GUNS N' ROSES bassist Duff McKagan says that he and Slash worked "hard" on trying to get Izzy Stradlin involved with the band's reunion tour.
While GUNS N' ROSES ' "Not In This Lifetime" trek features the "classic era" lineup of McKagan , Slash and singer Axl Rose — with the occasional guest appearance by drummer Steven Adler — Stradlin has not taken part in any shows on the tour, with unconfirmed reports claiming that he turned down a five-figure fee to play with GUNS N' ROSES at the April 2016 reunion shows.
Now, in a new interview in the "Rolling Stone Music Now" podcast, McKagan has offered more information on the circumstances that led to Izzy 's absence from the trek.
According to Duff , Izzy 's decision to sit out the tour "wasn't from us not trying, for sure. I don't know if have a take beyond that," he said. "I know what we tried to do and how hard we worked at that.
"Touring in a big rock band is not for everybody," he continued. "That's my take on that. It's a thing — this is a thing."
Asked about Stradlin 's claim that he stepped away from the reunion because the band didn't want to "split the loot equally," McKagan said: "I don't even know. At the end of the day, we just couldn't figure it out."
Duff went on to address Izzy 's history of "coming and going" from various projects, including a brief stint with Duff and Slash 's post GN'R band VELVET REVOLVER .
"There's a lot of coming and going, so this was one more chapter of that coming and going," Duff said in reference to Izzy pulling out of "Not In This Lifetime" .
"I don't wanna say anything that's untoward, because I love the guy," the bassist continued. " Slash and I are sober guys, and we went at it with a solution-based [attitude], like, 'Let's make this work.' But it just didn't. And who knows? Maybe some other time."
Asked whether he thinks the GUNS N' ROSES reunion is finite, Duff said: "I don't have that feeling at all, [that] it's a finite thing.
"Because we've done no press yet, nobody knows," he continued. "And I kind of dig it, to be honest with you. I'm not trying to keep you in the dark. I don't dig the feeling of keeping you in the dark, but it's kind of nice. It's a thing where nobody needs to know our business. I think that's… We got into trouble a long time ago, where people knew all of our business… So we talk about things to each other now — something that maybe we never did before."
Last year, Izzy blamed his non-involvement with the GUNS N' ROSES reunion tour on the fact that he and the other guys in the band were unable "to reach a happy middle ground through the negotiation process."
Rose told Brazil's Globo TV in a 2016 interview that wasn't optimistic about Stradlin rejoining his former bandmates. "I don't really know what to say about Izzy ," Axl said. "It's like you could have a conversation and think it's one way and the next day it's another way. And I'm not trying to take any shots at Izzy . It's just his thing is kind of his thing, whatever that is."
Stradlin , whose real name is Jeffrey Isbell , was born and grew up in Lafayette, Indiana, where he was high school friends and bandmates with singer William Bailey — later known as Axl Rose .
His first and only post- GUNS band, IZZY STRADLIN & THE JU JU HOUNDS , broke up in 1993 after recording one LP. He has since released 10 more solo albums between 1998 and 2010.
