Tuesday 6th January 2015 by Andy Morris

Duff McKagan to publish new book, How To Be a Man

Guns N Roses bassist to share masculine wisdom

The Dirty Version - Buddha Monk and Mickey Hess: This memoir examines Monk's tumultuous relationship with rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard, who died of an overdose ten years ago. It's co-written by Monk and Mickey Hess, a professor at Rider College, New Jersey.

Kurt Cobain, The Last Session: When the Nirvana frontman turned up to what would turn out to be his last ever photo shoot, he asked for a bucket to be sick into. As photographer Jesse Frohman recalls, "I didn't know then that Kurt had taken an overdose." The resulting photos are both beautiful and historically important, and are reproduced in beautiful hardbook here.

Love Goes To Buildings On Fire - Will Hermes: Chronicling the various music scenes with which New York was brimming in the mid-1970s, Hermes' book travels from New Year's Day 1973 to New Year's Eve 1977, and covers punk rock, hip hop, disco, salsa and everything in-between.

The Art Of Disco - Soul Jazz: Edited by Disco Patrick (yes, his name is Disco), this book contains over 2000 album covers and 700 disco sleeves, and is 12" x 12" to ensure nothing is lost.

A Man Called Destruction, The Life And Music Of Alex Chilton - Holly George-Warren: Spanning from his time in The Box Tops to his time as a dishwasher after a fall from grace, George-Warren has interviewed more than 100 of Chilton's bandmates, friends and family members to chronicle four decades of American musical history.

Nick Drake, Remembered For A While - Gabrielle Drake: Compiled by his sister Gabrille, Remembered For A While compirises family photos, song analysis, essays and tributes to the singer, who died in 1974 aged 26. The book also includes diary entries from Drake's father Rodney, which concludes on his son's suicide with, "The worst day of our lives... So ends in tragedy our three-year struggle."

Future Days, Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany - David Stubbs: Described as "the definitive guide to Kosmische musik", Future Days examines the generation of musicians in the 1960s who developed the experimental sounds of Krautrock.

Possibilities - Herbie Hancock: Amongst many insights, the jazz legend's memoir reveals his battle with crack cocaine addiction. Writing about his first experience with the drug, Hancock writes candidly: "I closed my eyes and thought, 'Oh, shit, I should never have done this.' This stuff was obviously way too dangerous to mess with."

Assassinated Beauty - Kevin Cummins: Comprising the best photos Cummins took of The Manic Street Preachers from 1992 to 1995, Assassinated Beauty captures, to paraphrase Cummins himself, both the band's swagger and their inherent melancholy.

Touching From A Distance - Deborah Curtis: The biography of Joy Division's Ian Curtis was originally published in 1995, and has now been re-issued nearly 20 years later by Faber & Faber. Its title it taken from the band's 1979 single 'Transmission', released just a year before Curtis committed suicide.

Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys - Viv Albertine: The Slits member was a rare female voice during the birth of punk, and so her memoir offers a unique and gripping narrative of the band that inspired a generation of musicians.

Jerry Lee Lewis, His Own Story - Rick Bragg: A biography that neither romanticises Lewis's character, nor shies away from his darker days, of which there are many. When the IRS seized all of his possessions for example, or when he married his 13-year-old cousin, describing her, unpleasantly, as "blossomed out and ready for plucking." An illuminating depiction of a talented musician and a troubling human being.

Dancing With Myself - Billy Idol: It took Idol six years to write his new autobiography - probably because he spent a long time "typing with two fingers" - but it's worth the wait, particularly if you're a fan of weird trivia. Did you know that Idol was cast as the villain in Terminator 2 until a motorcycle accident meant he had to pull out?

Anger Is An Energy - John Lydon: This book details Johnny Rotten's life from his upbringing in an Irish enclave of London to his time in The Sex Pistols, and still finds time for a generous helping of snide comments. Band Aid, for example, he described as "all smuggery and naked ambition and self-righteous patting on backs."

The Big Midweek, Life Inside The Fall - Steve Hanley: Hanley's autobiography is written in the present tense, as if the reader is there with him through his turbulent times with The Fall, and the years of unpleasant treatment he apparently endured at the hands of Mark E. Smith. It's also endearing self-effacing, with Hanley writing "It's always been New Order, The Smiths and The Fall. Or The Smiths, New Order and The Fall."

Chapter And Verse - Bernard Sumner: The new memoir from the Joy Division and New Order member drew unsurprising criticism from Sumner's estranged former bandmate Peter Hook, who said: "It is a shame, not just for us and the fans, but maybe also for the book stores who won't know whether to file this under fantasy or tragedy." Read it and decide for yourself if you're on Team Hook or Team Sumner.

I'm The Man, The Story Of That Guy From Anthrax - Scott Ian: This book didn't go down well with Anthrax's former lead singer Neil Turbin, who compared it to Lord Of The Rings and accused Ian of "fabricat[ing] lies about me in order to draw attention to [himself]." Ian's response? "Lord Of The Rings is one of my favourite books of all time. I have to thank him for that I guess."

Rocks, My Life In And Out Of Aerosmith - Joe Perry: The good, the bad and the ugly parts of Perry's life story are included in this autobiography - "It wasn't a lot of fun," he said of his battles with drink and drugs, "but it was cathartic in some ways."

The Universal Tone, My Life - Carlos Santana: If you're hoping that some salatious gossip lies within the 544 pages of the Santana frontman's memoir, you'll be disappointed - "That's just not my trip." Instead, it's what he describes as a "celestial memory", which explores his life through exploring philosophy and spirituality.

Special Deluxe, A Memoir Of Life & Cars - Neil Young: Following on from the success of his first memoir, Waging Heavy Peace, Young has decided to try his hand at writing another. This one tells Young's life story through the narrative of every car he's ever owned.

Guns & Roses veteran Duff McKagan will publish a new book entitled How To Be a Man (And Other Illusions).

Set for release on 12 May on Da Capo Press, it features the Velvet Revolver bassist McKagan's thoughts on assorted topics, including how to manage family life off the tour bus and the struggles with sobriety.

It stems from a Seattle Weekly column of the same name which features a series of points on the modern nature of masculinity including being a man of your word (including quoting a Destiny's Child lyric), the importance of learning how to fight, why 'monogamy is key' and why housework and raising family are "man's work".

There's also the "black belt level man stuff" of listening to your partner when they are frustrated with a work issue.

"We will try to actually converse when she is deep into a story about the boss being a dick, or some other friend of hers doing your girl wrong," says McKagan. "Do not even try to fix this situation! Your sweety just wants you to listen. Hell, you don't even have to agree. Just listen."

As Blabbermouth reports, McKagan told Total Rock Radio that his book should be a genuinely insightful text. "It's a how-to guide of things I've learned about life – being a dad, being a husband and being in a rock band. And it's, like, a city guide in it, but a very tongue-in-cheek city guide; like, how I see cities. It's got all kinds of stuff. And other stories. And hopefully it's gonna be a funny book."

McKagan's first book It's So Easy (And Other Lies) was released in 2012. He last performed with Guns & Roses in 2010.