Duff McKagan: "Duffonomics"

McKagan has two minor acting credits; in 1988, he appeared with his Guns N' Roses band mates in the Dirty Harry film The Dead Pool, and in 1997, he played a rocker vampire in an episode of the television series Sliders. In 1999, he appeared in Anthony Scarpa's documentary film Betty Blowtorch and Her Amazing True Life Adventures, which focuses on the all-female hard rock band Betty Blowtorch, whose debut EP Get Off McKagan produced the same year.

• In addition to his musical career, McKagan has established himself as a writer. Since August 2008, McKagan writes a weekly column for SeattleWeekly.com, from January to December 2009, he wrote a weekly financial column titled "Duffonomics" for Playboy.com, and since January 2011, he writes a weekly sports column for ESPN.com. McKagan's autobiography, It's So Easy (And Other Lies), was released on October 4, 2011.

In 2011, McKagan founded Meridian Rock, a wealth management firm for musicians. Headed by McKagan and British investor Andy Bottomley, the firm aims to educate musicians about their finances.

On May 10, 1994, at the age of 30, McKagan became gravely ill due to acute alcohol-induced pancreatitis, which caused his pancreas to swell to the size of a football and leak digestive enzymes into his body, causing third-degree burns. He was taken to Northwest Hospital and Medical Center in Seattle, where he was monitored until the swelling went down. He was told by his doctors that he would be dead within a month if he did not stop drinking. Although McKagan had made previous attempts to curb his alcoholism (which had become so notorious that, according to his autobiography, the fictional product Duff Beer on The Simpsons was named for him) this health crisis was his incentive to become sober for good.

A high school drop-out, McKagan enrolled in a basic finance course at Santa Monica Community College in 1994; he explained that going over the financial records from his Guns N' Roses days had made him want to understand the process more, stating, "I couldn't make sense of it. I didn't know how much we had made or lost on the tour. As a 30 year-old millionaire, how do I admit to somebody that I don't know what the fuck I'm doing?"In 2000, after attending several more classes at Seattle Central Community College, he enrolled full-time at Seattle University's Albers School of Business and Economics.When Velvet Revolver took off in his final year as an undergraduate student, McKagan took a hiatus from business school to go on tour; he is still one semester short of graduating.

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