Duff McKagan - Beautiful Disease (1999)

Michael Andrew "Duff" McKagan is best known for his twelve-year tenure as the bassist for Guns N' Roses, and in 1993, he released his first solo album 'Believe in Me', at the same time as forming the short-lived supergroup Neurotic Outsiders, with Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, John Taylor of Duran Duran, and his Guns N' Roses band-mate Matt Sorum. Following his departure from Guns N' Roses in 1997, McKagan briefly reunited with his pre-success Seattle punk band 10 Minute Warning, before forming the still-active hard rock band Loaded, in which he performs lead vocals and rhythm guitar. In 1998 he recorded his second solo album in his home studio, playing most of the instruments himself, along with guest appearances from Mike Bordin, Michael Barragan, Abe Laboriel, Jr and former band-mates Slash and Izzy Stradlin. Among the songs recorded at these sessions were new versions of Neurotic Outsiders' 'Seattlehead' and 10 Minute Warning's 'Mezz', and the album was supposed to be released on McKagan's birthday on February 5 1999, with promotional copies being sent out. However, at the same time there was a merger happening between Polygram and Universal, with McKagan's label Geffen merging with A&M Records into Interscope, and the result was that the album was shelved. Nevertheless, McKagan went on tour in support of the now non-existent record, and came up with the idea of releasing a live album that would include the unreleased material, resulting in Loaded's 'Episode 1999:Live' album, which featured six songs from 'Beautiful Disease'. 'Seattlehead, 'Superman', and 'Then And Now', were eventually re-recorded and released on Loaded's debut studio album 'Dark Days', but the rest can only be heard in studio form on this hard to find promo album. 

Track listing

01 Seattle Head
02 Who's To Blame
03 Superman
04 Song For Beverly
05 Put You Back
06 Shinin' Down
07 Missing You
08 Hope
09 Holiday
10 Then And Now
11 Rain
12 Beautiful Disease
13 Mezz