Phil Lewis chimes in on the Tracii Guns revolving band.

Phil Lewis the voice of LA GUNS checks in after reading our letter to Tracii Guns.

Well written Sludge and sums up the situation pretty accurately Being one who has revived more than my share of stick from sludge I can’t honestly see what you said is so deflationary the problem is Tracii has become so used to getting his ass kissed over here now that the tide has turned it appears too bitter a pill to swallow and he’s decided to withdraw from the conversation which I happen to think is a bad move considering he has so much support from his posse of swingers and not likely to receive anything like the adulation on any other site.

I’m honestly not bothered either way. What bothers me is what damage he’s doing to his credibility and to the damage he’s doing to the name LA Guns. Everybody here knows there are two versions and lots of fans I’ve met on the road are aware of whats going on but to the average punter who remembers The ballad o Jayne Sex action Rip n tear Electric and Never enough to mention just a few of our songs who comes in from the cold and see’s Chris Van Doll, Ralph, Paul Black, Marty Cassey and even Jizzy is incredibly insulting and now this chick is clearly taking the piss.

When you do something for all the wrong reasons its unlikely any good will come from it, Its blinding obvious he couldn’t care less about the band or his fans, its merely an end to a means, the best way he can pay his bills, To him it dosn’t matter who’s singing just as long as he can find a gullible agent promoter or club owner that wants to put LAG up on there marquee for a bargain price then he’ll continue to do so. Right now were in UK and Europe doing damage control playing for a fraction of what we get in the US just to restore the bands reputation. We never talk shit about him on stage but were sure getting lots of Fuck Tracii Guns heckles from fans that have had enough. And were aware that in a few months he’ll be playing the same venues with a band thats’ called but nothing like LA Guns but he’s in for a bumpy ride if he thinks he can get away with this scam indefinitely. Your right a chick singer is retarded and insulting and will be disastrous but he’ll suck it up get payed come back home and find another singer and go out and do it all over again, It seems at this stage in his career he has little other choice.

My advice to Tracii is try and find another band, he would be great with Steven Adler he would be perfect in WASP or Quiet riot he’s a gifted guitarist and can play anything and would be a major asset for any touring band but his answer would probably be his heart aint in it which is a shame because if he continues like this his heart will inventively get broken. I wish Tracii no harm or evil. Yes he did stab us in the guts when he told us he was leaving the band during the photo shoot for the cover of waking the dead that lost us a world tour with Alice Cooper and shortly after got us dropped from our record deal and his response when we begged him not to leave was ‘I don’t give a fuck about you or your families’ as he looked me in the eye. Water under the bridge now, so long ago, we scrambled, got lots of help from friends and have since released three fine legitimate records that I’m incredibly proud of. Tales from the strip i consider to be the sweetest revenge.

We will continue to tour and were getting into pre production for a new record when we get back for a mid summer release next year that will be even better than ‘Tales’ so I’m not going to be wasting much time with this drama much longer. I wish him luck and would support anything he does other than continue to ruin the bands reputation but given his history of making disastrous decisions, Career suicide appears to be inevitable.

Cheers. Phil Lewis

Thanks for the letter Phil.

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