LA GUNS INTERVIEW

BY MARK THOMPSON (geelaguu@AOL.COM)

No cocktails, no appetizers, let's just get straight to the main course, my chat with LA GUNS.

Mark Thompson: Hey guys, How's it going?
Ralph Saenz: Great!
Tracii Guns: Everything is so great right now! We're playing well and the vibe is there!

MT: How is the reaction to Ralph?
TG: Chris was in the band for two years and nobody gave a fuck. And now everybody is calling us. People are really into his voice and it's like 1986 again.

MT: Are you doing any of the AMERICAN HARDCORE material?
RS: Only like 3 songs.
TG: It doesn't dominate the set anymore.

MT: Is that all Chris could do? Was he not that versatile?
TG: It's not that he wasn't versatile, he just couldn't sing the old LA GUNS. We did Rip n Tear and a heavy thrash version of The Ballad Of Jane, but most people didn't get that. (laughs)

MT: There is such a good buzz about the band right now. How did the tour go? It was what, a month out on the road?
RS: This was my first time out on the road
TG: Ever since we got back he's been calling asking me everyday, "Can we go out again?" But the response was phenomenal. But it was a hard tour because we only got hotels a few nights. We started in Phoenix and I wake up at 11:30 and it's my biggest nightmare when I put my hand in front of the A/C vent and it's off. I'm thinking it got too cold and somebody turned it off. I walk to the front of the bus and everybody is up there and the driver is in his underwear and I go, "No, No, this can't be happening." So I started drinking whiskey to mellow out.
RS: I flew out to the Phoenix show so I missed out on that experience.
TG: We did this tour to play four shows with RATT that were really important to us.

MT: How were those shows?
TG: They were fucking insane.
RS: The shows were all sold out or completely full. The first show was in Detroit and the balcony was almost full and the floor was packed.
TG: Detroit Theater was about 2800 people. You put two great bands on the same bill for 20 bucks and you get more hits than Lollapalooza in two hours. It's so great with this guy (Ralph). It's still as intense as Chris, but more lighthearted and easier to accept.

MT: The fun is back in the music!
TG: Yeah! It's cool! I saw the crowd response and its just as cool to see people headbang as it is to see them mosh.
RS: The first time I saw a pit, I totally freaked. I was like, "Hey, don't hurt each other.' At first there were all these chicks up front, then all guys moshing up front and drinks flying everywhere.
TG: At one of the WARRANT shows there was this chick totally decked out in this red dress with the matching shoes stagediving during the whole set. We're touring with Slaughter next month so I think that will be a different crowd.

MT: A couple of years ago you guys were doing small theaters. How did that go?
TG: We always did well, some 3500 seaters. At our peak, we played a few Irvine size shows. We never got too ambitious. Ambition is what killed the 80's music scene. Musician is one level up from a slave. We're the lasts to get paid and we work our asses off. It's actually work lying down in a bus all day. It's not glamorous! You're never home, and when you get home, you just start to settle in and get into the groove of going to the same restaurant everyday and then it's time to leave.


MT: Why keep a home?
TG: Gotta have a home!A place for my girlfriend, my dogs, and old cars.

MT: Old Cars?
TG: I have a '57 Chevy and a 42 Ford. That's what I do when I'm home. When I leave, I have all of these half-finished projects. I got in the 42 today and rolled the window down and it felt like I just opened the oven door. So I jumped in the Mazda and cranked on the A/C.

MT: What do you think of all of these 80's bands back out on the road again?
TG: It's great! RATT were totally into it and very professional. Warren is playing better than ever.
RS: And Stephen is sounding better than ever.

MT: And Warrant?
TG: I never really listened to them, but they have this new drummer (Bobby Borg) who is bad ass. I doubt that THE WHO were listening to the STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK as their counterparts.

MT: So what did you listen to?
TG: Van Halen, Ozzy with Randy, Aerosmith, Zeppelin, and AM radion.

MT: AM radio?
TG: Oh yeah! T REX was on there all the time and so were the STONES. But there was nothing cooler than Ian Gillian just standing there. That whole 70's sound was great!

MT: Music was music then! One mic on the drums, one on the guitar and just pound it out!
TG: Production is what turned me off of the 80's. The clothes too! I'm sure many bands wrote great songs and had some value, but I just couldn't get passed that sound of the production.

MT: Tell me about the show tonight!
TG: It's like all of the record companies had a meeting a couple of months ago and all of a sudden there is a lot of interest in rock again.
RS: Things are different now. Things are getting stale and very stereotypical. The image isn't going to come back, but just the good rock music that has been gone. Rock n' Roll is now the alternative (see my last column). All rock bands are on the independent labels. We are the alternative. There is not one longhaired, blond lead singer in rock anymore. This is who I am!
TG: Ralph is so comfortable with the crowd. We get a better reaction now than when we did at our peak with The Ballad of Jane.
RS: Rock is a full on release.
TG: I suspect a lot of these guys (alternative) can really play, but are afraid to rock. I had short hair when Kurt Cobain had long hair (FACT!). Now everybody looks like I used to with the long bangs.
RS: People can see through the bullshit out there.

MT: What about the new crop of heavy music coming out today?
TG: There are some good ones, but too many are on the bandwagon. The last leg of the tour with Chris, we had every KORN cove band open up for us. We were a pop band. But I felt sorry for the band that played after the first band because one guy would have a different color beanie or the wrong ADIDAS outfit on.

MT: Too many clones!
TG: All songs tuned down, no guitar solos. It's easy. If you're doing something big, and it's easy, everybody else is gonna do it because it's easy. Look at VAN HALEN, there is only one VH because it's not easy to be VH.
RS: Same goes for SMASHING PUMPKINS. That band just rips and has so much personality.

MT: What do you see happening to you guys in the next year or two?
TG: hopefully being the biggest rock band in the world.

The talk continues on for another 15 minutes into the topics of rent and the safety of living in the valley. What I will say about Tracii and the boys is this; they seem genuinely content with how things are going for them right now. They exude that level of fun that is slowly, but surely working its way back into rock 'n roll.