STEVE RILEY Says He Still Loves TRACII GUNS And PHIL LEWIS, Doesn't Want To Badmouth Them

In a new interview with George Dionne of KNAC.COM, Steve Riley was asked if his version of L.A. GUNS, which goes by the name RILEY'S L.A. GUNS, has to coordinate its touring and release schedule around the activities of the Phil Lewis-fronted L.A. GUNS, which also features guitarist Tracii Guns. Steve responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "No, not really, because we're doing our own thing. Those guys, I believe, are doing what I had done, which is 250 shows a year, plus filling all the weekdays up with small clubs all over the country and trying to connect the dots so they're out there for long periods of time. I had done that for so long, and it's a grueling experience; it's not an easy schedule. Kelly [Nickels, RILEY'S L.A. GUNS bassist and a member of L.A. GUNS' 'classic' incarnation] and I, we don't wanna do that anymore. We wanna do nice venues and a lot of casinos and a lot of theaters and festivals. If you do those type of shows, you know you're playing on a nice stage, you're playing with good equipment, a nice P.A. and you can hang a backdrop and [get] a nice hotel. So if we can do 20 to 40 shows a year, we're happy. But not to compete and do 250 shows a year. So we have absolutely two different ways of approaching this."

Riley added about Guns and Lewis: "We don't really step on each other's feet. And one thing me and Kelly haven't done is badmouth those guys. We still love those guys, and we've done so much great stuff with them that we're just not gonna get into a war of words with those guys. It is what it is, and we're doing what we're doing. And we wish them luck with what they're doing too; we really do."

Earlier this month, RILEY'S L.A. GUNS released a new single, "Rewind", digitally via Golden Robot Records. The track is taken from the band's upcoming sophomore album, "The Dark Horse", tentatively due in May

Last October, RILEY'S L.A. GUNS released another new single called "Overdrive".

In April 2021, an out-of-court resolution was reached in the legal dispute over the rights to the L.A. GUNS name. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Tracii and Phil are continuing to operate under the L.A. GUNS trademark, while Riley and his bandmates from the other version of L.A. GUNS are now operating under the new name RILEY'S L.A. GUNS.

RILEY'S L.A. GUNS features Riley alongside Orlando, Florida-based guitarist/vocalist Kurt Frohlich, Nickels and guitarist Scott Griffin, who played bass for L.A. GUNS from 2007 until 2009, and then again from 2011 to 2014.

In January 2020, Riley was sued by Lewis and Guns in California District Court. Joining Riley as defendants in the case were the three musicians who performed in his rival version of L.A. GUNS; that group's manager, booking agent and merchandiser; and Golden Robot Records. The complaint, which requested a trial by jury, alleged that Riley's version of L.A. GUNS (referred to in the case docket as "the infringing L.A. GUNS") was creating "unfair competition" through its unauthorized usage of the L.A. GUNS trademark. In addition, Guns and Lewis were seeking relief from and/or against false advertising, breach of contract and unauthorized usage of their likenesses.

In May 2021, Guns discussed the resolution in an interview with The SDR Show. He said: "We ended up settling in a way where, basically, [Steve] licenses the words L.A. GUNS for free; I'm not even asking for a percentage of when he plays. I'm just saying, 'Hey, I could have taken your house. I could have taken anything you own. But I don't want you to die in the street, and I don't want you to be poor.' And I really love his son, Cole. It just got to the point with all this litigation… It just got to the point where [we were] just going back and forth, and I'm, like, 'How can I easily make it just make sense?' 'Cause in the end, they had no argument. 'Well, I'm in L.A. GUNS.' That was the argument. No, you're not — you're not in L.A. GUNS. You were hired by me. The bass player guy was hired by me. And it's as simple as that. But if you wanna pretend that you came up with the name or you formed the band or it was your musical vision or that you even wrote one fucking song, you can go live in that fantasy, as long as it doesn't infringe on my business."

In a separate interview with Sonic Perspectives, Guns addressed the fact that Riley's version of L.A. GUNS played at the M3 Rock Festival in 2019 and released a full-length album under the L.A. GUNS name, 2020's "Renegades". He said: "Dude, when they did those couple of shows, we got so much angry e-mail from our fans. People were, like, 'What the fuck? None of you guys were there!' We would have to explain it's a different band with the same name. When I say a lot, I'm talking over a thousand e-mails. Then they put out a record using the name L.A. GUNS, [and] the e-mails just escalated. That was the point where some from our family stepped who had unlimited funds, which we used to stop this. It was what we needed to do, and it is done. Can you imagine, now they have to make up their legal fees? In what reality is it worth it? For Steve Riley to spend $80,000, and they will never make that back with RILEY'S L.A. GUNS. There is no logic, and it's so bizarre."

In November 2021, Riley told Waste Some Time With Jason Green that Tracii and Phil "do not like each other. I don't care what anybody says; I know what I know. I was the only one constant factor in L.A. GUNS through all the changes. I know how they talked about each other. I know how they got along when they were together, and they do not like each other."

Steve went on to say that he knew from the get-go that Phil "was making a bad call" be reuniting with Tracii. He added: "To call that an L.A. GUNS reunion with just the two of them… First of all, it's not a reunion. And then second of all, to do it with him and know their past relationship, know how they tore each other up in interviews and in the press and just said the worst things about each other, I just couldn't understand it; it wasn't registering to me. Why would you wanna do this when you could, at this age, at this point in your career, don't you wanna be comfortable and do it around people that you really dig? So it wasn't really registering why he would wanna do it. I guess they saw big dollar signs, and that didn't happen.

"The thing is you've gotta build a machine," he continued. "I know that the machine that they have around them right now is not good. I know that they have some people working for them that probably don't know how to direct them, how to get the most out of what they have. So the thing is gonna stall, and it has stalled."