been ranting, McKagan apologises with a laugh, explaining that he just got off a tour bus and is feeling a little grumpy. While he is grateful for where he is and loves playing, he says the two-year Contraband tour really took it out of them. But he adds that the recording of Velvet Revolver’s second album, Libertad, was both a healing and rewarding process, putting the band back on top.

“We had the title of the record around, which was cool because when the record was done and mastered and we listened to the thing right through, the album kind of sounds like the title. And so I think maybe if anything, the title may have had some weird, really subconscious effect on how we wrote and all that. I mean, I dunno how, but it just sounds like the title. It sounds like one complete record that represents musical freedom. It is pretty cool.”

Go to this location for the complete story.