Beautiful Disease is an unreleased solo album by Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan which was slated to be released as his second solo album in 1999. However, it was shelved after a merger between McKagan's parent label Polygram and Universal,[3] and McKagan lost the rights to release it.
The album was supposed to be released on Duff McKagan's birthday February 5, 1999.[5] The promotional campaign for the album was started by Geffen Records with promo copies being distributed. During the same time a merger between Polygram and Universal occurred and Geffen was merged with A&M Records into Interscope and McKagan's album was among others that was shelved.[6]
During the tour McKagan came up with the idea to release a live album that would include the unreleased material.[3][5] This resulted in Loaded's Episode 1999: Live live album that featured six songs from Beautiful Disease: "Seattlehead", "Superman", "Shinin' Down", "Missing You", "Then and Now" and "Mezz".
The songs "Seattlehead", "Superman", and "Then and Now" were eventually re-recorded and released on Loaded's debut studio album Dark Days.
In 2023, McKagan's manager managed to acquire the rights and master tapes to Beautiful Disease,[8] leading to the inclusion of a new mix of "Hope" (with newly recorded vocals) on McKagan's 2023 album Lighthouse, including the original performances from Slash and Abe Laboriel Jr.
Despite McKagan now being in possession of the original album again, no mention has been made of an official release of the original record.
Track listing
All songs written by Duff McKagan, except where noted.[1]
