Phil Lewis (L.A. Guns singer)

Episode 189- Phil Lewis!!! I've been trying to get Phil on the show for a long time and it finally happened.  It was worth the wait!  L.A. Guns has a new album out titled "Checkered Past" and we discuss the new songs on it.  The album title is a reference to Phil's relationship with Tracii so he walks me through that and was very candid.  We also talk about the L.A. Guns set list, an upcoming tour with Tom Keifer & Faster Pussycat, the time Phil worked at Fox Sports and more! 

00:00 - Intro
01:41 - Careful in Interviews 
02:56 - Cannoball & Phil's Mustache 
05:07 - Knock Me Down & Lyrics 
06:37 - Get Along & Van Halen Wall 
09:12 - Let You Down 
11:36 - Checkered Past & Relationship w/ Tracii 
18:48 - Phil Lewis Try Out & Adam Hamilton 
20:55 - Drummers & Tom Keifer/Faster Pussycat Tour 
22:54 - First Coming to L.A. 
24:52 - L.A. Guns Set List 
28:37 - Working at Fox Sports 
33:03 - Kitten Rescue Los Angeles 
33:52 - Wrap Up

L.A. Guns website:
https://www.lagunsmusic.com

Kitten Rescue Los Angeles:
https://kittenrescue.org

Chuck Shute website:
http://chuckshute.com

Transcript

Chuck Shute: 0:14

Phil lewis is here so exciting I've waited a long time for this one and it's finally going to happen so I am a huge la guns fan and I assume you are too if you're listening to this one but before we get to Phil real quick if you could make sure to subscribe and like this video if you're watching on YouTube Yes, I know I'm being annoying if you're regular listen to the listener to the show. You've probably heard me say this a million times. Or if you're listening on Spotify or anywhere else, I think you can also follow or subscribe to the show so you don't miss any future episodes. I would appreciate that. Thank you so much. Now back to Phil and La guns. They've got a new album out it's called checkered past and the four songs that I've heard so far are all really good and I really like all the new albums they put out since the reunion missing piece Devil You Know, it's great stuff so it's it's la guns but with a modern sound, and the songwriting and the production of great and in this interview, Phil is very candid about the new record and his and Tracy's checkered past shall we say, and I only had about 30 minutes with him. But if you're an LA guns fan, you're gonna love this please do not leave me any comments about me smiling or nodding too much. Yes, I know I am a huge elegans fan and again, he's the singer so I'm not going to contain my excitement in this one. I have a lot of fun and I think you will enjoy it well welcome to the show so I you I heard you say you don't like doing interviews because you're afraid that you might say something you're not supposed to or something like that.

Phil Lewis: 1:49

Well I always say something I'm not suppose and then and then you know that ends up just being you know, the the main headline and in an interview you know, I could be talking about growing apples and mentioned something you know, an offhand remark about Don dokken or something and that becomes that becomes the headline so yeah, you got to be careful so I don't do interviews unless I'm promoting something unless you know we've got an hour now or getting a tour lined up or anything because it just it can come back and bite you you know you got a lot of you know, nasty people out there but sure.

Chuck Shute: 2:35

Yeah. Any press is good press right? Isn't that some people's theories? No, no,

Phil Lewis: 2:41

no, no, I don't think so. Okay, well you know, maybe when you're starting out but no, it's it has to be good press Yeah, that's that's that's what we're worthy of good press.

Chuck Shute: 2:55

Yeah, so let's talk about the new stuff. The newest song can't oh actually I think this is actually not the newest cuz you just released get along. today but Cannonball I love this. This is a badass like opening riff who came up with that riff and why did you shave the mustache? Cuz that was so awesome.

Phil Lewis: 3:12

Thank you very much. I Johnny, Johnny Martin came up with that risk. Okay, he put that one in. And it sounds fantastic. The moustache Wow. Yeah, that was that was epic, wasn't it? Yes. Story is when this whole business this whole played a pandemic lockdown. I decided I wasn't going to shave until my next gig assuming that it might be a month or two. I didn't realize there was going to be like a year plus. So I haven't shaved it just you know I shaved the bottom part because I just couldn't bear that But yeah, I just set the mustache though and I've never had anything like that. And I've got the full Stonewall Jackson did and I've got the Civil War shops and yeah, and that works really really well. For the for the theme the pirate theme of Cannonball and it was almost like I'd been in growing it specifically for that and right and in a way it may be maybe I just made use of it. And and I shaved it right after I after the shoot. Right after I finished Cannonball and I hadn't start get along. So I get along fresh face I shaved in like I shaved that what took me like a year to grow. took me about 35 seconds to shave with a razor. Right?

