Intervju - Phil Lewis, LA Guns LA Guns var ett av många LA-band som fick ett lukrativt skivkontrakt med ett av de större bolagen, i slutet av 80-talet. Alla bolag ville få storsäljare som Mötley Crüe och Ratt, men det var långt ifrån alla band som levde upp till kraven. LA Guns var dock ett av de bättre banden och sålde inledningsvis ganska många skivor, för att sedan försvinna i mängden och gå igenom otaliga bandkonfigurationer. Numera finns det två versioner av bandet och båda turnerar världen över. Tracii Guns, originalgitarristen, som hade kunnat få en lukrativ karriär i Guns N´Roses, om lyckan gått hans väg, är ledare för ena versionen. Den andra och kanske den som lyckats bäst, leds av britten Phil Lewis. Han var med på de två första skivorna och hade tidigare haft en liten karriär i bandet Girl tillsammans med Phil Collen i Def Leppard . Lewis version är nu på väg tillbaka till Sverige för en rad spelningar och då passade det bra att ringa upp honom i LA. Nedan följer samtalet vi hade, som kom att behandla bl a tidigare nämnda Tracii, 80-talets LA och dagens turnéliv. Hello, this is Niclas from Sweden! Phil Lewis: Hello Niclas! How are you? I´m good. I got the numbers all mixed up here. I tried to call you for five minutes and then I finally got it right. PL: Ok. How are you? PL: I´m fantastic! Where are you at? PL: I´m in sunny Los Angeles. It´s very nice. You guys seem to be on tour constantly. Are you? PL: Well, it´s not like... well I suppose the answer to that is yes, we are permanently on the road. But it´s weird, it´s different now. You know, back in the old days, we´d be on a tour bus for two months, three months and we wouldn´t come back, but now it´s developed into something kind of like a weekend warrior thing. We´ll be home for Monday and Tuesday, because let´s face it, they were always shitty days to play anyway, and we´ll leave on either Wednesday or Thursday and play Thursday, Friday, Saturday and sometimes Sunday too and then jet back to LA. Spend a few days back home and then the next weekend rolls around and we get in the jet and fly somewhere else. Right. PL: It´s just a different way of doing it and we´ve been doing it like that now for a couple of years. I personally prefer it. I didn´t like being on a tour bus. I felt like I was on a submarine in the navy with a bunch of different guys. It´s alright if you´re a youngster and it´s your first band and your first tour, but honestly, I need that hotel room. I don´t want to rough it anymore. Of course not. It sounds like a pretty good life. PL: Oh, it´s fantastic! I love it and it never gets boring. I never get home sick, because I´m back home in a few days. It just means that we have to travel a lot. We have to get up at... I mean, we play a show at night. We go on at midnight and by the time we get out of there it might be 2.30 or 3.00 and we have to get up at 7 o´clock the next morning to make the flight, so there´s a lot of that. There´s not much sleep and the food´s always rubbish. You´re coming to Sweden soon and as far as I could see, you´ve got three gigs line up so far. PL: I believe we´ve got five. I don´t know exactly where, but I know it´s Stockholm and Gotheburg and a couple of other little places. I didn´t really know there were five rock towns, but I guess by the time we leave we´re gonna be big in Sweden. Oh, absolutely! PL: Helena, the manager... you know the whole story? I think so. PL: She manages Fatal Smile and she pretty much put everything together for this tour and we´ll be in Spain and Italy and England before that as well. It´s kind of like a little European mini tour, you know. It´s like a vacation. PL: Yeah! You played here in... was it 2004? PL: Yes. Yeah, so you´ve been here pretty recently. PL: Yeah, we played Stockholm and it was great. We had a really, really... do they still allow smoking in bars? No, they don´t. PL: Ok, it must´ve been the last days, because honestly, everybody was smoking two cigarettes. It was so smokey, I thought I was gonna die. I remember it being a really, really good gig and we played a couple of Hanoi Rocks songs and I thought "Oh my god, I´m gonna pass out!". It was so smokey, but it was good. If that is indication of how Sweden is, I´m really looking forward to coming back. When you played here four years ago, had you played here before that? PL: Prior to that? Yeah, I believe we came over back in the day and did some shows with Skid Row. Like back in ´92 or something. Cool! But what´s the status of LA Guns today? Who´s the owner of the name? How does that work out? PL: To cut to the chase, there´s only one LA Guns and that´s the one Tracii left to form Brides of Destruction and he left just before we were gonna release "Waking the dead". We had a huge tour with Alice Cooper and he basically told us to "Fuck off!", right. We were, like ok, and said