Duff McKagan - Chip Away
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00The first single from the record is called Chip Away. I really love it. It's great for a single. It's catchy and relatable. But as I understand, a portion of it is about your view of the division that exists in the country and how cable news contributes to that, in your opinion.
00:18Well, so I got sucked down the rabbit hole that everybody, I think, did. It was maybe October 2015. A friend of mine was a campaign manager for John Kasich. And he said, watch my guy. He's really cool. He's really done great things for Ohio. So I watched that. There was like 12 Republicans on the first debate.
00:40I watched that. And I'm watching the Democratic debate. I'm just and I vote every year. I voted since I was 18. I vote every little local election, everything for you. Well, it's we the people, right? Yeah. So I'm watching all this stuff. And I'm starting to switch between news channels. And they're talking about this divide. And I'm like, oh, this divide. Like, okay, man, we're in trouble. Look at this divide. And I start following it. I fall down the rabbit hole. And I do read a lot of history.
01:09I think, like, dude, they're just selling ads. I know this, right? They start bringing panels on that start yelling at each other. And this must be keeping people drawn to the TV.
01:21I watch a lot of it, too. I hate when they're yelling at each other, though, or talking over each other.
01:25Well, I did this and I followed all the people on Twitter. And I would look at the Twitter and my wife's like, what are you doing? And then we started rehearsing for Gunn's tour. And then we went out on tour and I turned off all the news.
01:39I didn't have Yahoo as my homepage. And muted everybody on Twitter except for the Seattle Seahawks and the Seattle Mariners. Why I got Twitter in the first place, you know, so I could follow my teams.
01:52The Mariners, following the Mariners is a hard thing to do, by the way. But that's why I got Twitter, to follow my teams when I'm away.
01:58And my life got, I turned it all off and I just started going out and talking to people. We started in America. And, you know, I noticed, like, they were talking about red states and blue states and all this stuff.
02:10And across state lines, there's no red and there's no blue. And I'm talking to people and all across the country. And nobody talks about politics. Nobody's that base. Nobody's making a comment to you like they would on Twitter.
02:24Like, you suck. You know, he says that, you know. And what I realized is we all work together. We all coexist. We all want the same things.
02:33Like, feed our families, our kids to do well. Have some happiness in our life. Be able to follow your NFL team or whatever you got.
02:46But if you think about it, politics is just like sports.
02:50This is the newest. And I read so much history. The divisive.
02:53Or like music. This is the best band. No, you're wrong. This is the best band. We still can go to a concert together.
02:58Totally.
02:59This team's the best. No, you're wrong. You're an idiot. This team's the best. But we'll go to the game together and drink a beer.
03:05In other words, there's so much more that unites us once you get below that surface level.
03:10So much more that unites. I really found, and this is just like personal research. I was going to write this book about this.
03:15Like, there's so much more that we have in common than what separates us, not only in America, but around the whole world.
03:23Like, great images in my head. We got to play these shows where if there's any – and there's a lot of labels, right?
03:30You're in the bubble. And the only bubble I was in was like, we're playing these shows where nobody asks who you vote for when you come in because nobody cares.
03:38You know, like, we're here to rock. And it's this united thing of the band and the crowd together in this thing.
03:47And in America, it was great. Europe, South America, we played, you know, Muslim countries, Kuala Lumpur.
03:53And we played Abu Dhabi and Dubai, like full head-covered women with the devil horns up, rocking out, just like the guy in Little Rock, Arkansas.
04:06And, you know, you really – so this song really kind of talks to that about –
04:14And so once I turned off the news – and I really suggest this. Like, I went to the gym today at the hotel and I was on the elliptical and it had the TV that was on.
04:23And it was on, like, one of the cable news.
04:26Right.
04:27And I turned it to, like, National Geographic because I got – like, I took out – I couldn't work out as hard.
04:34It was on and it had the closed caption on so I could read it.
04:37And I just – I can't do it. It's not going to affect my life today. It's not.
04:42And it is we, the people. We're supposed to be running this stuff and we're just kind of – I feel like, you know, we'll be mad about something else, completely different in two years.
04:53Don't worry about it, you know.
04:56And so I really saw it really positive. I left the news behind and just saw it was another tool.
05:03The latest one is divisiveness. It works great on news, keeps you glued to the TV. It works great in politics right now, you know.
05:12Um, but, uh, it's – there'll be some other ruse in a couple years.
05:18Well, with that in mind, could we get you to play that song?
05:20Yeah.
05:21One, two, three.
05:22Talking heads, I'm making dollars. It's like doing crack, day after day. Dropping taxes on business ballers. It'll work this time, they say.
05:40Chip away, chip away, chip away. I'm withdrawing. Chip away, then I pray. For something new. Chip away, chip away.
05:47Can you hear me calling? Can you wait?
06:02Now we're drowning, chip away, then I pray for something new, chip away, chip away, can you hear me calling, can you wait, dear, this is true, oh, history has had some great men, some badass, who wouldn't bend to this, after y'all would laugh, Martin Luther to holler,
06:31oh, they, you put an end to this, chip away, chip away, I'm withdrawing, chip away, then I pray for something new, chip away, chip away, can you hear me calling, can you wait, dear, this is true, come on, John.
07:01I hear it often, nowadays, the earth is flat, or so they say, living beings came to be all of a sudden one day, now white is right, the rest is wrong, I'll scratch all night and keep moving on,
07:31chip away, chip away, I'm withdrawing, chip away, gonna pray for something new, chip away, chip away, can you hear me calling, gonna wait till this is true, chip away, chip away, I'm withdrawing, chip away, gonna pray for something new,
07:59chip away, chip away, can you hear me calling, can you hear me calling, can I wait till this is true, and I hope you won't get fooled,
08:20thank you.