True Stories: Duff McKagan was lying in a hospital bed with digestive enzymes leaking from his severely damaged pancreas and burning the tissues inside his abdomen. The Guns N’ Roses bassist was only 30, but years of extreme drinking and dr*g use had pushed his body toward organ failure. His pancreas had swollen to the size of a football, and the pain was so unbearable that he begged a surgeon to end his life. Doctors warned that he might not survive. Then his mother, who was battling Parkinson’s disease, walked into his hospital room and saw her youngest son surrounded by tubes. That moment changed everything.
It was May 1994.
McKagan had spent the previous decade living inside one of the most successful and destructive rock bands in the world.
Guns N’ Roses had sold millions of records.
Their concerts filled stadiums.
Their albums dominated the charts.
And McKagan had enough money to live almost any way he wanted.
But behind the success, his body was deteriorating.
He had become dependent on alcohol and dr*gs to get through ordinary days.
Drinking was no longer something he did to celebrate after a concert.
It had become something he needed just to function.
He later admitted that he sometimes woke up with a drink already waiting beside his bed.
His consumption had reached frightening levels.
At different points, he described drinking enormous quantities of vodka and wine every day.
He was also using dr*gs.
His physical condition worsened.
He experienced bleeding, sores, and other signs that his body was struggling.
Yet he continued.
. . . . . . . . . .
Read the rest of this horrendous – and courageous — story here:
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Photo: Duff McKagan | From True Stories’s Facebook page
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