we were just going to carry on without him and try different guitar players like Chris Holmes and Kerri Kelli. All kinds of different people until we got Stacey and we decided we´d found the right guy. After a while the Brides thing didn´t work out and he wanted to get back in the band and we already had Stacey and we were a solid line up and we were like "No bro, sorry. We don´t want to do it.". He was like "Well, I own 50 percent of the name, so I´m gonna start my own version.". We said "Fine, go ahead! Just because it´s you and four or five other guys, it doesn´t make it LA Guns!". There´s more to it than that. Yeah, he´s a good player, but that´s not LA Guns. After we comitted to keeping the band together after he left, it changed everything. We went into the studio and we started recording "Tales from the Strip" and we realized that we really didn´t need that little motherfucker. He was nothing but trouble, high maintenance and... yes there´s another version going around but it´s shit and if anyone is stupid enough to wanna go check it out, has to learn the hard way. But they´re doing tricks like using our picture to advertise them and that makes it even worse. I´ve hear really, really ugly reports, things getting ugly at shows and if he´s stupid enough to wanna do that, that´s fine, but it hasn´t stopped us at all and we´re playing great shows and headlining our own shows. Big places on the east coast and Whisky over on the west coast. It´s annoying but it´s kind of good in a way to be the good guys. It´s always been the bad guys. It hasn´t stopped us at all and we´ve got to come over to Europe to Italy and Spain and England, to do some damage control. They did come over with the dreadful Paul Black and and they did some shows and that really did terrible things to the LA Guns name. We´re taking less money, because of the damage that´s done, but we still think it´s really important for us to come over and play for our friends that we haven´t seen in years and just let everone know that we´re still around and I guess after that it will be pretty much impossible for Tracii to come back with his shitty version and try to call it LA Guns. It´s annoying but it´s not the end of the world. No, of course not. I guess that´s part of the whole rocka and roll scene these days. LA Guns isn´t the only band existing in two or three versions. There´s two Saxon and so on. PL: I know. I hate it and it´s annoying, but we´re just gonna keep playing until it goes away and it will go away. They don´t want him in Europe anymore and Australia´s out. It´s just a matter of time before all they can play is local gigs. Right! You and Steve Riley go back a number of years. PL: Yeah, we go back 20 years from when he first joined the band. I had been in the band for about 6 months or maybe a year before he joined. The original drummer Nickey, he quit. He didn´t want to go on the road and when he found out that we basically were gonna be on absent leave for the next three years, after doing our first record, he wasn´t into it. So Steve Riley, I don´t know what was going on with him and WASP, but he wasn´t in them. He came down and played and I had never heard LA Guns... it was cool, it was punky, but when he started playing it gave it so much. It just sounded so heavy and strong and solid. No disrespect to Nickey, but with a real drummer it made all the difference. Steve is a good drummer in that sort of John Bonham hard hitting style. He´s a very good musician, but he´s strong and hits hard too, so it´s a combination of those two things. He´s been watching my back now for 20 years. That´s something I´ve thought about. I grew up listening to the LA scene and totally embraced it, but then you noticed that every single guy has been in like 20 different bands and everybody just go round and round. Is that something special for the LA scene? PL: Yeah, I agree. I think it´s a good thing. What it basically means is that there is a really good solid musical community in Los Angeles. I´m in three bands. I´m in a band with the guys from Warrant and the drummer from Cinderella. It´s just a coverband and we do some Warrant songs and some LA Guns songs. We´re called Hollywood Hooligans. And then Stacey´s in a couple of bands and Scott too. Steve´s not into doing anything other that LA Guns, but I am. I do a lot of other stuff when I have time and I enjoy it. But yeah, you´re absolutely right. Because there are so many musicians... I mean, Los Angeles is a Mecca for musicians and there are so many people here to choose from. I f you need a guitar player or a drummer or a bass player, there are so many people to choose from. Sometimes you only need a guy for one or two shows and then you become friends with them aftet that and you end up doing the weirdest things with different people. It´s so random, but I love that part