Live Photos By Travis Failey/Rocket Sports & Entertainment
Phil Lewis is the most recognizable frontman and lead singer of the LA glam rock band, L.A. GUNS from the Sunset Strip’s hair metal scene. His vocals, stage presence, and his fashionable stage wear has mesmerized his fans since he first started with L.A. GUNS in 1987. Phil has fronted his own version of L.A. GUNS, aka Phil Lewis’ L.A. GUNS, at times touring during the same time as Tracii Guns’ version of L.A. GUNS after parting ways over 14 years ago in 2002. Tracii and Phil have rejoined together as a ‘true force to be reckoned with’, along with the current L.A. GUNS line-up that includes: Phil Lewis (lead vocals & guitar), Tracii Guns (guitar), Michael Grant (guitar, backing vocals), Johnny Martin (bass & backing vocals), and Shane Fitzgibbon (drums, backing vocals). Phil, Tracii and the band have been working hard on their upcoming new release called The Missing Peace that Phil wholeheartedly admits they’ve both finally found since rejoining forces. I had the recent privilege of interviewing Phil, coincidentally on the very same day that he received his first shipment of The Missing Peace, and so I happened to catch him while he was signing pre-orders, and he was a very, very happy man! It was a great chat, and I managed to pick Phil’s brain about his beginnings, in addition to L.A. GUNS’ upcoming release due out on Friday, October 13, 2017.
KNAC.COM: Hi Phil this is Cynthia from KNAC.COM. How are ya?
LEWIS: Hi Cynthia from KNAC! How you doing? I’m all right, I’m doing okay! I’m having a great, great morning actually my manager Scotty just came over with boxes of the new record LP and CDs that we’re signing, I’m signing right now for the preorders! And, It’s the first time I’ve seen it, it looks fantastic! It put me in a very good mood!
KNAC.COM: That’s wonderful, congratulations!
LEWIS: Yeah, yeah thank you!
KNAC.COM: Well first & foremost, on behalf of KNAC.COM, all of the L.A. GUNS fans out there, and myself thanks so very much for chatting with me today about your first record release with Tracii Guns and the new combined line-up of L.A. GUNS, it is sincerely appreciated!
LEWIS: Well, it’s my pleasure! KNAC and L.A. GUNS have a long history together. I think the first time we were ever played on the radio, certainly in L.A., was on KNAC so it’s good to talk to you!
KNAC.COM: Well, I’d like to get to know you a little bit better so I thought it would be fun to take a step back in time. Are you good with it?
LEWIS: Absolutely!
KNAC.COM: How long have you been singing, and are you naturally blessed with those pipes or did you take vocal lessons from a professional?
LEWIS: No, I guess I’ve been singing my whole life, I was in the choir at school. Believed it or not, I was a choir boy! And I was always a belcher-I was always like screaming at the back, and my music teacher use to turnaround and frown at me because I was louder than all of my other schoolmates. Ummm, and it just sort of went from there ya know? Then I started like buying records and back then when you bought records they had lyric sheets, and I would just put on an LP, and I’d play it all day and I’d just read the lyrics and sing along with it. And so I think I was taught by the best you know; Robert Plant, Freddie Mercury, people that I’d just sing along with and some of it stuck.
KNAC.COM: Did you always aspire to be a frontman and lead singer, or did you fall into it by chance?
LEWIS: No, I lost a bet, I lost a bet and became a singer. I was in a band, me and Gerry Laffy back in the late 70s in a band called GIRL. And we’d been trying to audition singers and we’d seen literally dozens..dozens of people that weren’t right. And so, we were like “Look, it’s going to be either me or you (laughing), let’s flip a coin and whoever loses (laughing), becomes the singer”, because we both wanted to play guitar! And I lost the bet. I lost the coin toss, and ended-up becoming the singer in GIRL. And then we got Phil Collen (DEF LEPPARD), and the rest is history.
KNAC.COM: You mentioned a few singers that you were inspired by, in what way did they inspire you?
