Page 8 - Duff McKagan Case Study

Then, he panicked completely when he thought about admitting to

someone,

“I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing.”

"I was 30 years old, sober, a millionaire - and I didn't

know what a stock or a bond was, and didn't really trust

anybody in my industry, so I went to a class at a

community college."

So he did the most unlikely thing a rock star could do: he went to

college. He decided to take some basic finance classes first at Santa

Monica Community College

McKagan learned to read his Guns N’ Roses profit-and-loss statements

and found that unlike many musicians, he wasn’t cheated by his

accountants. He figured out that despite listed expenses such as yachts

and private jets, he wasn’t in bad financial shape. That’s because the

profit side of the ledger showed that Guns N’ Roses released the most

successful debut album ever – ‘Appetite For Destruction’.

"It took me twice as long as an 18- or 19-year old just

out of high school to do the homework, but I got

through it"