Chuck Shute: 4:51

Right. Yeah, so get on get on it. Yeah, sorry. Gone.

Phil Lewis: 4:55

Now I've just you know, it was just it was a useful prop but I was it big relief to get it off you know I don't like that stuff on my face

Chuck Shute: 5:04

right now I agree it's I'm the same way um so but the other songs knock me down I think this song is it's like kind of like a classic almost like AC DC riff or AC DC ish riff what are the what are the lyrics are reference to with knock me down what is that something did you come up with those

Phil Lewis: 5:23

just about you know getting getting knocked down but getting right back up again you know I kind of like that I'm still standing kind of a vibe and just you know like standing your ground and not not buckling basically you know the songs aren't about anybody specifically they're just you know, like themes themes yeah and and they the biggest influence lyrically are just it's the music you know the vibe of the music and yeah you know that when it started it does it's very ACDC and of course you know if you're going to steal steal from the best Yeah, and you know that i wanted to i wanted to do something a little bit different you know, I wanted to come in low with that opening line of the verse you know instead of just like belting it out right from out of the gate I wanted it to to to build you know, yeah, it's snow snowball and by the time we got to the chorus it's full on screaming voice

Chuck Shute: 6:33

Yeah, no, that one's that one's great and then you mentioned get along it's kind of like I don't know how to describe maybe it's like I wanted to say like bluesy or country but it's almost got like a 90s alternative vibe to it but I noticed in the video there's there's that Eddie Van Halen was on it well it's so it were you a big fan I'm sure Tracy was but why did you guys put that in the video?

Phil Lewis: 6:57

Well, I wasn't there when they when Tracy shot the video. The album was recorded remotely and the video was pretty much the same thing they recorded theirs they shot their their footage in in LA I shot mine in Vegas. I wasn't there. I couldn't tell you what's going on with the Eddie Van Halen war I but yeah, his big big big disciple Traci loves Edie loved him personally. And you know they became really good friends. When when your idol becomes your best friend that's the vibe of it we were going to say Led Zeppelin three you know hang man or guys pole you know it's it's a it's a rock folk fusion you know rather like Ballad of Jane is a rock country fusion the this one we got we got our folk on and it sounds sounds like we're playing mandolin we're not it's actually just a 12 string guitar quite high up in there but it's quite refreshing and and it was you know a terrible contrast from the video for Cannonball and I did him in the same afternoon so it was really important for me to to come up with two completely wildly different concepts and Cannonball was just like, you know, over the top, you know, elton john would be proud with and cannibal and the other one. I just wanted to just to be simple acoustic, I didn't want to wear anything fancy. I just want like a old pair of overalls and a beat up hat and I just felt comfortable singing and playing and that was always the vibe I got when I was recording that it was just just like that and we are going to be when we do it live and we're going to you know bust out the acoustic guitars and just slow things down for a little bit. And then that'll be fun. I'm looking forward

Chuck Shute: 9:10

to that. That's cool. Now the song lets you down that came out in 2020 It's such a broad I mean it really is I want to say brilliant it's like a haunting song. I could totally see this one and like a movie or a TV soundtrack. Is that going to be included as the in the album checkered past or is that just like a one off kind of song?

