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“Three chord truths of hope.”
– AMERICAN SONGWRITER
"Open-hearted songwriting and warm-blooded rock 'n’ roll.”
– SPIN
“Full-beam brilliance on his third solo album.”
– CLASSIC ROCK
Duff McKagan has announced an expanded digital edition of his acclaimed third solo album, LIGHTHOUSE, available now at all DSPs and streaming services. The deluxe release includes eight additional tracks along with three exclusive live performance videos filmed last December at Easy Street Records in McKagan’s hometown of Seattle, WA.
LIGHTHOUSE (EXPANDED EDITION) is highlighted by a stripped-down acoustic rendition of the album standout, “I JUST DON’T KNOW,” transformed from its powerful original version into a soaring, reflective ballad which showcases the vulnerability of the lyrics and McKagan’s vocal performance.
“I JUST DON’T KNOW (Acoustic Mix) is a song I landed upon, that seems to encapsulate somehow, my own personal thoughts about what’s next in life, and what is OUT there in general,” says McKagan. “It’s the core of the human existence to ponder the afterlife. I like to have fun with the possibilities.”
Hailed by Paste as “an emotional, personal and spiritual reckoning...[McKagan’s] most important rock project yet,” LIGHTHOUSE now also features THIS IS THE SONG, IT CAN’T COME TOO SOON, and PASS YOU BY (all originally found on McKagan’s THIS IS THE SONG EP, released last May to honor Mental Health Awareness Month), along with the previously unheard C’MON BOYS (featuring outlaw country badass Jesse Dayton) and live versions of the fan favorites, I SAW GOD ON 10TH STREET, JUST ANOTHER SHAKEDOWN, and LONGFEATHER. All three live tracks are accompanied by official videos from the intimate hometown event. In addition, a complete video capturing McKagan’s live in-store performance can be viewed in its entirety via YouTube.
LIGHTHOUSE is available now in a wide range of formats including streaming, download, CD and LP. A number of deluxe versions and bundles featuring official Certificates of Authenticity signed by McKagan are also available. An exclusive line of brand-new LIGHTHOUSE merch – is available now at www.duffonline.com.
"It’s very nice for me to add the THIS IS THE SONG E.P. from earlier last year, into the mix here of the LIGHTHOUSE record itself," says McKagan. "Playing EASY STREET RECORDS in December was made much cooler when my erstwhile producer Martin Feveyear came up with the idea to record the show. We have included that recorded live show to this expanded release. There is also a studio track called C’MON BOYS that really only became a song when legendary Austin blues man and rockabilly god JESSE DAYTON stopped by the studio with his guitar and voice!"
LIGHTHOUSE sees Duff McKagan baring more of his artistic spirit than ever before, fusing acoustic elements with hard-edged rock ‘n’ roll to land at the sweet spot between soul-searching reflection and pure energy. The album was met by critical applause from such international outlets as Rolling Stone, Kerrang!, Revolver, and American Songwriter for such singles as LIGHTHOUSE, I SAW GOD ON 10TH STREET, and LONGFEATHER, the latter hailed by Revolver as “folky, elegiac” and joined by an official music video – directed by longtime visual collaborators Connor Ellmann, Kuj Durollari, and Arben Durollari – streaming now at YouTube. McKagan later performed LONGFEATHER with an exclusive appearance on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, streaming HERE.
For more than 40 years, Duff McKagan has been an unstoppable creative force, spanning a multitude of bands, tours, collaborations, and writings. Now, with his long-awaited new solo album, LIGHTHOUSE, the veteran musician proves to be, at his heart, a gifted singer-songwriter with a distinctive knack for authenticity and introspection.
In 2019, McKagan opened his own Seattle recording studio, allowing him a long-hoped-for opportunity to “finally explore songs that I may have written the night before or some of those old riffs from years ago. This is a big deal for me.” He spent much of the next two years working with longtime producer/collaborator Martin Feveyear (Mark Lanegan, Brandi Carlile), chipping away at a series of intensely personal new songs.