of it. What´s the status of LA these days? Was it better in the 80´s? PL: Yeah, of course it was better, because we were selling more records and we could switch on the radio and hear yourself being played on one or two or maybe three stations. That part was better because it was bigger, but it did go away and grunge came along and it changed everything and maybe it needed a change, I don´t know. I don´t think the 80´s thing really ever went away completely and now when we´re doing shows, we´re not playing clubs that much now, it´s more sort of like casinos and fairs and we´ve even started to do cruise ships now. Yeah, I saw that. Was it Britny Fox or...? PL: No, Skid Row and Firehouse. Now we´re playing a lot more all ages shows and it´s amazing how many 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 year old kids, are just 80´s crazy. They´re not interested in EMO music. They are so down with the 80´s and that´s really encouraging. That means that it´s still alive and well. And you´ve got the whole Rocklahoma thing going on there. PL: It just sounds like a disaster. Every report I´ve read about it, such a disaster. I don´t know. It is? I thought it was such a huge thing! PL: From what I heard it was really hard. The facilities were bad and it was expensive. I don´t know. I don´t like camping. That´s really hard core. They should do something like that and put it somewhere around LA instead. PL: That would be really different. That would be good. It hard to explain to somebody who´s never been to that place in the summer. It´s so hot. It´s like Africa and it´s really humid and the huge insects. You don´t want to be outside. Do you sit around and write stuff these days? Do you work when you´re on tour? PL: Yeah, yes to all of it. We have, oh maybe 10-15 songs that we´ve been working on. Most of the time we´re busy and we´re on the road. We´ve got so many songs going back to the first record. We don´t need new songs. We don´t have enough time to play the new songs that we have already, so if you start adding more it´s just going to be more frustrating. I´m a musician and I like to be creative and create new songs and new material, but from a practical point of view... unless we were playing a three hour set, there´s no way. We try to put in a couple of songs from each album and of course the old stuff like from "Cocked and loaded" is really important and that´s probably where people first heard of us. Will there be another album? PL: Uhhmm, yeah I think so. I´m not in any hurry to do it. I´m not even sure there is a market for albums and cd´s right now. Yeah, it´s a funny thing. PL: There´s I-Tunes now and it seems to me that the way to do it, is a song at a time. I talked to Jay Jay French of Twisted Sister last year and they made this Chrsitmas album that turned into a big hit and I asked him if there was any chance of a new Twisted Sister album and he was just like "Why would we? No one bothers and they just want to hear the old stuff. That´s why they come." and that was the first time I´ve heard someone being that sincere. PL: Yeah, and that´s my sentiment entirely, to be honest with you. It´s a great feeling when you do a new record, like "Tales from the Strip" and it´s so successful. I mean, it didn´t sell meillions of copies, but it put us back on the map. It proved to the world that we didn´t need Tracii Guns, so that was good. That aspect was good, but right now I´m not sure if there´s a reason for us to release a new record. We don´t have a record deal anyway, so I´m not worried about it. When was the first time you came over to America from England? Was that in the 70´s? PL: Yeah, actually it was. I wasn´t a musician, I was just a kid on holiday. I came over to some people in LA and checked it out and thought "Wow, this would be a great place to live!". It was great to have an eclectic music scene and less than ten years later I ended up coming back and becoming quite a big part of that scene and that wa good. In fact now, I´ve been in LA more than I have in London. I´ve been over here for 22 years and I was never in London that long. Just apart from the accent, I´m an American now. Steve would ask me how long it takes to get from Manchester to London and I don´t know anymore. I used to know that stuff, but I don´t. London has completely changed. Do you go back every year? PL: Yeah! I really only go back for a reason. I don´t go back for any sort of family or so. I see my friends, but I´m quite happy to leave it. It´s nice but I really couldn´t live there. The climate and it´s really expensive. The rent is ridiculous. London´s changed. Every time I go to London there are less and less English people. It´s all arabs. What kind of bands were you in prior to Girl? Was that one of your first real bands? PL: Yeah, that was absolutely my first real band. I didn´t really