Phil Lewis: 9:27

No, I mean that it's on the album. It was the first one we recorded okay. And that's why it's been bouncing around and you know, before we even moved on to the next song, we really felt that let you down and just turned out so good. Yeah, we we couldn't help ourselves. You know, we had to let it out. You know, put it out and running up the flagpole and see if anyone's diluted it which they did. It's over. whelming It's a song that really takes us out of that whole 80s hair metal, it puts us on a completely different level. And, you know, we are that we are you know, 80s you know, I wouldn't say hair matters but you know, we are product of that. So, you know, I understand getting lumped in with packages and stuff like that, but this is this is la guns mark two since the reunion because we Tracy and I, we had 15 years of estrangement. So we had a lot of catching up to do. And we both matured a lot of people and as songwriters. And that's, that's very evident in all three of these post reunion records. missing piece, several, you know, and this one, too, if the progress even in those three records, is pretty amazing. But the just the, the level, we're saying, you know, we're never going to write a song like sex action again. And that's okay. It was great for what it was when we did it. It's a lot of fun, and it was appropriate, but you don't want to hear 60 get your 60 year old guy singing obeyed. I'm a sex gun lover in the night.

Chuck Shute: 11:30

Well, you still play the song live, though. I mean, but yeah, I see where your point is. It's hard to write those kind of songs so checkered past. That's the album title. You said it was a reference to your relationship with you and Tracy. So take me through this relationship because I had Rachel Boleyn from Skid Row on and he told me that him and Sebastian Bach were never friends. They were just bandmates are you and Tracy were you guys ever friends? Are you friends now? Are you just totally totally professional?

Phil Lewis: 11:55

Oh no no no we when I first joined the band I him and I we were just Bosom Buddies the best friends you know you've ever had the longest transatlantic friends and he was just so sweet and it really you know like did change my life you know getting me over and given me the gig but you know like like most things that there's a honeymoon period and that didn't last very long at all and that's okay. We I was just we went from being great friends and you know we both had quite we're on the same page with as far as the band was concerned but you know like just the way we were going about it you know he wanted to be a Tigers you know, I really felt like he you know, I wanted to be Slayer or Motorhead and I was like no I don't that's that's that's not right for us and so you know we did our opinions did vary. And we for the most part, we stayed friends but the thing was in it you know in the in the big days you know in the cocked and loaded in the you know, multi Platinum base there was a lot of outside pressure you know from management and publicists and even accountants you know, just say you know, if we became not so much a band but you know, they were looking for a hit machine you know, there was poison that was Cinderella and you know, they wanted us to to follow in the footsteps and you know, get to that, you know, like multi Bon Jovi you know that Bon Jovi lady find the label that sign Cinderella polygram is signed this and they signed us because they like to our edge, you know that they like the rawness of it. And then it didn't take too long before they wanted to smooth it out and tried to hear you know, writer say, writer, a power ballad, and that was all the thing at the time. And that job, a big wedge, between Tracy and I's friendship is this no doubt about it. And yeah, for a while that because of that, we we actually hated each other we recorded, like after hollywood vampires, like vicious circle, and all of that stuff. We were in separate the same studio but strictly on separate claims, so that we wouldn't have to encounter each other. They got that bad. Wow. And then, you know, like, when we did get back together, the first reunion and we put Waking the Dead together, which I felt was talking great. It was just I was so happy that we you know, we We found ourselves let go before that man in the moon is a good record but it's not really very it's not typically la guns Can I really felt like Waking the Dead we've got a vibe our groove back and we were just getting ready to promote the record and it was coming out and we had a tour lined up with Alice Cooper and Tracy bolted we stopped off he decided he wanted to be in a band with Nikki Nikki six and just focus on that in fact is in fact that record it was the most astounding piece of selfishness I've ever encountered in my life and that was the beginning and the cause of the 15 years arrangement

Chuck Shute: 15:51

and now you've did you work through that or you guys just not even talking about that stuff?

Phil Lewis: 15:57

Yeah No we work through it you know like it just as I said during that time those that use those use pop ups grew up a lot and he wasn't he wasn't that little shit that didn't give a flying frog about us because we want to go up with Nikki Sixx and and even Nikki Sixx are saying look, it's just a side project we've got down here you know, forget about the band Yeah, and everyone's saying straight up Don't give up your band you know, step away and do this other thing and we were all okay with that but he was just so insistent on quitting and you know with his final words that leave you guys to make wise decisions say fuck off. But yeah, you know, things are different now. Things are better now he we both grown up a lot. That's water under the bridge. And we're back to being friends now. Being company and because we've had that those highs and lows. We're real close because of that. You know,

Chuck Shute: 17:02

it's made the relationship stronger. You're saying? Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.

