Duff McKagan, 'The Simpsons': Guns N' Roses Bassist Says He's Lost Royalities Over Cartoon's 'Duff Beer'

Posted on Nov 12th 2012 8:30AM by Brittany Galla Comments

Duff McKagan The Simpsons Duff BeerMike Coppola, Getty Images

It may be hard to believe, but if Duff McKagan, the former Guns N' Roses bassist has one regret about his wildly-successful career, it involves the animated TV show, "The Simpsons."

In a new interview with Britain's The Independent, McKagan recalls a phone call from a FOX channel official in the late 1980s, who told him that their new cartoon would feature a beer honored to the rocker called "Duff Beer."

McKagan happily agreed, not realizing how much royalties he was going to miss out on because of not licensing his name at the time.

"I knew nothing about branding yourself then or the royalties off it," McKagan tells the paper. "I just thought cool, they wanna use my name and boom, 'The Simpsons' was born. Yeah, if I had a nickel for every time...but it's fine."

Last year, McKagan wrote more about the experience and how he reportedly inspired "The Simpsons" more in his autobiography, It's So Easy (And Other Lies). In the book via Metal Insider, he 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."

McKagan currently is an accountant, advising bands at his Meridian Rock wealth-management company.

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lilnomadic1

Headline was misleading he wasn't upset he was just talking about it.

November 13 2012 at 10:46 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dirk

Absolute garbage. It was NOTHING to do with Duff McKagan. It was named after the notion of "sitting on your duff". Should he be getting royalties from my ass?

November 13 2012 at 10:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
posthuf

He should consider himself lucky he didn't get that "nickel every time."

Some government toady would be taxing it right out of his pocket.

November 13 2012 at 10:37 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ncheels015

sour grapes?

November 13 2012 at 9:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
sebastiandunbar

boo hoo

November 13 2012 at 9:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
sitemfg

Get over it! Very full of himself...

November 13 2012 at 9:06 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
vguillod

Big deal, the Simpsons, one of the worst animated series that ever aired. You know a cartoon is bad when everyone is the same color, a gadorade yellow. And the cliches from the show are real lame. As far as Duff McKagen, while he's at it, why not sue the inventor of the duffel bag, singer Duffy, actor Patrick Duffy and so on. Get a freakin' haircut and shave off that ridiculous beard or be a mechanic. What an idiot. We should take him, Tommy Lee, Axle Rose and all the other metalheads in the world, put them in a big airliner and plunge it down an active volcano and let's see how tough they really are.

November 13 2012 at 9:06 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to vguillod's comment
Dirk

You dunce. They're not all yellow. Do you even GLANCE at a TV every once in awhile?

November 13 2012 at 10:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dirk v

Head line writers need to be shot. Yeah I understand that he's not happy about it, but he doesn't seem to be blaming anyone either.

November 13 2012 at 8:50 AM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Dirk v's comment
makimaus

That's pretty par for the course around here. If there's one thing on which you can't depend, it's the headline having much at all to do with the article. Sometimes I think they just put a big dart board on the wall, full of provocative words, and pick them arbitrarily.

November 13 2012 at 10:22 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Alphonso Carioti

Oh, please...

November 13 2012 at 8:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mkraven77

Ha ha

November 13 2012 at 7:13 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply

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