It's So Easy - Duff Mckagan [148]
Then, during the encore, they hauled me out to play “You Could Be Mine,” a song I hadn’t played since the Use Your Illusion tour. I heard the crowd of 14,000 gasp and then go crazy when I emerged from the side of the stage and Tommy handed me his bass. Then I kind of forgot about one of the bridges in the song. Oops. At least Axl sounded good.
A little later I had a chance to go back out onstage and play along with “Patience.” And though I didn’t count the song in, it still felt as if doors were opening. Or perhaps reopening. Given this serendipitous chance to reunite with my old friend, I didn’t want to let it be a one-and-done chance meeting and leave it at that. I decided I would make an effort to remain a friend now.
Axl invited me and Susan to dinner a few nights later, which timed well with my meetings. This was a much more leisurely evening, and one without questions hanging in the air. Axl and I could let down our guard. We both now knew: things were fine.
When the waiter came to take our drink orders, Axl looked up at him, paused, glanced at me, and then said, “I’ll have a virgin mojito, please.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
When Susan and I returned to the States, I was surprised to learn the Seattle Seahawks had started to blast a new Loaded song, called “We Win,” during their home games. It turned out a sports radio broadcaster had played the song and urged Seattle teams to get behind a local band. The whole thing sort of took off, and soon I received a call from the Seahawks organization to ask whether Loaded would play a halftime show on November 10, 2010.
Killer!
Seattle sports teams have always meant a lot to me. I’ll never forget being at game seven of the Western Conference finals in 1996 when the Sonics beat Utah to reach the NBA Finals. The crowd went nuts, confetti fell from the air, and “Paradise City” blared from the rafters. That was a dream come true. This halftime show had the chance to be another.
As the show approached, though, I came down with a bad sinus infection. My whole body ached. Once we took the stage it was fine. But afterward I thought to myself, No more. No more of this bullshit. I need to fix the inside of my head once and for all. Dr. Thomas suggested a local specialist and I went to see him for a new batch of tests and another CT scan.
The doctor had me back to his office and showed me a huge poster of a healthy sinus system. Then he put my scan up next to it. Hello, surgery number two.
Ah, cocaine seemed like such a good idea once upon a time.
Watching my kids grow up has made me realize just how young I was when I did some of the things I did. Sometimes I cringe when I look at Grace and Mae. I really try to have an open and nonjudgmental relationship with my daughters, and my goal is for them always to feel safe coming to me with any problems or ordeals. The McKagans do honesty these days, and I probably learned that in part from my own father not doing it.
Of course, I knew the day would eventually come when I would have to face the realities that accompany growing up. Recently it had gotten back to Susan that the kids in our girls’ middle school had started joking around about sex.
“Joking around?” I said. “What the hell does that mean?”
The time, alas, had come for me and my wife to sit down and speak somewhat candidly about the birds and bees with our daughters. I started to sweat.
We have a standard way to start our team meetings.
“McKagan family conference!”
The girls always got excited at what might be in store. Sometimes we called a family conference to plan a vacation together, for instance. This time, however, a look of dread started to spread across their faces as I began talking.
“You know that you girls can tell us anything,” I began.
When I said the word sex, Mae started to bawl.
Oh shit, this isn’t going to be