L.A. Guns - Phil Lewis
By: Lori Smerilson Carson | Photos: Joe Scaeffer & Larry Marano
Spanning over many years and prevailing with hit after hit, L.A. Guns have encapsulated their memorable live shows into a live recording, LIVE FROM THE GUILD THEATRE, which was released on July 3rd. Their 1988 self-titled debut album quickly took the world by storm. Then in 1989, they continued their success with their second LP COCKED & LOADED, sealing their mark in the music world and solidifying lifelong fans. Since 2017 they added onto their hit list of catchy, incredible metal music and continued growing their fan base. L.A. Guns fans will certainly be able to place themselves in the theater with the band as they listen to this new record, picturing the live performance that this extraordinarily talented band displays on every tour.
Catching up with Lead Vocalist Phil Lewis while on tour, he revealed some details about the new live album that he and Lead Guitarist/Founder Tracii Guns, Bassist Johnny Martin, Guitarist Ace Von Johnson, and Drummer Shawn Duncan created, about how their shows basically come together, and what fans can look forward to.
SFL Music Magazine: The new album LIVE FROM THE GUILD THEATRE will be released in several forms, two discs, cassette, DVD, Blue Ray. What was the inspiration to do the live album?
Phil Lewis: Over the last eight or nine years we’ve released five original albums with not a single cover on any one of them. We’re real happy with the output and the way everything sounds. Rather than doing another new original record, it seemed to make sense to do something live. You see, the thing is, we’re a band that we’re in a unique position. We have a lot of what we call nuggets in our set. “Electric Gypsy”, “The Ballad of Jayne”, “Sex Action”. Stuff that we wrote thirty-five years ago that we’re real proud of and has definitely stood the test of time. But as I said, over the last eight years, we’ve been putting out new product, new material, new songs. Our challenge of course, is we’ve got so little time and so many songs as to exactly what to put in our set, and we wanted to bring it up a bit. We wanted to include "Speed” and “Hit and Run”. So, we wanted to sort of upgrade it a bit, and some of the fans that haven’t been to the shows and actually haven’t had a chance to listen and enjoy the last new original releases, it’s a good introduction for that. The venue, it’s nothing really magical about the venue other than it was technically set up for multi-track recording so that if we needed to, we could mess with it. We didn’t actually mess with it at all. We mixed it. We EQ’d it. There are no overdubs on there. It’s exactly how it sounded at the show, but it’s a very nice, acoustically designed theater and as I said, they have new equipment to record it nicely. We found out a couple of weeks prior to playing there what a peach it would be to do some recording there, and that’s exactly what we did.
SFL Music Magazine: Yes, the vocals sound clear and strong as well as the instruments which doesn’t always happen with a live recording. You just commented on some song choices for the shows and they are always amazing! How do you choose what goes into the shows?
Lewis: That’s a good question. Actually, the songs choose themselves in many ways. Like we open with a relatively new song “Cannonball” and that was just a no brainer when you listen to it, when you hear it. You hear it and yeah, this is a great way for a kick ass rock and roll band to start their set, and we do. Not everybody knows it, but by the end of it, everyone loves it. Then we go back to our roots right after. We’ll do “Electric Gypsy”, “Sex Action”, “Over the Edge”. Then we’ll throw something else new in. “Like a Drug”, a song that Ace brought in that is great fun to play live. None of it’s too tricky. If you don’t know the songs, it’s not like Yes or Journey. Our songs are pretty basic. There’s an intro, there’s a verse, there’s a chorus, another verse, chorus, maybe a bridge, and then a double chorus out and that’s pretty much the format, the blueprint for all of our songs. It worked really good with the older “Electric Gypsy” stuff, and it works really well with the new “Cannonball” stuff.
SFL Music Magazine: Also, working really well is your new look. What inspired it?
