For the last decade and change, Duff McKagan has claimed The Simpsons named their flagship brew, Duff Beer, after him. Since the Guns N' Roses bassist recently reiterated that he's the real-life Duffman, Jay Kogen — an original writer-producer on the show — has arrived to humble him.
McKagan's claim found its way back into the news cycle after an interview with he did with Stereogum. "So I was Duff, the King of Beers," he said. "But this is 1988, 1989 and our management, I remember they called me and said some arthouse-like cartoon wants to use your name as the beer, like a college arthouse cartoon. There weren't any adult cartoons at this point."
He continued: "I didn't know about branding or anything like that, but that show took off. And then they started selling merch and stuff. I never went after him, but I'm like, 'Hey, motherfuckers,' you know?"
A TMZ reporter then took this re-telling to Kogen, who flat out denied McKagan's influence over Duff Beer: "It's very weird this Duff McKagan guy wants to claim credit for Duff Beer ... He had zero to do with it," he responded.
As for its real namesake, Kogen said it wasn't that deep: "We named it Duff because it's a synonym for butt, tushy, booty, and so on," he said, later adding that it wouldn't have been funny to name it after a rockstar as "Duff is a beer for people who sat on their fat ass all day."
Moreover, Kogen said no one working on The Simpsons at the time knew any other Guns N' Roses member besides Axl Rose. Perhaps a burn for McKagan, but possibly a worse one for Slash.
