Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan has defended the band’s three and a half hour shows.
The ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ rockers typically play around 24 songs a night and keep going for three and a half to four hours, and the 59-year-old musician joked while he’d “love to play shorter”, going the distance is the right move.
Speaking to ‘heavy Music’ on YouTube, he said: “Man, Axl [Rose] loves – you know, I think it’s – goddammit, it’s like, what songs do you take out, you know, if you wanted to play shorter?
“Don’t get me wrong – my body would love it if we only played two-and-a-half-hours. Most bands, like, play two hours. Two hours and 10 minutes or something, and we’re playing three [hours and] thirty [minutes].
“I’d love to play shorter because, just, I’d be in less pain the next day. But, there’s just too many songs, and people stay for the whole thing.
“Nobody leaves, so it’s like, ‘Okay, they must be enjoying this.’ We’ll whip out ‘Coma’ or ‘Locomotive.’ “
He admitted he sometimes has to make sure frontman Axl is “sure” about the length of the sets.
He added: “We’re whipping out other songs. I really love playing ‘Bad Obsession’, you know? ‘Pretty Tied Up’.
“It’s so great… We’ll play it all. ‘Reckless [Life]’ and ‘Shadow [of Your Love]’.
“I’m looking at Axl, and I’m, like, ‘Yeah, you sure, man? Cause we’ve gotta play again in a couple nights.’ “
However, Duff heaped praise on Axl’s “monster” longevity, pointed out that the ‘Paradise City’ legends have only had to cancel one show, which was down to the singer’s vocal chords being swollen.
He said: “He’ll still wanna play the show, and the doctor will be, like, ‘You could ruin your voice forever’.
“We canceled one [show] in Glasgow a couple of years ago. We made it up.”