Andy Taylor says the reason he quit Duran Duran was “creative, not personal”
Andy Taylor of Duran Duran has revealed that the reason he quit the band was due to “creative” reasons, and was “not personal”.
Taylor played with Duran Duran on-and-off between 1980 and 2006, and was set to reunite with them last year when they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, but a setback in his treatment for stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer forced him to miss the occasion.
The musician, 62, has now opened up about his reasons for quitting the new wave band after decades of rumours about feuds, sharing that it was “creative, not personal”.
In a new interview Classic Pop magazine (via MusicNews), the guitarist said that it “bugged” him that the band brought in a wider circle of people for 2007 album ‘Red Carpet Massacre‘, which was produced largely by Timbaland.
“I couldn’t do the Timbaland album, because it just didn’t move me,” he said. “I was saying to the others, ‘Why do we need this?’
“There’s so much talent in that band, I never felt the need to bring other people in to write with Duran. It bugged me.” He continued: “It wasn’t about getting my own way.”
He added that he wasn’t able to put the band first, sharing: “The general feeling was, ‘You should come with us over here’ and I just couldn’t. I don’t know what it is with me that means I just can’t do that.
“It felt like someone shutting an elevator door on me that I couldn’t get past. There has to be a balance, and I couldn’t feel it. I had the same feeling as I had when I left during [1986 album] ‘Notorious’: ‘I’m going to miss all this…again.’”
Back in March, Duran Duran shared that they were “working on an album right now that is going to be coming out at the end of the year” and that Taylor would be playing guitar on it.
This week, they announced their new single ‘Danse Macabre’ coming August 30.
Earlier this month, Taylor has said a drug he is taking to treat his cancer, which he was diagnosed with in 2018, has extended his life by five years.
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Hollie Geraghty
NME