know what In was doing. I wasn´t a musician and I didn´t have any kind of musical training. It was just like "Well, let´s see what we can do!". We wrote some songs and some of them were good, some of them were ok and some were terrible, but it wasn´t so much about the music. We had a very strong image. People come up to me with some very old Girl vinyl and want me to sign it and I´m very touched by that. It´s not like I listen to it. It´s was very immature and very basic. I just got a lot better since then, but they were very important days of course and I´m not embarrassed about it. It´s kind of like growing up in public. Have you stayed in touch with any of those guys? PL: Sure! All of them. Phil now, is doing Man Raze and Gerry of course I see every time and he always comes up and plays a couple of songs. We´ve still stayed friends and it´s almost 30 years ago. Things have changed a lot for all of us, but we´re still the same people that started out. Gotta ask you about "The ballad of Jayne", since it is one of your biggest songs, is that song based on a real girl? PL: No, I hate do dissapoint you and I get this question a lot, but no. It was... we were sitting in a living room with acoustic guitars and working on a song. We had som chords and some ideas and we were just singing and came to this chorus "All seems funny, kind of like a dream. Things ain´t always what they seem, what a shame..." and we were like "Well, what does shame work with?" and it took a really long time to figure out that last line. "What rhymes with shame?" and of course it was Jayne and there it was. It´s not about Jayne Mansfield and not about some girl that came to LA and didn´t quite make it. We tried to put those little stories around it, but the thing is that it was just a song writing project and Jayne was the only name that rhymed with shame. (laughs) I wish I could say it was about this girl and I loved her, but it´s not. Do you have any real fond memories that stand out from the early days in LA when LA Guns were really getting it on? PL: Yeah, it was very decadent and it was very... there was a lot of sex and rock and roll, but there weren´t that many drugs to be honest with you. Really? Because that´s what you read about all the time. PL: No, not really. We weren´t a druggy band. We smoked a bit of weed and like sme of our roadies did a little bit of coke, but nobody in the band was a druggy at all, which is a relief. The last thing you need is a dragging around that. We kind of had the look and we would always say sex, drugs and rock and roll. There was a lot of sex and a lot of rock and roll, but there really wasn´t that many drugs. We had so much to do. We were so busy, so you really needed to be fit. We were doing 8, 9, 10 shows back to back. I was at the gym, at Stair Master and I was so fit, so I hate to shatter it... (laughs) That´s cool! Do you remember the first time you played Whisky A Go Go? That must´ve been a momentum? PL: I remember it very clearly. We played a few shows around town, like out in the suburbs and we did a few shows out in Phoenix just so I could get used to the band. Our first show wasn´t at the Whisky, it was about our third or fourth actual show and I remember it was packed and I knew I was under a magnifying glass and I had to replace the singer that everybody knew and I remember being really scared about it. Then I kind of relaxed and I told that stupid joke on stage "Are there any girls that need English in them?" and then I went "Are there any girls that would like som English in them?" and that went down very well and after that everybody was happy and had a good time and they forgot about the old singer. Back then, playing The Whisky A Go Go, was that a sign of making it or that you were on your way to making it? PL: Yeah, if you were headlining and you were getting paid to play, that was a real good sign. All the bands that didn´t headline were paying to play and that is not any success at all in my opinion. It really felt that we came into a different league and then quite shortly after that we got signed and went to the studio and recorded our first record. Cool! After you you´ve played Europe now, are you gonna head on back and play more in the States? PL: Yeah, we´ve got so many dates lined up. We´ll do Europe and then we go to Japan and I´m gonna do a couple of solo shows in South America and then Australia. There´s a lot going on. I love it! Great! Excellent talking to you Phil and I´m really looking forward to seeing you guys over here. PL: Come and say hi. It was a good interview and I liked your questions a lot. Thanks! PL: Yeah we´re really excited to come over. Are you gonna be in Stockholm? Yeah, so I want to meet you guys and say hi. PL: Excellent! I´ll see you soon mate. Take care! You too!

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