Phil Lewis: 17:09

And you know, it's the same thing with with most rock couples. Steven Tyler, Joe Perry. They are talking to each other. They have their roadies communicate. You know, making Keith had some had their issues to God knows. Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend has had many baskets. So it's par for the course it's normal. It's when you get two very strong characters, two strong personalities. In the same, same boat. Same rowing though, there's going to be a bit of friction, and we always made that friction work. Yeah, but you know, it's just so impossible when he's walking away. The I was, I didn't honestly think I'd ever work with him again. But, you know, times change and you sort of just after I saw him after 15 years, it was like, Alright, and he was just a normal guy sitting in backstage at the venue in Vegas. And he was, it was just me and him and he was I was drinking a beer and he's got a sweet tooth so he was drinking a White Russian and he looked like a little boy sitting in the corner drinking a glass of milk. And I was like, how can I get this guy's made my life so I've been so wound up How can I look at him he's just he's just a kid drinking a glass of milk. And it's just two of us who just like couple of couple of boys you know being together, and we worked it out.

Chuck Shute: 18:44

That's awesome. I love I love the story. How like when you join the band, The tryout was just you going on the mic and going check one check one and he goes yeah, that's good. You're hired. That was your tryout. That's crazy.

Phil Lewis: 18:57

Yeah, yeah. He looked up in any grades and he was tuning his guitar. He goes yeah, yo, do you got the gig?

Chuck Shute: 19:06

That's awesome. I love you know, to you have such an eye for talent. Not only talent, but I feel like you've had some so many great members of La guns. Like some of my favorite guests like Adam Hamilton. Michael grant, Carrie Kelly, Ace Vaughn Johnson, the current guitarist, how do you how do you pick talent? I mean, it seems like you have a you're able to find people who have a good vibe.

Phil Lewis: 19:27

Yeah. Well, you know, Adam, first guy you mentioned has been a fantastic fine. And everybody

Chuck Shute: 19:34

who loves him, by the way, they love him. I interviewed him. I still get comments every couple of months. I love Adam so much.

Phil Lewis: 19:41

He's the nicest, sweetest down to earth guy. I know. So graces, he's funny. He's really talented. He's really good. And it's humbling. So Adam has obviously been a bass player in LA guns is actually The common drama or rather he's the drama studio. Yeah yeah he played all the drums right on this one and did a fantastic job googan couldn't do it he didn't he didn't have a setup. He didn't have a recording studio with drum set up. Adam does yeah and and because we were because he's been involved in production and he was compiling all the files which we were recording remotely and sending he was like you know, the the main depot for the for the songs and then he had the drums all set up ready to go so he just played him and he did a great job. The drums are fantastic on it. I mean he can do anything that I think you know, his real forte is his drumming. He is really good.

Chuck Shute: 20:53

Yeah, so then Shane is going to come back to tour because he's pretty busy with Isn't he doing the Kanye West thing he's working he's caught us a crime so he's not gonna be able to do that like guns to

Phil Lewis: 21:03

Connie's personal engineer. Yeah, that kind they won't go in the studio and this you know, Shane's driving and that's a great great gig. But you know, he's he's alright with it. You know, Shane told him you know what was going on and he does offer this is his warehouse to rehearsing. Okay. So you know, I like to stay that's cool, you know, because we're not taking Shane's not going to do it for long. It's just going to do these shows. Till the end of the year. Next year, you know, we we start off we're doing the Monsters of Rock cruise. And then in the summer, we'll be starting a a full American tour going going everywhere. La guns, Tom Kiefer, and faster pussycat. Oh,

Chuck Shute: 21:58

that sounds awesome. Oh,

Phil Lewis: 22:01

yeah, yeah. So that's in the pipeline, and we're getting the dates of coming in second fast. And yeah, things things are looking good. Hopefully we'll have a drama sorted out. I mean, you never know. Scotty might even come back.