Lewis: Thank you. I did the pirate and I did the ring master and I was kind of running out of ideas. I just didn’t want to do those two things again. In February, somewhat before we were supposed to come out on the road, I just said, fuck it, and I shaved my head. I wanted to see what it was like. I’ve been dying it, straightening it, just floofying it up for so long, so many years, I thought, wouldn’t it be good just to start again? And I did. Fortunately, it’s growing like a Chia Pet. It is what it is now. I’m not going to do any augmentation or any dying it or anything like that. I’m just going to let it grow, see what it does. As I said, it was in February, and it’s already like three inches long. I like it! I don’t want to try and look like I did thirty plus years ago. I can’t personally. Other people are fine doing it, but it’s kind of embarrassing for somebody my age to try and pretend that they’re thirty-five, start wearing broody headbands. I’ve got my own thing going. I don’t like millionaires going on stage dressing like orphans. That gets on my nerves a lot. It’s kind of like this anti-uniform that the millionaires like to wear to make them feel like street cred, and it’s obviously hanging up on a hanger in the dressing room. I don’t know what they change from into, but I know they’re not walking around like that. It’s just a look and if it works for them, it makes them feel credible and in contact with the kids and whatever, that’s great! Me, I want to wear a suit. I like wearing suits. I’ve always liked dressing a little bit different. It’s funny, I got yelled at by a message board. We were talking about all the flyers of all the band promos that were in the late eighties. There were hundreds of bands and looking at the pictures now, we all look the same and we all thought we were so individual. We all thought we were so bohemian, and in hindsight, we all looked like we came from the same parents. L.A. Guns, when I first joined the band, we did our promo shots. Our manager had a few boutiques on Melrose Avenue and he was very generous. He was like, “yeah, guys go in there, get whatever you want. Take whatever you want.” So, we were doing photo shoots in suits and everyone else is like wearing tutus and leotards, and we looked a little bit different. I like that in a band, this band.
SFL Music Magazine: You’ve been out on the road with the #Keiferband. How did that come together?
Lewis: We share management. We share our agency and we love Tom. We are huge Cinderella fans. That first Cinderella album was like the soundtrack to our lives in Hollywood in ’86, ’87.
SFL Music Magazine: I see your present tour schedule goes all the way into November to the U.K. and Germany. Will that be the end for a bit?
Lewis: Yeah. I think that’s quite enough. It’ll be, we’ve done three months in the States. Then we’ll go over to Europe and England for a month. It’s been a long time since we were there. It will be interesting to see how it is, how it’s changed, if they still remember us, if they like the new stuff, if they think that we’re still that thirty-five-year-old Sunset Strip band. In many ways we are of course, but as I say, we’ve come so far, we’ve developed, and I’ll be interested to see if they managed to keep up with that.
SFL Music Magazine: Will L.A. Guns record a new original album? Is that in the cards?
Lewis: No. I begged them for a break. I think five albums; we proved our point. We could do another album. It wouldn’t be a great challenge. We could easily do it, but I personally think that we put out enough for people to digest and I think if we put our another new one, a new original, it might be a bit too much which is why the live album is a nice way to cap it. Let’s see what happens in a couple years because recording these last five albums, I really felt like it was getting on the treadmill. It became very repetitive, and as much as I enjoy it and I enjoy the music and I enjoy the songs, I enjoy the process, I just don’t feel that 100%. If you’re not 100% into doing something, then it’s probably a good idea you don’t.
SFL Music Magazine: That’s good advice! Is there anything you would advise a new band reflecting back on the success and longevity that L.A. Guns has had?
Lewis: For us it’s been a long run. The end game. We’re doing better now than we did, obviously, not when we first came out, but when the bubble burst, the metal bubble, the hair bubble burst. We still managed to stay together, and we continued touring and recording, but it was pretty bleak to be honest. The air had gone out, and we were still doing it because that’s what we do. That’s what we love. It was pretty dark. It was tough, but now things are great! I mean, they are every bit as good as the early days now. So, full circle. Our fans that were with us back then have grown up with us and they’re affluent now. They can afford to come out and buy a couple of shirts, buy a CD, buy an album, and they’re bringing their offspring with them. It’s a nice rite of passage.
SFL Music Magazine: In the past we spoke of your hobbies like photography, and you like to read. You and your wife find some awesome books! What is the latest book you have read? What would you recommend?
Lewis: Well, I like to read biographies. I just finished reading, you know Danny Trejo, the actor? That was a great book! Really, really good book. From his very sketchy upbringing and his drug challenges, and his legal battles, and how he turned his life around and became the iconic actor that he is. It was a good read. I enjoy biography when I can hear the author’s voice when I’m reading it. If you’ve ever read WHITE LINE FEVER, Lemmy’s biography. You read it, each chapter, each paragraph, and you can hear the mother fucker’s voice (he laughed)!
SFL Music Magazine: Was there anything else you want to add about the new album LIVE FROM THE GUILD THEATRE for people to know?
Lewis: As I made clear, it’s not a studio album. It’s not like a studio album with a live audience which is cheating right?
SFL Music Magazine: It’s very much your show from the Intro – “Taste It” through “Rip and Tear”.
Lewis: Yeah! That’s it!
