It's So Easy Quotes

“Yes, confidence was knowing I could do anything. But, I realized, confidence must always be rooted in work. In sweat. In pain-good pain. And in honesty.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“Here’s what I believe. Shit fucking happens. That’s rule one. Everybody walking the planet knows that. Rule two: things rarely turn out the way you planned. Three: everybody gets knocked down. Four, and most important of all: after you take those shots, it’s time to stand up and walk on—to continue to live.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“Life is not a journey to the grave With the intention of arriving safely in a well-preserved body, But rather to skid in sideways Thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: “Wow, what a ride!”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“On March 31, 1994, I went to LAX to catch a flight from L.A. to Seattle. Kurt Cobain was waiting to take the same flight. We started talking. He had just skipped out of a rehab facility. We were both fucked up. We ended up getting seats next to each other and talking the whole way, but we didn’t delve into certain things: I was in my hell and he was in his, and we both seemed to understand.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“The music had the ability to conjure images in my head and help me drown out the tension and noise I was trying to avoid at my house.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“Start every day with a clear conscience,” he said. “You should be able to wake up, go to the mirror in your bathroom, look yourself right in the eye, and say, ‘I didn’t lie to anyone I encountered yesterday,’ ‘I didn’t skirt an issue yesterday.’ If you lead an honest life, there are no regrets.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“When it comes to your values and personality, you are what you do in adverse situations.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“Never move back in a straight line. Never set. Redirect. Fight your opponent as he fights you. Place your opponent where you want him.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy (and other lies): The Autobiography

“I did not drink any water whatsoever in my twenties, thinking it a total waste of time and stomach space—time and space better devoted to vodka.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“I always thought death and death alone could ever push me across that line when it came to this band. (I was wrong.)”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“We had no idea it would be the last time we would ever be able to walk around L.A. without feeling like we were in a fishbowl, isolated and on display.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“we did an acoustic set at CBGB on October 30, 1987, where we debuted “Patience.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“Eventually we found ourselves in the middle of an onion field. When you’re hungry and don’t know where and when your next meal is coming, you can eat almost anything. Those were the best damn onions I’ve ever eaten. At that moment they tasted as sweet as apples.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“From the moment the five of us leaned into our first song, we could all hear and feel that the fit was right. The chemistry was immediate, thunderous, and soulful. It was amazing and all of us recognized it instantly.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“I could hear and see exactly how rock should be: raw and fucked up with nothing held back, raw and fucked up with no boundaries left unbroken, raw and fucked up.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“It happens in a flash, life does. Only the ever-deepening lines on my face tell me that I have been alive for a while. I”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“Place pain in a steel box and let it float away,” Benny would say. “Pain will always be there—it’s how you deal with it that matters.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“Sometimes we have to face things, face people, face situations in life that we don’t like to deal with,” he said. “It can feel like everybody is out to get you. That’s when you have to refuse to succumb, make people realize you are a force—but you also have to give and take in these situations.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“Of all men the drunkard is the foulest. The thief when he is not stealing is like another. The extortioner does not practice in the home. The murderer when he is at home can wash his hands. But the drunkard stinks and vomits in his own bed and dissolves his organs in alcohol.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“That’s right: Duff McKagan, king of beers, viscount of vodka, count of coke. Champion of the world. Asshole.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“Slash was already in a league of his own and watching him play guitar was a “holy shit” moment.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“Maracaña Stadium was the biggest in the world! Frank Sinatra had played there, Paul McCartney had played there, Pope John Paul II had played there. But us?”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies

“Earlier in life, I had gauged masculinity by how tough someone was in a threatening situation. More recently I’d come to understand that such bravado was usually a mask for fear. My biggest challenge, and the core of what I now saw as true manliness, was being honest with myself and others and being forthright and true in my actions and dealings with my family, friends, and business associates.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy (and other lies): The Autobiography

“Yes, confidence was knowing I could do anything. But, I realized, confidence must always be rooted in work. In sweat. In pain—good pain. And in honesty.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy (and other lies): The Autobiography

“Look, we know the industry is changing,” Scott said, “but we don’t want to work with people like that.” The guy took the bait: “No way, I treat my artists like family. That would never happen with me.” Then Scott dropped the bomb: “That friend was this guy here,” he said, pointing to me, “and you’re the asshole who didn’t have the decency to make the courtesy call. Get the fuck out of here.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy (and other lies): The Autobiography

“Confidence is knowing you can do something even before you try it. Could I be a good father? Yes.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy (and other lies): The Autobiography

“Benny placed a lot of importance on honesty. “Start every day with a clear conscience,” he said. “You should be able to wake up, go to the mirror in your bathroom, look yourself right in the eye, and say, ‘I didn’t lie to anyone I encountered yesterday,’ ‘I didn’t skirt an issue yesterday.’ If you lead an honest life, there are no regrets.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy (and other lies): The Autobiography

“One of the best and most simple edicts in Benny’s teachings was his definition of confidence: “Knowing you can do something even before you try it.” Imagine that. Imagine being asked whether you can run a marathon and answering yes even though you have never done it. Ukidokan was about having full confidence that you were capable of anything.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy (and other lies): The Autobiography

“Initially I rode my heavy old mountain bike just to stave off the shakes, but I quickly realized riding made me feel better. And it was something to fill the time. Those first few days I just rode around aimlessly and only realized I’d been out for a long time when darkness gathered. Without ever thinking about it, I soon found myself riding around for eight hours a day—slowly, in flat areas, but all day long. My muscles ached each morning. I hadn’t exercised for years. But the soreness lifted my spirit. Not spirit as in mood, but my actual spirit—my body was so wrecked from abuse that my spirit was the only thing keeping me afloat, all I had left. After about a week of long flat rides, I began to challenge myself on the bike. Seattle is hilly and I had no trouble finding steeper and steeper climbs to test my endurance and my tolerance for pain. These increasingly hard rides came to represent a form of self-flagellation, a way to punish myself for all the damage I had done to myself and others. I could feel this healthy new kind of pain searing every muscle fiber and neuron in my body.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy (and other lies): The Autobiography

“I’d done everything; I didn’t want to die, but I could be proud of not having left anything unsaid or undone. That’s what it meant to wake up with a clear conscience, to be honest.”
― Duff McKagan, It's So Easy: And Other Lies