Part 2: Guns 'N Roses bassist focuses on second act of life in new book

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Bass Player Duff McKagan survived Guns 'N Roses, and sex drugs, and rock and roll to have children of his own - teenagers now, who know him only as a sober Dad with plenty of cautionary tales to tell.

"It started when my eldest was in 3rd grade and she asked, 'hey Dad, when the other parents drink wine, why don't you drink wine?' That was an opportunity to have a talk with her," McKagan says.

By the time of that conversation, the rocker had already been sober for years - sober since he almost died at the age of thirty.

"Why did I get sober? My pancreas burst," he said.

He was scared straight - and even abandoned music for a while to go back to college.

"Couple of times I got just at the very beginning, 'hey could you sign this CD for me?' and then that was it. It was all about school," McKagan adds.

He discovered a talent for writing, and told about Guns N Roses in a memoir but his second book is for parents, told from his unique perspective.

"I discovered my daughter was 15 and listening to the same music I was listening to at 15," he says, "and it suddenly just changed her whole head and she was writing songs, and getting the stuff out."

Grace McKagan is now 17 years old, and headlining her own shows while her sister does her makeup. Both have a father determined to help them avoid the pitfalls that once tripped him up.

"I learned so much, and now I can be a really good Dad because I know stuff. I know it firsthand," McKagan adds.