Chuck Shute: 22:18

Okay. Or do you have other people in mind or how do you find these? Because like I said, Yeah, you're so good at finding talent. You have open tryouts ever. Do you just know people in the business

Phil Lewis: 22:27

know, pretty much no people you know, that's Tracy's forte because he just he just knows so many people that Yeah, he is never sure of somebody to come and help out. And you know, he found Adam he found Shane I've no doubt he'll find the next time

Chuck Shute: 22:52

yeah that's awesome. So when you first came to LA you thought like you would kind of died and gone to heaven right? Like he felt like because in Europe they weren't playing rock music at the time so when you joined la guns you're like oh my god la there's palm trees and there's rock music everywhere Yeah,

Phil Lewis: 23:07

they didn't not only not played rock they hated it. They despised rock they're the the labels were looking all they wanted was Duran Duran all they wanted was like Boy George and Culture Club and you know, they wanted like cub bands. And, and that whole rock was really looked down upon and considered passe. And none of the ladies have touched it, there was, you know, a lot of good rock bands around at that time, and they just couldn't get any traction. I was in a band with a guy called Bernie tormey. Right me, and we were killing it. We were playing, you know, like, we played out the marquee. We played like three nights in a row and set out every night price would be absolutely packed jam, and the place of go ballistic. And we couldn't get anyone from the label to even come down and check out a gig you know, like, as soon as they heard what it was. now now now we pass on that we've moved on, you know, and it's kind of reminds me of how how shitty the music business got when the bubble burst for the for the 80s you know, and everybody wanted like Nirvana and grunge and scruffy and you know, that whole grand fun, sexy thing was was considered absolutely passe. And, and nobody wanted to touch it. It is secular. It's just, you know, if you've been around as long as I have doing these things. You see cycles. And it is what it is, you know,

Chuck Shute: 24:50

yeah, well, you mentioned vicious, vicious circle. That's one of my actually favorite albums. I really love that album. Would you guys ever do any more songs from that? Like, it seems Have you ever played a song from that one for a few years would you add those to the setlist?

Phil Lewis: 25:04

Absolutely right if it fits if it's a love that record I really really do need to it's just the problem is we've got so many songs and a limited amount of time sure and doing putting a new album or in this case three new albums in the park it doesn't give us a lot of wiggle room so obviously we you know, an LA gun show has to have The Ballad of Jane right action never enough electric Gypsy so you know there are certain songs that we just absolutely have to do and then there's new stuff that we were dying to do and some you know when you when you record it's depressing fact when you record an hour when we record an album to probably about 70% of it is never going to be played live it's not it's never going to be in a venue so you have to be very you know you have to pick very carefully which ones you're going to do and we've picked the ones from this record and you know that we're going to still carry on doing speed you know songs that you know from sensory union now you know like like something like from missing piece or Devil You Know probably only have one song each from both of those records because because because the time constraint especially going to be tricky because you know like when we're going out with Tom we it's a co headline thing and you know we're playing 16 minutes but that that is just such a short amount of time yeah for a band with with the kind of discographies that we have and frustrating as hell Tracy came up with an idea he goes look I like why don't we do a set we did two sets and I ate some classic you know your old last century la guns and then eight songs like new stuff that we want to do and I think it's a great idea and you know i'm not against doing it but I don't want to do it right away I don't want to do it after not doing any shows for almost two years. You know I want to just come back out and do it traditionally, I Now's not the time to reinvent the wheel but certainly something to consider and come back to I think it's a good idea

Chuck Shute: 27:38

yeah like when you bring in the old songs that you haven't done in a while to I think one of the last shows you guys did before the pandemic you played 17 crash and give a little to my favorite songs I think that's really cool when you mix it's gonna be fun for you guys to to play something different

Phil Lewis: 27:52

well you know the plan was we were going to do the entire cocked and loaded record in in 2021 1920 that was you know, we were all set and ready to do that you know, take that on the road and just play cocked and loaded in its entirety but obviously plans change but we did manage to do a live stream of it which is floating around somewhere. And that turned out great and yeah, it was really fun. Playing those old songs again digging them out. And you know like it's been so long since we did them that you know it got a certain new freshness

Chuck Shute: 28:33

Yeah, no, it's very cool why now you got to get out here I have one last question. I was always curious about this. When elegans first kind of broke up you took a hiatus and you went Tell me about this you worked at Fox Sports as an editor Yeah, that sounds like such a those are kind of a hard job to do the it's very monotonous right but you loved it You were really happy doing this and it's weird to me that you because you people that usually love music, like they can't be away from it for very long, but you were like kind of happy having a break.