LEWIS: Well, they were good you know? Those singers are singers that are pretty much household names. There are some other names you know like Steve Marriott (HUMBLE PIE), Alex Harvey (aka Alexander James Harvey, HARVEY BAND), you know from the other side of side of the pond. Those guys, especially Steve Marriott from HUMBLE PIE was a huge, huge influence-I couldn’t believe that a guy could sound that good, that could sing so high, so loud it was like a male Aretha Franklin. And it blew my mind that somebody-a guy could sing like that! Of course Steve Marriott from like SMALL FACES all the way back to the early 60s just tremendous, incredible, powerful vocalist, great songwriter, amazing musician, huge influence on me. Regrettably, I never actually got to meet him, but even to this day I’m still very influenced by him. I wonder how Steve Marriott would’ve done it, that’s always at the back of my head.
KNAC.COM: So the name of your first band was called GIRL? In what way did that first band experience contribute to where you are today?
LEWIS: Yes, it was called GIRL, and we were trying to be eccentric you know, it was just a couple years after the punk movement, but we weren’t really ugly punks, you know, we were sort of cute, sort of girly looking guys, and so, we just said “Fuck it, we’ll call it GIRL!”, a little ambiguity and a little controversy there, and it worked pretty good! It got us a lot of attention, not necessary the right attention because we came out at a time the new wave of British heavy metal and that featured bands like DEF LEPPARD and IRON MAIDEN who were like real denim & leather, working class kids from the street, and you know even though we were as well, that's something we didn’t really want to aspire to. We wanted to sort of appear a little bit more classy than that! And you know, it backfired terribly in English press, but we still have fans to this day that just love the band so much, and got what we were doing. I mean to be honest, it was never really..I never even thought of it as a career, we were just having fun, and we did a few band practices and then we’d get a gig, and it just sort of snowballed! Naturally and fortunately, it’s provided me a career for years.
KNAC.COM: How would you compare your entrance into the rock and roll music scene as a new artist back in the 80s Hair Metal days in LA to today's music scene and industry?
LEWIS: Ummm, well, we were a band for a start! The concept of a band today is pretty rare. There were lots of bands back then, it just seems like nowadays there aren’t that many bands. There are a lot of artists, there are a lot of people recording, a lot of people putting out music, but the actual concept of a band-the camaraderie of a band like us, like GUNS N’ ROSES, like FASTER PUSSYCAT, you know we were a band, a band of brothers, a gang. I don't see too much of that nowadays.
KNAC.COM: Do you personally feel like there is any real chance of a new rock 'n roll artist successfully being able to make it in today's music industry?
LEWIS: Yeah, I remain hopeful. I think that there will be, but it’s nothing like the avalanche that there was in 70s, 80s and 90s it seems that the whole blueprint seems to have changed. And, I don't know, I mean I think it must be incredibly difficult and frustrating for like 4 or 5 young guys in their late teens early 20s to be taken seriously: “Yeah, we’re a band..and, it’s like oh yeah, of course you are?” I don't know, it's never been easy, but I imagine like now it's harder than ever.
KNAC.COM: So, since we’re discussing the old days so to speak, I’ve got a question from College Station, Texas and Bryan, Texas radio DJ and talk show host Patrick Palmer aka Saint Patrick Palmer for you. Saint Patrick would like to know: Which album do you consider to be L.A. GUNS’ best?
LEWIS: Ummm, that’s such a difficult question. You know I love them all for the most part, but all for different reasons. I love the debut self-titled album not necessarily so much for the way it sounds, but for the vibe, the attitude that it had. I loved Cocked & Loaded, because that was really..a lot of the..well on the first record, a lot of the stuff had been written and conceptualized before I joined the band. Cocked & Loaded was the first record that me and Tracii started from scratch together. So, I loved that. I love Hollywood Vampires, because it was so glossy, it sounds expensive, and we wanted..it was a record where they said we had like an unlimited budget, and it was sonically one of the best things that we’ve ever done. And then after that is Vicious Circle, which I think is amazing because that was an album that we wrote and produced knowing full well that it was over, that the scene had changed, and that we were going to get dropped by the label. And we really didn’t give a fuck what we did, so we did exactly what we wanted, and you can hear it in that record.
