The legendary American songwriter Bob Dylan surprised a lot of people when he was promoting his book “The Philosophy of Modern Song” and cited many artists that no one would imagine he listened to like Ronnie James Dio and the Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal in 2022 he praised a song from McKagan’s solo album, saying: “There’s a Duff McKagan song called Chip Away, that has profound meaning for me. It’s a graphic song. Chip away, chip away, like Michelangelo, breaking up solid marble stone to discover the form of King David inside. He didn’t build him from the ground up, he chipped away the stone until he discovered the king,” Bob Dylan said.
Now that Duff McKagan just released a new solo album called “Lighthouse” he revealed to Classic Rock that he sent Dylan a deluxe edition of his previous record “Tenderness” (2019) at the time and in a letter he sent together he invited them to write together someday.
Duff McKagan says he invited Bob Dylan to write together
‘I started getting texts from friends,” he says. ‘Axl (R0se) went: ‘Hey dude, have you seen this?’ I was a little stunned because… Bob Dylan?! I don’t know him, so for me to be recognised by him as a songwriter was great. I’m still a little blown away.”
“I sent him a deluxe version of Tenderness, and I sent a handwritten card saying: “Thank you very much for your kind words, here’s my record. And if you ever want to write a song together…” Duff McKagan said.
“The Lighthouse” tracklist:
- Lighthouse
- Longfeather
- Holy Water
- I Saw God on 10th Street
- Fallen
- Forgiveness
- Just Another Shakedown
- Fallen Ones
- Hope (Feat. Slash)
- I Just Don’t Know (Feat. Jerry Cantrell)
- Lighthouse (reprise) (Feat. Iggy Pop)