Phil Lewis: 29:00

so relieved, to be honest with you, you know, like, even you know, the very, very end I left, I left la guns around 92 and I just left in disgust. I left you know, I was disgusted with with the business. I was you know, disappointed in my bandmates and I just really felt like I done done my my pay my dues and at that time I you know, I had a kid I was like raising a daughter. And and there was it was like, as I said, everyone was looking for grams. Everyone's looking for Nirvana, Alice in Chains. So you know, something of a pariah. And so I just got on with it. I took a course in this new new app that had been put together called Pro Tools. Nobody had heard of it before. So I did it. I did like a full week, night course. And I learned everything about ProTools and recording and just just what it can do. And I just put a resume I lied through my teeth saying, I worked at the BBC and I was an end recording engineer. And I got my foot in the door, they gave me a job, they gave me like a tape up kind of a guy. And I was the only one that really knew how to work Pro Tools at that time. So and it didn't take long for me to befriend my colleagues, and most of whom were ex musicians that have taken the same route as me. That's interesting. And, and it didn't take long before they figured out who I was, and had a fucking good laugh about it. Because I didn't say I didn't know obviously, you know, that. I couldn't put like, yeah, I'm an extra rock star in my resume, but it didn't take long to find out. One day, I was at work on Friday, and I was still doing like, you know, weekend gigs. And my drummer at the time, said that he'd put a flier together for a show that we were going to be doing in a couple of weeks. And he was going to fax it over to me, I said, well fax it at work. And he he is face to it for God and the day ended and I went home and then and then when I came back on Monday, there were about six studios and it's post production so they all had huge TV screens in them. And every screen had the most glammed picture I'm wearing like blue eyeshadow shipping that you know big, teased hair, it was in every studio in the whole facility. And they were pissing themselves they were having such a shit. I got called out but there was lovely guys and boys they just it was just one promotion after another and it didn't take long before I had my own studio and I was all set up making good money to making really, really good money. And then I you know, like four or five years ago, Brian and I got a call from Mick Crips saying that, you know, Cleopatra records Brian over to Pacha wanted to put the band back together, he was offering us a budget to re record the first couple of albums and we could do some shows and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, I did it reluctantly, because I really thought that music was that that chapter was closed. But there's an old saying, you know, it's an old country western sayings and you don't give up the road. The road gives up you. And I guess the road just wasn't ready to give me up. And that was that was in the year 2000 when I came back and I stopped working at Fox and I've been working and making a living in music ever since.

Chuck Shute: 32:58

That's awesome. I'm glad you're back checkered past great new album. I like to end each episode with a charity. Is there one that you've worked with? You want to just give a quick mention to here at the end?

Phil Lewis: 33:09

Yeah, you know, I'm a big cat person. People know that. Oh, me too. So I live in Vegas. That's it. That's a fantastic organization in LA called kitten rescue. They just do a fantastic job and I put three cats and two of them. I adopted from kitten rescue and they're good people, they have a cat sanctuary and it's not likely to engage. So if I give a shout out definitely to them.

Chuck Shute: 33:41

Okay, well, thanks so much. I'll put everything in the notes and people need to get out. Go out and get this new album.

Phil Lewis: 33:47

That's right. Okay, I've got to go down the line. Okay, see you

Chuck Shute: 33:51

fly. Once again, the new la guns album checkered past. Definitely check it out. Listen, love the song Cannonball especially just great stuff from those guys. Get the new album, follow them on social media to keep up with tour dates, and everything else that's going on with the band. And that's how you can support la guns. If you want to support my little show here, there's a variety of things you can do. First off, subscribe to the show on YouTube or wherever you listen. Follow me on social media, and your comments, likes and shares on social media and YouTube. That help out that helps out a lot. And check out some of my old episodes. I've interviewed a few other members or past members of La guns, including Adam Hamilton and the current rhythm guitar player, Ace Vaughn Johnson. And finally, if you have a couple extra minutes if you can write me a review on Apple podcasts that helps more people find the show, and then we grow as a show and then I can get bigger guests. I'd love to have Tracy guns on next that would be a lot of fun. So thank you so much for listening. Have a great rest of your day. And remember, shoot for the moon.