From Guns N' Roses Bassist To Money Manager

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Duff McKagan`s pancreas exploded in 1994and he credits the case with leading him to his current role: money manager tothe rock star posse.

The old Guns N` Roses bassist wasforced to recover after the pancreatic burst all those year ago, and, soberand bored, he stumbled across the band`s financial statement from the previousfew years.

He told Fortune,

I couldn`t makesense of it. I didn`t know how often we had made or lost on the tour. As a 30year-old millionaire, how do I take to someone that I don`t recognize what the fuckI`m doing?

I didn`t wantto be 60 years old and broke, having made all this money in my twenties_thatwas my simple goal.

So what did he do? He enrolled in afinance course at a community college in California, and loved it so much, hepursued it. He was accepted into in Seattle University`s Albers School ofBusiness, and in no time was managing his own portfolio, Fortune says.

When news traveled throughout the musicworld that McKagan knew something about managing and investing money, his phonebegan to ring. Other musicians were in the same jam he`d been in years earlier- they had no thought how to do their finances.

The simple fact that his friends were looking for advice from a guy with only a few years ofschooling under his belt led him to take another epiphany. Most rock stars knownothing about their finances. Some don`t need to know - but others are kept inthe dark, or are too self-conscious to ask simple questions. And yet, they werecomfortable talking about money matters with McKagan, who was one of their own- so what if he could span the gap between the musicians and the suits?

So he, along with former banker and venture capitalist Andy Bottomsley, founded wealth management firm Meridian Rock.

FYI, apparently Bottomsley`s own venture firm, Imprimatur Capital, counts Paul Tudor Jones as an investor.

Now the couple is interviewing moneymanagers on both sides of the Atlantic.

McKagan says "most bankers overestimatethe "window" in which music acts are guaranteed income, which he places at threeto five years. The musicians themselves are equally clueless, he adds." ButMcKagan, having been there himself, is not. And that`s why he thinks he canhelp.

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