Duff McKagan Quotes

You leave part of yourself on every stage you're on. How could you not live in the air somehow?

When I'm on stage, it's like a different world ... me connecting with the audience. It's a surreal experience.

There is something about the stage that makes it so much better than being in the studio. I always connect with my audience; a concert to me is a collaboration between me and the audience, and I love it so much.

The stage is the best experience in the world. It's a great compliment to be able to share the music, because people can hear my album but they don't get to make the connection in the same way as when it's one-to-one.

Intimacy comes from being yourself on the stage and making the audience feel, without trying, that you're sittin' down there with 'em, playing, and that can happen in a big hall, if you have a good audience that want to listen.

That was the ultimate high, playing live. You feel like the Pied Piper, or a conductor, knowing how to take an audience up or bring them down.

The most amazing thing is being onstage and watching the audience sing every song lyric for lyric.

I got on stage and I went, "Oh wow. No stage fright." I couldn't do public speaking, and I couldn't play the piano in front of people, but I could act. I found that being on stage, I felt, "This is home." I felt an immediate right thing, and the exchange between the audience and the actors on stage was so fulfilling. I just went, "That is the conversation I want to have."

I do understand that onstage there are times when you think, 'I could not be more alive than I am at this moment. I can't do most things in life. This is what I'm for.'

I've never, ever in my life enjoyed playing live the way I am now.

On any given night, what allows me to get to that higher ground is the audience.

I love the fact that I can go out there on stage with a guitar and sing a song that means something to somebody.

Singing well has always been important to me, but the most important factor is the connection to the audience.

I much prefer the road. My thing is getting live in front of people. There is a sterile environment to a studio that doesn't make me let go.

There is nothing to compare with the instantaneous feedback a singer gets from the people sitting in front of him. That is where it all comes together - all the rehearsing and working to get everything just exactly right.

When you look into the eyes of your people out there that came to see you, that's when it's like, 'Yep, this is what it's all about.' This is why we don't sleep, and this is why we write songs and try to be the best. This moment right here onstage.

Those minutes that I'm on stage are the best! Being there and looking at the crowd and seeing their faces, hearing them sing the positive words from the songs.

Some artists I know, they would rather not see the audience or envision them. But for me, I'd rather see them. I feel like part of the reason I perform is to feel that connection. It's the reason I love it so much.

Most of the people I hang out with who sing love it, and they just want to do it until they die. I still look forward to the performances. And believe it or not, they're all kind of different. Even though you sing the same songs, and maybe you go to the same venues, it just feels completely different every time you go on stage.

Performing a song is intense. When I see people connecting, it makes it all worthwhile.

When I'm on stage, I know exactly where I am. It's not an ego thing or anything like that, but I am more in my body and aware of myself and aware of what I'm doing, and I feel more from that, from sharing the music.

There's nothing like performing for a live audience.

When I'm singing, I can see so many people, and I can see their response and everything. And being somewhere like the Hollywood Bowl, I'm seeing those immediate people in front of me, but other than that, it's just dots, and I'm just imagining who's out there and imagining their responses.

The first time I stepped on stage and I started singing, I knew that I wanted to do it for the rest of my life.

When you can connect with a live audience and you get that immediate response it's just great.