L.A. Guns lead singer Phil Lewis recently spoke to Dawn Osborne of Total Rock and sincerely admitted that he has gone through friction with Tracii Guns over the years, but it turned out okay in the end. The vocalist also gave some details about the inner dynamics of the band.
Like most other bands, L.A. Guns has experienced a fair share of internal strife, especially the strained relationship between Phil Lewis and Tracii Guns. It is publicly known that they had disagreements over the band’s musical direction in the early years. The tension between them has continued, with both Guns and Lewis leaving and returning at various times.
Although they each formed their own versions of L.A. Guns, the two managed to reunite in 2016 and performed together for the first time in 14 years. In his recent interview, Lewis recalled those times and said that Scotty Griffin’s departure was challenging for him to deal with because he helped him reconcile things with Tracii Guns.
So, the singer admitted that there had been friction between him and Guns over the years, and there were also times when he thought there was no possible exit. Yet, they somehow managed to resolve their issues. Lewis was unsure how things would proceed after the reunion, but everything turned out much better than he had assumed.
Here are Phil Lewis’ words about clashing with Tracii Guns at times:
“Yeah, you know what it was. Scotty, him leaving. He was the last one. When I first joined the band, the reunion, and Johnny Martin, of course, it was complete different cast of characters. Scotty was like, that was it; the last character from that first chapter, first record. I relied on him a lot for communication with Tracii because sometimes things, some subjects, are better left to management.
I lost that, and I was like, ‘Oh, f*ck.’ But we are doing alright; he is doing so much better now than he was five or six months ago. Thank god. He’s having his fourth mid-life crisis, and he is smiling from ear to ear, and I am happy for him. He deserves it, and he is much nice to be around when he is happy. It wasn’t awful, but it was a dark time for him.
It was a challenge, but we got through it, and it is great now. I’d be lying if I said there have never been storms; there has never been any friction. There is. Not friction so much, but just sometimes we come to impasses, and I wasn’t sure what was gonna happen after the reshuffle, but it turned out okay, actually better.”
Since their reunion, Tracii Guns and Phil Lewis have continued to tour around the world as the two driving forces of L.A. Guns. The band is preparing to release their new studio album, ‘Black Diamonds’ on April 14, and the first single ‘You Betray’ arrived only a few weeks ago.
