BRIDES OF DESTRUCTION: 'We Make Really Smart Decisions'

North Shore Sunday recently conducted an interview with former L.A. GUNS and current BRIDES OF DESTRUCTION guitarist Tracii Guns. Several excerpts from the chat follow:

North Shore Sunday: Growing up in Hollywood in the early '80s, what was the whole vibe like on the strip? What bands influenced you to pick up the guitar?

Tracii Guns: "I really started hanging out at the Starwood, which really wasn't considered the strip, but it was the big club when all these punk rock bands came out like the GERMS, the WEIRDOES. What really got me going back into rock was when MÖTLEY CRÜE came out in '81 and they were playing the Troubadour, the Whiskey and the Roxy.

"To me it was just all about watching great bands, and there weren't many of them. W.A.S.P. and MÖTLEY CRÜE were really great and it sparked my interest and got me motivated to take my music seriously, because I was so into punk rock for a year our two out of my life that I had already surpassed that musicianship. That was just the scene and it really fit. Bands like W.A.S.P. and MÖTLEY got me into rock and being able to pull some semblance of my little punk phase into it.

"For me the whole scene, I wasn't really paying attention. I was just there. I was living in it and it was really fun. It was exciting; there were a lot of fights going on, a lot of competition and obviously a lot of typical ... It was out of control."

North Shore Sunday: Along the way you co-founded GUNS N' ROSES. How long were you in GUNS N' ROSES?

Tracii Guns: "Well, Axl started singing in L.A. GUNS when I was around 18, then we changed into GUNS N' ROSES for about a year. I think I split when I was 19, right before I turned 20 and got back into L.A. GUNS. So I did it for about a year."

North Shore Sunday: What caused the split with Axl?

Tracii Guns: "It just wasn't fun. When you're a teenager the last thing I was interested in was this really ... Axl was very volatile all of a sudden."

North Shore Sunday: Axl volatile? That doesn't sound too surprising.

Tracii Guns: "Yeah, but I lived with him for two years before that happened and he wasn't. So it was a real shock and I was the first one to run away from him. I guess I should have hung around for an extra year."

North Shore Sunday: So was it tough to leave L.A. GUNS, especially after releasing "Waking the Dead" in 2003, which was one of the band's best efforts to date?

Tracii Guns: "Oh yeah. But when you put out a record like 'Waking the Dead' and then you go out on tour opening for FIREHOUSE, it's like something is very wrong here. And I just said, 'I'm not doing this anymore.'

"I'm not taking anything away from FIREHOUSE, but L.A. GUNS was in a position to completely annihilate the rock scene and because of the decisions that were made, I was told this was the only tour available that L.A. GUNS can do with a record like this. I said, 'Oh really, bye (laughs).' I mean, it's a crime. It was just bullshit for years and years. There are a lot of reasons for that and rather than completely just try to fire everybody again I said, 'You know what? I'm out of here. I must be the problem. I'm going to take the problem out of the equation and you guys can keep doing this.'

"That's what great about the BRIDES, we do exactly what we want to do and make really smart decisions. We're not impatient and take our time."

North Shore Sunday: I have to ask, when you return to Massachusetts, do you plan on sitting in any more salads?

Tracii Guns: "Well if I do, no one will know, will they? Only I will have that on videotape (laughs)."

North Shore Sunday: Of course, I'm referring to the VH1 special, "The 100 Most Metal Moments". You starred in moment No. 46 when backstage at an L.A. GUNS concert you sat in a salad tray before filming other people eating it. How do you feel making the list?

Tracii Guns: "Oh god, my wife and I just went nuts when we saw that. We were watching the show, we didn't know, nobody told us and all of a sudden there's my ass sitting in a salad. I was like, 'No way, who told on us.' Now I can't get salad backstage. It's on the rider and they say we heard what happened at some other place, it's pointless. We're going to have to spend $18 on having that catered in.

"But we haven't toured with any bigger bands so nobody has really ever brought it up since then, other than its really funny. It is petty metal when you think about it: 'That dude did a lot of stuff, but the most metal thing he did was sit in a salad and watched somebody eat it.'"