Duff to Jam with Seattle symphony

Duff McKagan will join Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready for a one-off performance with the Seattle Symphony next year.

The concert is scheduled to take place in January in an event titled Sonic Evolution. It will celebrate Seattle’s rock music history with new compositions of songs by bands including Pearl Jam and Nirvana.

McKagan tells VH1 Radio: “Mike brought something up about it a couple of months ago and I’m pretty tight with Mike – we’ve been good buddies since we were 16. It might be him and I and Barrett Martin.”

McKagan’s Seattle band Walking Papers released their self-titled debut album in 2012, with McKagan and drummer Martin joined by McCready for the recording.

The former Guns n’Roses bassist recently insisted Velvet Revolver had no plans to work with frontman Scott Weiland again, saying that era was “played out” despite the singer’s attempts to talk up a series of “easy money” festival shows. But he and bandmate Slash have agreed the band still have a future.

Sonic Evolution will take place at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall on January 30.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent 35 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott keeps Louder’s buyer’s guides up to date, writes about the best deals for music fans, keeps on top of the latest tech releases and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 10 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald newspapers, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.