Dead End Drive-In: Now Showing – Duff McKagan – ‘It’s So Easy (And Other Lies)’
Written by Gaz Tidey
Saturday, 11 June 2016 04:00
Duff McKagan – ‘It’s So Easy (And Other Lies)’ (2016 Vision Films/Entertainment One)
Nikki Sixx hasn’t said much right recently; in fact, the only time he’s sure to get his wording correct is courtesy of a backing tape, but the Mötley Crüe bass player flukes a great line in this fantastic, convention-bending documentary on the life of Duff McKagan.
“We can talk a lot about Duff without talking about Guns N’ Roses,” he says, and that point is rammed home time after time in ‘It’s So Easy (And Other Lies)’, the new documentary (released later this month on DVD in the UK) from director Christopher Duddy based on McKagan’s New York Times best-selling autobiography of the same name.
That’s not to say that GN’R doesn’t feature heavily in this film, of course: the legendary band hangs heavy over proceedings at all times, but there is still so much more to Duff’s story.
Like the rule-breaking ‘Super Duper Alice Cooper’, this film is as far from meat-and-two-veg rock doc as humanly possible: while the timeline is linear the production values of the documentary are ever-probing and fabulously unconventional. Animation fuses with voiceover (thankfully in not as silly a fashion as the recent, BBC-commissioned GN’R doc, ‘The Most Dangerous Band In The World’) and, while the standard talking heads are never far from view, the main body of the film is taken from an intimate live performance where Duff reads from his book and performs acoustic tunes with his backing band.
Yeah, the rise of Guns N’ Roses is central to Duff’s story and, told via some great vintage photography, video footage, and informative interjections from the likes of Slash and Matt Sorum, it is treated with respect. But, as hinted at above, it is just a part of the story.
McKagan’s punk rock upbringing is fascinating to dissect, his invariable rock ‘n’ roll addiction oft-troubling; the recovery, of course, the real crowd pleaser. It’s great to see, though, especially in the same year that GN’R has made a comeback of arguable qualities, that the band is only given as much screen time as many of the other important aspects of Duff’s life: the formation and success of Velvet Revolver, for example, his academic return, and, most importantly, of this there is little question come the rolling of the end credits, his family.
There are almost as many talking heads from the non-rock ‘n’ roll parts of McKagan’s life as the de rigueur ones attributed to music documentary narrative, but those that do appear speak well and often at some length. The aforementioned Slash, Sorum, and Sixx appear regularly, alongside the likes of Mike McCready, Dave Kushner, Danko Jones, and Tad Doyle; the latter pair appearing in a criminally-underused round table discussion that also includes Duff himself.
That’s the only negative you’re gonna get from me regarding this film, however.
The end of the film, wholly family-centric, plays out to acoustic renderings of Loaded’s ‘Wasted Heart’ and a fine ‘You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory/Patience’ hybrid that simply caps an astonishing at times documentary that makes a fella we all thought was cool appear just that little bit cooler.
If there’s to be a better music-related film than this in 2016 then we’re in for a storming second half to the year.
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To pick up your copy of ‘It’s So Easy (And Other Lies)’ – CLICK HERE