The first full-length collection born in McKagan’s studio, LIGHTHOUSE also features such striking new songs as FALLEN, recently joined by a beautiful and touching music video streaming now at the official Duff McKagan YouTube channel. Further highlights include the philosophical I JUST DON’T KNOW (featuring longtime friend, Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains, who also joins McKagan for the track’s official performance video) and an additional take on the title track, LIGHTHOUSE (REPRISE), joined by the one and only Iggy Pop.
McKagan marked the arrival of LIGHTHOUSE with a special livestream interview hosted by Cantrell, originally presented exclusively for his email list subscribers and now streaming via YouTube HERE. In addition, McKagan shared his thoughts on LIGHTHOUSE with track-by-track commentary streaming HERE.
McKagan first unveiled his new music last May with THIS IS THE SONG, a three-song EP honoring Mental Health Awareness Month alongside a call to action on Propeller. The EP – which was met by critical applause in Rolling Stone, Consequence of Sound, Loudwire, and American Songwriter, to name just a few – includes the deeply moving title track, THIS IS THE SONG, joined by an official companion video streaming now on YouTube HERE.
Starting at just 15, McKagan has been a part of such diverse and influential bands as The Vains (1979), The Fastbacks (1980), The Living (1982), The Fartz (1990), 10 Minute Warning (1993), and Loaded (1998), along, of course, with his historic role as founding member of both Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver. Produced by 3x GRAMMY® Award-winner Shooter Jennings, McKagan’s 2019 second solo album, TENDERNESS, marked a powerful new chapter for the ever-evolving artist, taking on societal ills and his own personal transgressions against a rich sonic backdrop of Americana-fueled arrangements. Named by Loudwire as one of that year’s “50 Best Rock Albums” and hailed by Rolling Stone in a three-and-a-half (out of four)-starred rave as “an album full of beauty and heart…It’s music of conscience, heavy songs with a light touch,” the album includes the volatile rocker, “Chip Away,” which earned extraordinary praise from the Maestro himself, Bob Dylan, who recently declared the song a personal favorite.
“There’s a Duff McKagan song called ‘Chip Away’ that has profound meaning for me,” Dylan told The Wall Street Journal. “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. It’s like my own songwriting, I overwrite something, then I chip away lines and phrases until I get to the real thing.”
Along with his prolific musical efforts, McKagan is the New York Times best-selling author of 2011’s It’s So Easy: And Other Lies and 2015’s How to Be a Man: (And Other Illusions), and the co-host (with Susan Holmes McKagan) of the popular Three Chords & The Truth radio show, airing in North America on Sirius XM’s Ozzy’s Boneyard (Ch. 38). In addition, Three Chords & The Truth airs weekly on stations around the globe including Denmark’s myROCK, the UK’s Planet Rock, Finland’s Radio Rock, Ireland’s Nova, Norway’s Radio Rock, Sweden’s Rock Klassiker, Germany/Switzerland/Austria’s Rock Antenne, Iceland’s x977, and Poland’s Antyradio. For more information and showtimes, please visit duffmckagan.ffm.to/threechordsandthetruth.
McKagan also currently serves as a core member of a modern-day “Wrecking Crew” alongside GRAMMY® Award-winning musician/producer, Andrew Watt, and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith, recording and co-writing on such recent albums as Ozzy Osbourne’s Ordinary Man (2020) and 2x GRAMMY® Award-winning Patient No. 9 (2022) and Iggy Pop’s acclaimed Every Loser (2023). What’s more, McKagan – with Watt, Smith, and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Josh Klinghoffer – was part of the recently unveiled Iggy Pop & The Losers lineup, who made a high-profile televised debut with an electrifying performance of the feverish “Frenzy” on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! (streaming HERE).
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DUFF MCKAGAN
LIGHTHOUSE (EXPANDED EDITION)
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