Duff McKagan Insists That ‘The Simpsons’ Duff Beer Was Named After Him

Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan asserts that The Simpsons named Duff Beer after him. In an interview with Stereogum, McKagan tells of how an upstart cartoon reached out to the band’s management. “So I was Duff, the King of Beers,” McKagan reveals. “This is 1988, 1989, and our management called me and said some arthouse-like cartoon wants to use your name as the beer. I didn’t know about branding, but that show took off. And then they started selling merch and stuff. I never went after him, but I’m like, ‘Hey, motherfu*kers!’” McKagan made this same claim in his 2011 autobiography, It’s So Easy: and other lies: “In 1988, MTV aired a concert in which Axl introduced me as Duff ‘The King of Beers’ McKagan. Soon after a production company working on a new animated series called me to ask if they could use the name ‘Duff’ for a brand of beer in the show.” (Ultimate Classic Rock)