Singer: One version of L.A. Guns more than enough

By: JAMES CURRAN - Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 22, 2006 11:29 AM PST ∞

No disrespect meant to one of its founding members, but current singer Phillip Lewis thinks the world does not need two versions of L.A. Guns.

"Oh God, tell me about it," Lewis said. "It horrifies me and the rest of the band. ... Long-term, it's no big deal. Short-term, it's very annoying."

The duel of the Guns is the latest in an unusual divergent career for one ---- or two ---- of Hollywood's longest-lasting hard rock acts. Lewis leads a quartet, which he asserts is the legitimate version of L.A. Guns, for a Saturday concert at Tap Daddy's in San Jacinto.

Lewis understands why fans might be split on the topic. A founding member of the band ---- guitarist Tracii Guns ---- was with L.A. Guns even before Lewis was recruited. Lewis said Guns had left the band years ago, which is not surprising, considering more than 20 musicians have at one time been a member of group.

But Lewis said allowing Guns back in the band is not a question of whether he's a good performer or person. Bringing back Guns would mean firing current guitarist Stacey Blades.

"(Blades) hasn't done anything wrong, so we're not going to kick him out," Lewis said. "This band has been through a hell of a lot of lineups, but this is the last one. I love this lineup."

Lewis joined L.A. Guns three years into its existence. It was the mid-1980s, when heavy metal bands grinding power chords along Sunset Strip bars was all the rage in the music industry. L.A. Guns was looking for a different sound, and recruited Lewis, a British born singer who had previously worked with Phil Cullen of Def Leppard.

"It was a little too homogenized," Lewis said of the previous L.A. Guns' songs. "A bit squeaky. I wanted to bring a bit of The Clash, a bit of the Sex Pistols, a bit of an edge to be abrasive. There were bands being formed at the time ---- Guns N' Roses, Jet Boy, Faster Pussycat ---- they couldn't decide what they were going with, music-wise."

But Lewis said the risk of coming to America was fraught with uncertainty. Cullen was a supportive friend and dedicated musician. Lewis found Los Angeles to be as flighty as the Hollywood stereotype.

"The L.A. scene is a lot more caustic, I must say," Lewis said. "It's a pool of sharks. I missed Phil with his sort of innocence."

However, Lewis said he never regretted being a part of the band.

"It's all about good music," he said. "It doesn't matter how well you get along. At the end of the day, all that matters is the songs. That was my opinion going into it. All the hype, the photo shoots, weren't anything unless you had the music to back it up. That was the goal I set for myself. It's been a good quest."

Besides, Lewis also had a front-row seat for the lifestyle of the struggling rock star, which he wouldn't trade.

"I lucked out," he said. "A friend of mine was moving out and wanted me to take over his apartment. It overlooked the parking lot of the Whiskey. I lived there almost two years. the sights, the sounds ...

"From eight in the morning to the afternoon, it was absolutely silent. but from 8 o'clock to 8 in the morning, there were all kinds of 'transactions' taking place, fights, it was hysterical."

Besides, Lewis was the singer of a well-known band in the area.

"All I needed to do was go down a few flights of stairs and because of the times, I was some sort of celebrity," he said. "People were just falling over each other to be accommodating."

Yet, the attention wasn't sufficient to stay in the band. Lewis is one of the people who left L.A. Guns, only to return. He didn't leave in acrimony. He became a parent in 1994. In the process, he said he discovered a maturity that only helped him when he eventually returned to the band.

L.A. Guns never matched the acclaim or the sales of some other metal bands. One former singer in L.A. Guns, Axl Rose, became one of metal's most noted frontmen with Guns N' Roses. With that said, Lewis said L.A. Guns became one of the more respected bands in Southern California.

"It's very much a renaissance for this band," he said. "We don't have millions in sales, but we do have the respect of our peers, the respect in the industry. ... L.A. Guns was different in many respects in terms of metal. There were metal bands, like AC/DC or Motorhead, that were really good at doing that one thing.

"We weren't sticking with one thing. We were experimenting with different tempos, stuff you wouldn't expect a typical metal band to be doing."

Lewis is also hopeful that fans will decide that his band is the one more true to the spirit of L.A. Guns.

"(The two bands) is awful. I hate it, but I'm not going around crying about it," he said.

L.A. Guns

When: 7 p.m. Saturday

Where: Tap Daddy's, 2505 S. San Jacinto Ave., San Jacinto

Info: (951) 652-5686

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