Happy Birthday Duff!

The coolest guy on the planet.

Andrew "Duff" McKagan was born on this date, February 5, in 1964. Since then he has played on over 34 albums and is best known as the bass guitarist for Guns N' Roses.

He wrote the GN'R songs "It's So Easy" and "So Fine."

Duff currently sings and plays guitar for his band Loaded.

Loaded's new full-length record, Sick, is due out in March.

His band Velvet Revolver is currently on hiatus.

In addition to his Rock 'N' Roll pursuits, Duff is blogging for SeattleWeekly.com.

He also writes a financial column for Playboy: Appetite for Investment: Duffanomics, where his mission is: 1) To educate, and 2) To bring down The Man.

In his own words: "I am sick and tired of hearing of these Wall Street assholes getting huge bonus packages from our bailout tax dollars. What a lot of these people did to all of us in the first place is just plain criminal. I have never been keen on executives getting golden parachutes; I’m more apt to give them a golden shower."

A little known fact about Duff is that the beer from The Simpsons was named after him (Duff's pancreas exploded in 1994).

Happy Birthday Duff!

Read my reviews of Duff's solo albums, Believe in Me and Beautiful Disease.

You can also read an interview with Duff from 1999 here.