Duff McKagan is the Real-Life Duff Man

Duff McKagan, the former bassist for Guns N’ Roses, is releasing an autobiography this October. McKagan talks about life on the road, the outrageous personalities of guitarist Slash and singer Axl Rose, and of course, how he inspired Duff Beer for “The Simpsons.”

A 70-page excerpt of It’s So Easy (And Other Lies) was made available on the internet last week and one passage reveals how Duff became the inspiration for Duff Beer.

Duff writes:

“When Guns N’ Roses began to break into the public consciousness, I was known as a big drinker… In 1988, MTV aired a concert in which Axl introduced me — as usual — as Duff ‘The King of Beers’ McKagan. Soon after a production company working on a new animated series called me to ask if they could use the name ‘Duff’ for a brand of beer in the show.

“I laughed and said of course, no problem… The whole thing sounded like a low-rent art project or something — I mean, who made cartoons for adults? Little did I know that the show would become ‘The Simpsons’ and that within a few years I would start to see Duff Beer glasses and gear everywhere we toured.”

You can read the 70-page excerpt here. If you want to get your hands on the entire tell-all book you’ll have to wait until October 4th.

And in case you were wondering, McKagan actually wrote this book himself. Slash also recently released a tell-all book about Guns’ N Roses, but Slash had Anthony Bozza do most of the writing for him. Loudwire reports that McKagan has written articles for Playboy, ESPN, and Seattle Weekly, so when it came time to tell his own story he picked up the pen and wrote it himself.

Are you buying Duff McKagan’s story? Why would “The Simpsons” need permission to name its product “Duff Beer?”