There was a lot of pressure on Hollywood Vampires because we’d done so well with Cocked & Loaded, we had a lot of outside influence and record companies, and managers, and accountants, and publicists, and people that really have no business being involved in the creative side, but they were just because it was the nature of the business back then. That all flew out the window with Vicious Circle, we didn't do anything for a long time after that, I left after Vicious Circle. I had a sabbatical for like 6 or 7 years. I came back and we did an album called Greatest Hits and Black Beauties which is just awful..just terrible. Well, because we really didn’t know what we were, we hadn’t found ourselves, we hadn’t played with each other for a long time. We’d been offered a record deal. I was surprised to be invited back when I left after Vicious Circle, I thought that was it, I’m done with L.A. GUNS, I’m done with music as a professional musician. So I was kind of surprised when I ended up coming back, but by the time we got to Waking The Dead, I was back up to speed..we were back up to speed..we knew what we were doing.
And that’s the first record that we recorded with Andy Johns, the late, great Andy Johns, and it was an amazing experience working with him, and it’s the record to this day that I’m incredibly proud of. And it makes me think that I wish if I had a time machine, I wish we could have gone back and had Andy produce all of our records because he really got it, he really understood the band. And then you know from that, it was after Waking The Dead that me and Tracii went in separate directions. I did a couple of L.A. GUNS records without him, I did a cover record Rips Off The Covers, and we did Tales From The Strip, which is great! And Hollywood Forever which I'm forever proud of! And then five years went by after that and there was nothing else going on. And me and Tracii started communicating again, and he was sending me his song ideas, and that was the beginning.
KNAC.COM: Let’s fast forward to today.
LEWIS: Yeah, that’s much concise history!
KNAC.COM: You’ve got a really extensive history! I know that L.A. GUNS has gone through several different lineup changes....
LEWIS: Are you kidding (laughing)..we hold the record! I think there were 47 people out there that at one point in their career they were a member of L.A. GUNS. I mean it's funny now, but I’ve got to be honest, you know when me and Tracii were out touring, both of us as L.A. GUNS, it was confusing as hell and it was a low point in the band’s history. It’s something that I'm not terribly proud of but looking back at it, now it’s funny that everything’s patched up and we’ve got more than our metal with this record. It’s alright, you know, I just try and have a laugh about it.
KNAC.COM: So, when did you both start to discuss the possibility of reuniting as L.A. GUNS after those 14 years?
LEWIS: Yeah, I hadn’t seen him at all in those 14 years-it was strange. Not even in a music store, or at a gig, or at a club or anything, we literally just completely fell off of each other’s planet! There was an event taking place Christmas of 2014-it was an event in Vegas-a fundraiser, a charity gig “Toys For Tots” to raise money for the kids, needy kids at Christmas. People could either donate money or bring an unopened toy. Tracii signed up to do it with his band, and Jason Greene (SIN CITY SINNERS manager) the organizer called me and said that “Tracii’s doing it, how do you feel about getting up and doing a few songs?” and you know I wasn’t mad about the idea at first, but then I thought it's a worthy event and neither of us are getting paid, and I was like “Why not, let’s see, let’s see how it goes.” And it went real well! We didn't rehearse, we didn't even sound check, I just showed up an hour or so before the show, and we just start talking. Nothing serious like “You asshole how could you have done what you did?” We were just talking about, you know, 'shooting the breeze', talking about current events, music, songs that we like, and then we got up, and I did my 4 or 5 songs with the band and it was just something really..I don’t know, there’s something about playing with him that makes me work harder than anyone and I’ve played with a lot of great musicians, but when I play with Tracii he makes me.. he brings it out in me, he brings out that..you know those Marshalls to go to 11, he brings out that 110% in me, and I enjoy that!
I had an acoustic show a week or so after the charity event, and I said “Look why don’t you come down and play a couple songs with me, just acoustic, no big deal?” And he did, and it was a lot of fun! And we got together earlier that day just to run through the set, what songs we were going to do, and then he goes “I’ve got a couple of new song ideas, do you want to hear them?” And I was like “Yeah, of course!” And that’s actually when ‘the missing piece’ fell into place. It was like “Oh wow, this stuff sounds great, I want to be part of it, I want to do it!” And at that point it seemed it was the obvious thing to do. It was by no means..there was nothing cynical about it..it was nothing like “Oh well, Slash and Axl of GUNS N’ ROSES just got together and they’re making money, why don't we.” It wasn’t at all like that! We’d been jamming, you know playing together for almost a year before the word reunion even came up. So, it was a very natural progression and it just felt good, it felt nice.
