'Those Boneheads On TV Just Want To Make Themselves Come Off As Smart . . .'

I doubt many people read Playboy for business advice, but this could be an interesting experiment, considering how much money this guy has blown.

Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses fame celebrates his 45th birthday today with a new job - a national financial columnist on a mean mission.

Playboy magazine hired the rocker for an undisclosed sum to write a crusading column aimed at skewering and reforming the crooked ways of Wall Street.

McKagan claims he's entitled to strum all the sour notes he wants about the wrecked economy. After all, he's made a ton of money as a rocker and learned to save lots of it after kicking drugs and booze.

Answering critics who would doubt his expertise, McKagan said he began studying finance in 1994 after "I got sober."

With time on his hands, he said he rummaged a file drawer full of old financial statements covering a six-year period at Guns N' Roses, only to discover they were too confusing to comprehend and were "meant to mislead."

After plunging into the study of finance and economics at Santa Monica Community College - and later at Albers School of Business at Seattle University (he's just a few credits shy of a college degree) - the bass player became a widely quoted media source about the economics of music and rock bands.

McKagan admits, however, he doesn't understand all the technical ins and outs of high finance, but says TV's talking heads don't, either.

"Those boneheads on TV just want to make themselves come off as smart . . . I hope to shed some no-nonsense light on day-to-day money issues," he wrote, closing his salty commentary with a promise: "I will do my best to expose frauds and criminals, one at a time."