By Jim Morrison
Tracii Guns briefly was part of a marriage of Los Angeles bands named Guns N’ Roses, but he left before fame arrived to found Sunset Strip sleaze metal group L.A. Guns.
While he has been in and out of other groups over the last 40 years, he’s always returned to the Guns, most recently reuniting with singer Phil Lewis nine years ago after the two of them had been fronting competing versions of the band. Their latest, “Leopard Skin,” arrives in April in the wake of singles including “Taste It,” a fun confection that fits with their best.
Guns brings the band to Elevation 27 on May 4.
Veer: Tell me about getting back together this last time.
Guns: In 2015 somebody had talked Phil and I into doing like the 25th anniversary of the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas. And the promoter really wanted to get us to perform. I think we did five songs and the place was jammed.
We had to rehearse for a day. Phil and I always got along great. We did the show, and that was it, it was, Oh, that’s interesting kind of thing. And then toward the end of 2016, I guess, we got an offer to play at this hair metal festival just south of L.A. at a place called Irvine Meadows. They wanted us to go on like three in the afternoon. And I was like, well, no, you know, that doesn’t do us any good. If we’re gonna do something, you gotta do something and see what kind of impact it has. I asked if we could headline the smaller stage out on this big meadow. They agreed to that. And so we’re like, okay, so that way, you know, we got a full hour and 15 minutes set. We could really see what the interest was for the band, pulling people away from the main pavilion, and it was a slam dunk. We nailed it. We took 10,000 people from the pavilion, put them in this meadow, and it looked insane. Really great show.
We got a lot of really good media coverage from that show, and we got three record deal offers the next week. I called Phil, I said, Hey, look, you know, here’s the reality, you know, we can do this. We can make records.
So it kind of started out as a business thing. And Phil was very leery because he knows how sketchy I am. I said now’s the time to do this. Let’s just do it one record at a time and see how it goes. And so we agreed.
We did that first record back together and we had great success, you know. So when things are fun everybody wants to hang around, and everybody wants to keep doing it. And now it’s 2025, and we have our sixth record coming out.
Veer: There were two L.A. Guns there for a while, right?
Guns: There was. I split for 12 years, yeah, and they were doing Phil’s L.A. Guns. The guys he was playing with couldn’t let go, and they finally did. But yeah, that was really uncomfortable and awkward.
Veer: Was it easier the second, third or fourth time around, putting the band back together?
Guns: That’s the thing about having a band for so long. First of all, who wants to hang around for 40 years with the same people, right? We’ve arrived at a place now where the band is like a family more than it ever was. We all like each other. We all laugh at the same jokes. We all kind of are on the same page, as far as how we live our lives and the music that we all enjoy, and what we’re able to do and what we’re not able to do. So there’s so much chemistry that goes into any relationship with humans, especially multiple humans at the same time, including management and agent and label people. We’ve been just really lucky. The thing is, there’s nothing else I can do so I gotta, I gotta find the best way for me to do that. And L.A. Guns is definitely the best way.
Veer: Was there a moment when you were working together when you knew the writing was going to work again?
Guns: That’s a really interesting question. So when Phil agreed let’s make this first record and see how it goes, I sent him all that music. He writes me back and he goes, Hey, I got to talk to you. Like, okay, so we get on the phone and goes, I’m so happy right now, I don’t know what to write. I’m like, oh, that’s a problem. So I have a guy, really good friend of mine named Mitch Davis, who is responsible for this music project called Orba Squara, where he just writes for everything that we hear on TV and the radio. And he’s a very special clever guy.
I asked Phil if he would mind getting together with my friend Mitch and seeing what they could come up with together. And Phil was a little standoffish, but I had Mitch write a couple things for Phil, so Phil could check it out, and Phil fell in love with it.
And now those two have done all the writing together. So for me, it’s great because I write the stuff (music), and then Adam Hamilton, that’s a studio drummer, I send him the stuff, and he sends me drum tracks, and I flush out all the music. And then Johnny (Martin) comes and Ace (Von Johnson) come and they play guitar and bass. Once I get a rough mix, then I send everything to Mitch and Phil. I don’t hear from them for three months, you know, and then it gets done, and then I hear everything, and I’m blown away.
That methodology is completely changed from the first 10 years. Because the first 10 years, you know, we’d have to go in the rehearsal room. Everybody brought in more ideas and spent a lot of money on the studios. No doubt, those are great records, but we’re making the same quality stuff now, just a completely different methodology. And, you know, at the end of the day, it’s about the songs, and do they sound good?
Veer: It’s like working from home.
Guns: On the last five records we’ve never played together as a band, not even once. Adam and I are the guys that engineer the records now, and we’re able to use a little bit of tricks with our recording methods to make it sound like a live band. When we’re able to achieve that, that’s when we get really excited. That’s what we want. We have a lot of fun.
Veer: After 40 years, is it hard to find ideas?
Guns: I don’t know if it’s hard or easy, but I but when it’s time, I find that it’s very easy, that things kind of come out of the sky and it’s always surprising, you know, like, Man, I didn’t think I would come up with this many riffs again and again and again and again and, but that’s just how I’ve always done it. So I just don’t question it. And it’s always terrifying, the first day sitting alone, going, Okay, what do I got? You know, what’s gonna happen here? And then it just turns into like a, like a school art project. That’s really the best way to describe it. Once I’m getting I get into it, and the ideas just start flowing, and I start talking to the other band members and sending them little things that I’ve done, and they’re like, Yeah, fuck yeah, you know. So when you have the cheerleading squad, it really helps.