KNAC.COM: So, at that time is when you first made this decision to resign from Phil Lewis’ L.A. GUNS or was it thereafter?
LEWIS: No, as I said, we’d released Hollywood Forever at five years or seven years now, and I’d been bugging Steve (Riley) to do another record and he just wasn't budging, he didn't want to do it. He said there was no future in..it wasn't worth it financially, viably, and you know I really don't care about stuff like that. You know as a musician, as an artist, I find that it is essential to create and write new songs, and record and put new songs out. I don't really care if it sells 1 million copies, if it sells a dozen that's not the point, it's just what we do, it's our nature as artists. And I just wasn't feeling it in the other lineup. So, I’d given my notice in October 2015 saying that I was going to be leaving after The Whiskey on New Year's Eve on 2015. It wasn’t a surprise, they knew it was coming.
KNAC.COM: Oh? Okay, okay! We were all surprised as your fans, it was kinda like “Oh my God, no way!” because we were so confused, we didn’t know about you and Tracii getting back together.
LEWIS: Yeah, I’m not proud of that either, of the two versions. It was just you know, we’re professional musicians, we have to make a living and that's what we do. And we’re both doing alright..doing okay, ummm, but yeah, it was confusing and it really tarnished the bands reputation no question about that. But hopefully everyone’s happy now with the result, and the outcome. I sure am!
KNAC.COM: What sort of emotions were you feeling the very first time that you and Tracii finally rejoined each other on stage again as L.A. GUNS?
LEWIS: Well, I walked into the dressing room and he was sitting in the corner drinking a glass of milk by himself, and he looked like a 10 year old. And after all the acrimonious years that we've been fighting online, and in the press, I was just like “That's it, that’s my nemesis sitting over there? He looks so cute, he looks like a little boy!” And we sat down and we start talking, we were, we were like a couple of kids. We were like a couple of 10 year olds..we started saying corny jokes and that felt really, really good and as I said you know getting up and doing those few songs, it’s like getting that turbo that he brings out in me that I don't feel and I’ve played with great guitar players, great musicians, but it is not there, and it just doesn’t put it into overdrive like it did with him. And we didn’t, well actually we did afterwards, we came offstage and it was like “Oh fuck, that felt really, really good!” And we went “Did that feel good for you?” And he was like “Oh my God, that was great!” And yeah, that’s the way its suppose to be.
KNAC.COM: Have the fans been receptive to the new version of L.A. GUNS that you guys are calling 'The Tracii Guns and Phil Lewis Reunion Tour'?
LEWIS: Yes! Well, I mean you know it's not a full band reunion, and I’ll address that. The other guys were invited to get involved and whatever reasons, they either didn't want to or couldn’t. Mick (Cripp, former L.A. GUNS, guitarist), because he doesn't want to go back on tour, he’s like family/business kind of a guy. And Kelly (Nickels, former L.A. GUNS, bassist), didn't really want to do it. So it was pretty much me and him, and Tracii already had this killer band that he’d been out touring with Johnny (Martin, current bassist) and Shane (Fitzgibbon, current drummer), and we just needed another guitar player and Michael Grant had been playing with me for two or three years and I suggested Michael and Tracii loved the idea! The first couple of times we played, we rehearsed, it sounded great, sounded right, and it sounded like L.A. GUNS, and it is L.A. GUNS! Me and Tracii are the nucleus of L.A. GUNS and it doesn't really matter who we play with as long as we play together, then that is L.A. GUNS.
KNAC.COM: So, how does it feel to you without having Steve (Riley) on the drums?
LEWIS: Umm, to be honest, I felt like Steve (Riley) was getting a little tired. I felt like he was getting a little burned by the business you know, this is a guy that’s been playing professionally since 1972. He’s been playing since he was like 16 and he’s a bit of a control freak and he'll be the first to admit it. So, it's not just playing drums, he wanted to manage the band, he wanted to be the band’s agent, he wanted to book the tickets, he wanted to book the hotel, he wanted everything. And he took on so much, it started to wear him down a bit, and a couple of times I said “Bro just lighten up, just sit behind the kit, let’s get a proper agent, a proper manager, and make it a bit easier on yourself!” And he just couldn't do that, and I just felt like he was struggling a little bit to be honest. And he wasn’t remotely inspired to do another record. I was really happy with the way Hollywood Forever turned out, and I was hoping that we were going to do another one quite soon after but then poor Andy Jones passed away and everything just sort of went kind of stale. That was the point when I was like I was ready to leave, and as I told you, I wasn't planning on a reunion with Tracii, so I honestly thought I was just going to go out and do like..put a solo band together or just do like solo acoustic gigs you know, I’d been doing that for a while. And I was just like assuming well that's the way it’s going to be. We didn’t end badly, Steve and I, it just sort of like fizzled out.
