It's So Easy · And Other Lies

A founding member of Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver shares the story of his

rise to the pinnacle of fame and fortune, his struggles with alcoholism and

drug addiction, his personal crash and burn, and his phoenix-like

transformation via a unique path to sobriety.

In 1984, at the age of twenty, Duff McKagan left his native Seattle—partly to

pursue music but mainly to get away from a host of heroin overdoses then

decimating his closest group of friends in the local punk scene. In L.A. only

a few weeks and still living in his car, he answered a want ad for a bass

player placed by someone who identified himself only as “Slash.” Soon after,

the most dangerous band in the world was born. Guns N’ Roses went on to sell

more than 100 million albums worldwide.

In _It's So Easy_ , Duff recounts GN’R’s unlikely trajectory to a string of

multiplatinum albums, sold-out stadium concerts, and global acclaim. But that

kind of glory can take its toll, and it did—ultimately—on Duff, as well as on

the band itself. As GN’R began to splinter, Duff felt that he himself was

done, too. But his near death as a direct result of alcoholism proved to be

his watershed, the turning point that led to his unique path to sobriety and

the unexpected choices he has made for himself since. In a voice that is as

honest as it is indelibly his own, Duff—one of rock’s smartest and most

articulate personalities—takes readers on his harrowing journey through the

dark heart of one of the most notorious bands in rock-and-roll history and out

the other side.