Watch Duff McKagan and Mark Lanegan cover an outlaw country classic with members of Foo Fighters and Afghan Whigs

Duff McKagan
(Image credit: KEXP)

Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan has joined forces with Mark Lanegan, and members of Death Cab For Cutie, Foo Fighters, The Afghan Whigs and Modest Mouse to record a cover of Jimmy Webb’s outlaw country classic The Highwayman in support of SMooCH 2020, this year’s virtual edition of an annual benefit show to support the Seattle Children’s Hospital. 

Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel, Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brook are among those contributing to the cover, which has previously been recorded by country legends Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Glen Campbell.

In unrelated Duff McKagan news, Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard is releasing 1982, a previously unheard album from McKagan’s old band, The Living, on his Loosegroove label in 2021. 

Speaking about the album recently, Gossard told of his excitement at releasing the album for the first time, claiming that it shows how McKagan was absolutely central to the birth of the grunge scene in Seattle, prior to his move to Los Angeles and his subsequent decision to join Guns N’ Roses. “He was the guy,” says Gossard, “and clearly this record proves that.”

Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.