KNAC.COM: So, let’s talk about your upcoming record The Missing Peace, that’s scheduled to be released Friday, October 13, 2007. Did all of the band members bring their own material to the table or did you and Tracii initially bring all of the material and then collaborate as a band on the finishing touches?
LEWIS: Oh, it's entirely a band effort. We’ve got songs that Michael brought in, we’ve got lyrics that Shane the drummer wrote, it’s very, very much a band effort. It was never a question of me and Tracii sitting down “We’re going to write this record together”. No, no these guys, they’re such good players, they’re such good writers. If they brought something in and it seemed right for the band, we’d play it, if it sounded good, we’d make a demo of it and listen to it and it was like “Yeah okay!” It was very much a group effort.
KNAC.COM: What was the creative process like? Is that pretty much it..bring it, go yay or nay or what was that like?
LEWIS: There weren’t many nays to be honest! You know, everything was like “Yeah, that sounds good, yeah let’s do this, let’s try that [laughing)!” It’s a very diverse record, you’ve got lots of short songs like three minutes, “Balls To The Wall”, “Speed" and “Fever", and you know like typical rock anthems. And they were like really long intertwined complicated musical progressions that Tracii’s been sitting on for years. And he's incorporated into this, it makes it really interesting. And so, it's not a long boring concept album, and it's not a 10 song ‘slow against the wall’ see who likes it kind of a thing either, you know it's a bit of both.
KNAC.COM: Who are some of the artists that may have influenced songs throughout The Missing Peace?
LEWIS: Well, Tracii no question. He’s a little bit Jimmy Page, he’s a little bit Randy Rhoads and a whole lot of Tracii Guns!
KNAC.COM: I’ve got another question from another friend who is a photographer, Thomas Coffman (Coffman Photography). He would like to know what is the meaning behind the name of the new record The Missing Peace?
LEWIS: What does it mean?
KNAC.COM: Yes, does it actually mean getting back together..regrouping with Tracii?
LEWIS: I don’t think it could be anymore straight forward or apparent what it means..I mean? You know, with spelling of ‘the peace’ as it is and 15 years of acrimony between me and him, and 30 years of playing together. Yeah, I mean for me and Tracii we really do feel like there's been something missing. And it was ‘the missing peace', but it wasn't until we got together and we buried the hatchet. We really were at times, you know..I was so disappointed when he fucked off after Waking The Dead, I couldn't believe it. We really got up to speed and we made this great record, and you know a little bit in hindsight, I can understand where he was coming from and he had an opportunity to do something and given his frustration at the time, I kind of understand, but at the time, I was fucking livid! And it’s taken me a long time..taken us both a along time just to sort of calm down.
KNAC.COM: Which of the songs is your favorite off the new record, and the most meaningful one to you?
LEWIS: “Speed” was the first one that we started playing, that really made me think "Wow, we’re onto something here. This is good, this has got that Cocked & Loaded vibe." And I love that song, and I love the way it turned out. But, for me personally, I really like “Flood” because I worked with Mitch Davis (son of Clive Davis, Legendary Music Manager & Producer) in New York, the three of us, me, Tracii, and Mitch worked very, very hard on this song and I’m singing on that particular song better than possibly I’ve ever sung in my life. I’m not saying high or anything like that, but the timing of it. He listened to the phrasing of those lyrics. I’ve never done anything like that before, and I’ve gotta give Mitch a lot of credit for really, really helping me a lot with that, with the timing, the off beat timing. You know like things are like dada..dada..dada..da..dada..dada..da..dada..dada..dada..da.. you know, always in the pocket on the four. But it's not at all like that with this song, and it was a real challenge for me and I worked really hard on it. It was frustrating, but it turned out great, and I’m incredibly proud of it. And so, I think “Speed” and “Flood” are my two favorites.
