Tracii Guns Discusses New L.A. Guns Album + Celebrates Sabbath

Tracii Guns joined Loudwire Nights on Wednesday (April 16) and celebrated the recent release of L.A. Guns’ new album, Leopard Skin. Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

In addition to diving into the record, Guns spent plenty of time reflecting on his career and shared about the bands he’s always drawn inspiration from.

“I’m really going to sound so weird, but I’m really only into about 20 or 25 musical groups,” Guns told host Chuck Armstrong.

“I don’t have a vast collection of music to draw from, but within that, you know, there’s Beastie Boys but there is also Poison Idea and Led Zeppelin and the Beatles. So what I do is I will kind of eyeball my record collection and go, ‘What am I missing? What do I want to hear out of this record collection?'”

Guns is never shy about his love of Zeppelin and Jimmy Page, but he’s also been very open about his admiration for Black Sabbath and Tony Iommi.

“The whole Sabbath band, they were a different type of Led Zeppelin, weren’t they,” Guns said.

“Ozzy’s favorite band was Led Zeppelin and the Beatles. But the thing with Tony was, you know, because of his handicap or whatever, he just made the scariest guitar sounds ever. I first got into Sabbath when I was 11 and it was the intro to ‘Iron Man’ that really freaked me out. It was so sludgy but still reminiscent of Led Zeppelin, still in the same ballpark. To me, it was just next level.”

Guns said he enjoyed watching the development of what he referred to as “hippie heavy rock” grow into more focused heavy metal.

“I saw that through the first couple of Def Leppard records, the first couple of Iron Maiden records. I loved all that stuff because it was in-between, it wasn’t completely just one thing.”

As he said that, Guns was reminded of another band that still means a lot to him.

“The only real metal band that I ever loved after that was Pantera,” he said.

“Pantera was in the tradition of Van Halen. The just kind of ‘go for it’ mentality, still jamming even though [they were] very focused sound-wise. But they were still writing pop songs. I know Anselmo is going to call me when he hears this and go, ‘What the fuck’s wrong with you, dude? We didn’t write pop songs!'”

READ MORE: Phil X Celebrates New Album, Shares Unforgettable Bon Jovi Story

Guns said they couldn’t help but write pop songs, though, because they grew up in the time of big records with big hooks.

“Even though Phil is telling you how it is, they’ve got big choruses, they’ve got big sections. They can sing, the riffs are catchy, the recordings are awesome. Everything about Pantera is just so classic.”

What Else Did L.A. Guns’ Tracii Guns Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

• What it was like in the early days of Guns N’ Roses: “By the time I was 19 and we had changed L.A. Guns into Guns N’ Roses, that was the first time that Izzy [Stradlin] and I got to be in a real band together and then we had further discussions, like, ‘You got to be this guy, you got to maintain the metal.’ We really, really spent so much time together, there was nothing else to talk about except designing a great rock band. Me being so naive and Izzy being so worldly, that was the music formula: the education.”
• What it was like having a kid overseas weeks before the pandemic shut down the world: “I was able to stay in Denmark for five full months because there was no reason to go anywhere during the pandemic. So I got to spend the first five months with my son.”
• Why he seems to be so prolific these days with new music: “I’m not just writing, but I’m recording [the songs]. I write and record, I don’t fuck around anymore. There’s no demos, there’s no acoustic versions. It’s like, here we go. But that’s my hobby, I guess. That’s what I truly love doing.”

Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below

Tracii Guns joined Loudwire Nights on Wednesday, April 16; the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also see if the show is available on your local radio station and listen to interviews on-demand.