Walking Papers’ Duff McKagan – HuffPost 8.2.13

Mike Ragogna: What advice do you have for new artists?

Duff McKagan: It all comes down to the simplest thing that it’s always come down to. The music you’re making has got to be something you believe in and not what’s current. If you try to write music around what’s current right now… Maybe some pop songwriters can do that, but they’re just songwriters, they write for whatever’s current right now. But I think if you’re a band, if you’re an artist, do what you believe in and do something different. Break the mold and kind of put your head down and pin your ears back and go for it. All this stuff you and I have been talking about, the commerce and all that crap, that comes much later and that’s not the most important thing. If you don’t have good music, there will be none of that. So it’s music first, music first, music first.