KNAC.COM: L.A. GUNS is actually headed back to Houston, Texas on December 13 to one of my favorite music venues Proof Rooftop Lounge for “Black Horse Limo’s Concert Series”.
LEWIS: That won’t be the first time that we’ve played it, it’s a lot of fun up there, and the guy takes real good care of us. And it’s nice to see a local venue doing so well in Houston, Texas.
KNAC.COM: So can you tell me how much of The Missing Peace can we expect to hear with your classics like “The Ballad Of Jayne", “Never Enough", and “Rip And Tear”?
LEWIS: Right, that’s always a difficult thing, a balancing act isn’t it? You know because people want to hear “Never Enough", “Over the Edge", ”Sex Action” and of course, we want to play the new stuff. We’ve been putting two new songs into the set, we’ll probably bring that up to three and rotate them. I don't think we’ll do any more than three new songs in the set because that might be a bit much. But we will rotate the three that we do and..but, you never know with Tracii, he surprises me onstage, he’ll just pull something out of the hat, and before I know it, I’m singing a song I haven’t done in six years.
KNAC.COM: With the different challenges and demands for the artist to stay relevant in the industry, and to maintain the support of their fans who are wanting more interaction with the artist today-and you’ve managed to do that, and start a fresh! What is the best social media platform for you, and for a fan to interact with each other??
LEWIS: Oh, Tracii’s a huge Instagram fan, he loves Instagram, he loves posting, and he does that Periscope thing as well. I’m kind of old fashioned, I’m just sort of getting up to texting and Facebook. So I'm not really the person to ask, but Tracii and Shane and Johnny, those guys, they’re really into it. You know tweets and Instagram…I just..Tracii made me get Instagram a few months ago and so I’m not really the right person to ask. So, those guys seem to understand the concept of it. I don’t know if it makes any difference or not. I grew up idolizing David Bowie and Alice Cooper, and I knew nothing, nothing about them. They were mysterious and elusive figures. Now you know rock stars or pop stars or whatever you want to call them, you can find out what they had for breakfast, and some people love that, that’s great. "I really want to know what Phil had for breakfast?" But, I don't come from that generation. I’m a bit more about the mystery to be honest.
KNAC.COM: Is there any particular thing that you would like to make mention of or do you have any special message to your fans?
LEWIS: No, I think you’ve covered it very well. You can tell that I’m ecstatic, and the work speaks for itself. It's a happy record. It was a record that came together, it was a fluid record. At no point did we get stagnant, and at no point did we say "We really need another song, we need a ballad, we need this…" No, it all really fell into place very organically. And you asked me a question about the reaction from the fans, it's been really overwhelming, the fact that me and Tracii are working together but like the reaction to the music, songs has been fantastic and we didn’t know, we didn't really care to be honest whether it was gonna do gangbusters or it was going to sell a 100 copies, we were just doing it because it felt good, and it sounds good, and hopefully, our fans that know us will dig that, and people that don’t know us that well will pick up on that as well.
KNAC.COM: Well, at the last show in Houston I really enjoyed watching the chemistry between the two of you, it was amazing!
LEWIS: Yeah, we’re having a great time, and I’m real relaxed and real comfortable with him, us being together again, and it all feels right. At no point was I like "Oh, I should be doing something else or I shouldn’t have done that." This is the right thing for L.A. GUNS, no question!
KNAC.COM: So how does Phil Lewis relax?
LEWIS: Well, I’m not much of a relaxing person, I’m a bit of a fly. I'm always buzzing around doing stuff. I like touring around with motor bikes. I love going Thrift Store and Swap Meet shopping and going to record..I love LPs, Vinyl Expos, things like that. Stuff that I used to do when I was a teenager seems to be amusing me. The few times that I do get downtime, that's what I find myself doing.
KNAC.COM: I appreciate you taking the time to chat with me today!
LEWIS: Well, it was a real pleasure, thank you, we appreciate your support and great questions!
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Website: https://www.lagunsmusic.com
Cynthia owns and operates Jalil Photos Rock in Houston, Texas and specializes in rock music photography.
