“Duff McKagan Reflects on Leaving Seattle: The Impact of Heroin, Music, and a Fresh Start”

Duff McKagan, best known as the bassist for Guns N’ Roses, is also an influential figure in Seattle’s punk scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Despite his profound impact on the local music culture, McKagan ultimately made the difficult decision to leave his hometown behind—a choice spurred by the devastating toll heroin took on his friends and the community.
In a recent interview with Classic Rock, McKagan candidly reflected on those turbulent times, highlighting how Prince’s 1982 album 1999 offered him solace and clarity during one of the darkest periods of his life. Speaking about the significance of the album, he shared:
“I was eighteen, still living in Seattle, and heroin had decimated my friends.”
Among the tracks that resonated with him the most was “Something In The Water (Does Not Compute),” which McKagan credits with helping him realize he needed to leave Seattle to save himself. That realization set him on a new path, and just two years later, in 1984, he moved to Los Angeles. Reflecting on this period, McKagan said:
“That record made me realize I had to leave Seattle. Two years later, I did. I later wrote a song called ‘Seattlehead.’ I think it was after I ‘came home.'”
“Seattlehead,” a track McKagan eventually recorded with his band Loaded, appeared on the album Dark Days. Although released much later, the song captures his emotions during that period, chronicling the move that altered the trajectory of his life and career.
“I felt better, I was in my place—a safe, lovely, good place. [‘Seattlehead’] was written much earlier, in the early nineties, and it was about my move from Seattle to Los Angeles, in 1984, when the City of Angels ‘let me in and then slammed the door.'”
While McKagan recognized the vibrancy and talent of Seattle’s music scene, the growing heroin epidemic left him with few options. Many of his peers and bandmates were tragically caught in the drug’s grip, forcing him to choose between staying in a destructive environment or pursuing his musical dreams elsewhere. He elaborated:
“Seattle had a great music scene. Unfortunately, heroin came in about ’83, and I was left [without options]. I didn’t want to move someplace; I was playing with all these great people. In every band [I played], I was one person away from a band [that was] really fucking good. The Seattle scene took off a couple of years later… It was just that, in my group, everybody was strung out, and it was time to go. If I wanted to do this, it was time to get out.”
Duff McKagan’s story is a testament to resilience and the difficult decisions artists often face. While his departure from Seattle marked the end of one chapter, it opened the door to a new era of creative and personal growth, ultimately solidifying his place in rock history.
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