In a new interview with AL.com, L.A. Guns guitarist Tracii Guns has an in-depth discussion about his musical influences. Following is an excerpt from the chat.
AL.com: So a little something different about your history: with the Mötley Crüe Stadium Tour recently launching, I was watching a video of Brides of Destruction, your supergroup with Nikki Sixx, playing the Mötley classic "Live Wire"! and it sounded awesome. What do you think is brilliant or underrated about those early Mötley songs?
Tracii: "It’s the innocence, isn’t it? It’s these guys that are kind of from working-class families. Nikki’s kind of a terror and wants to be a rock star so bad to validate him as a human being, right? So, number one, the chemistry. Those four guys, man, the chemistry is undeniable. And the great thing about (Mötley Crüe’s debut album) Too Fast For Love is they really wore their influences on the sleeves. It sounds like Sweet, but it sounds like Mötley Crüe, this new band.
And the way it was recorded, that’s really what they sounded like live back then. Really raw and really loud. And Vince (Neil) was a really special vocalist. Nobody sounded exactly like Vince, and it was really coming out of the L.A. punk scene. New wave was done pretty much.
And there was W.A.S.P., and I loved W.A.S.P. too but Mötley Crüe just seemed to have … more chicks. More chicks went to the Mötley Crüe shows at the Troubadour, you know? So for me, it was like a lifestyle. That was my lifestyle when I was 15-years-old, going to see Mötley Crüe, dyed my hair black, wore leather 24 hours a day, going to high school thinking I was cool and all that stuff.
And so when I got to do Brides, I didn’t really give a hit about Brides, I just really wanted to play Mötley Crüe music (laughs). I only wanted to play stuff off Shout At The Devil and Too Fast For Love, and that’s what we did. Nikki was like, 'We’ve got to play some L.A. Guns' and I’m like, 'No!' and we did, and it was so cool watching Nikki each night play the intro to 'One More Reason' because I got that from (Mötley Crüe song) 'Take Me To The Top'.
There was a lot of that going back and forth between Nikki and I. He liked L.A. Guns and I liked Mötley Crüe. And as much as I have a f--ked-up relationship with Nikki, and I really don’t care at this point, I love that music. I love that image. If it wasn’t for him and his vision for that band, I wouldn’t have done L.A. Guns. I might not even be a successful musician if not for that band, and that's the truth."
Read the complete interview here.
