It’s a pretty awesome time to be Tracii Guns. One of the original Guns N’ Roses guitarists and founder of L.A. Guns in 1985, Guns has proven to be a resilient and ever-enthusiastic artist, and his fanatical love of guitars and rock music absolutely beams off of his very soul. He has a natural talent for devising propulsive and memorable riffs, and his creative muse is further enhanced by his studious quests to find just the right tones to bring those licks to life. That commitment to creating blissfully vicious guitar tracks and performances informs two recent releases by the revitalized L.A. Guns, The Missing Peace album and the live CD/DVD, Made in Milan [both from Frontiers Records]—the first projects showcasing new songs by Guns and vocalist Phil Lewis in more than 15 years.
Guns is also in the midst of co-designing signature guitars for Rock N Roll Relics and FU-Tone, and a 100-watt, hand-wired amp for RJS Amplification. Furthermore, we were treated to his unbridled and contagious joy for life—not to mention his compassion and dedication to charity—when he graciously took the stage and kicked ass at Guitar Player’s recent “Play It Forward” benefit for musicians affected by the October 2017 Northern California fires.
The Missing Peace is a really youthful, intense, and massively ferocious guitar album. I love it when mature artists play like snotty, fired-up punks.
Well, we all want to be mighty, because we’re little guys [laughs]. How do we get big? We play guitar. It makes you feel tall real fast. But music is always about the song, and the song has to be great. It’s the quickest way to the bank, so to speak. I feel that if any music seems less than