“ There was no master plan of us doing this it all happened really fast , it just really fell into place organically . With the 4 of us playing together we knew we had something special right away .”
How important was its to have your friend and battery mate back in the band ?
STEVEN : It ’ s so cool because we stayed best friends even when he dropped out of music and went into the art and started doing some other stuff . We maintain being best friends through all of that . We ’ re battery mates and the rhythm section that played on all of the classic stuff through the 80 ’ s . He ’ s such an underrated songwriter . He wrote “ The Ballad of Jayne ”. He also wrote the first 3 singles we released from “ Renegade ” and so he ’ s an underrated song writer and artist . All the art work we do , anything you see from Renegades , that ’ s Kelly doing all of that art work , so having him back is just a blast and I have my best friend , battery-mate and the rhythm section intact .
Was sharing songwriting credits something that always happened in the bands you have been in ?
STEVEN : I will give you an example . When I was in WASP , Blackie had credit on all the songs . During pre-production , Chris Holmes , Randy and myself were just sitting there and not adding to the music or putting our touch on it or even suggesting stuff . When I got out of WASP , I realized that Blackie was getting all the credit and becoming more successful . It ’ s then I realized it ’ s not a healthy way of being in a band and it creates tension . When I joined LA Guns I told them that this is the way we should go . Any publishing from the old LA GUNS records are equally split between all the former original members . I just always thought it was a healthy thing for a band . That ’ s what we ’ ve been doing all the way through with LA Guns and we continue it now .
Do you all share equal parts on the song writing ?
STEVEN : When I joined LA Guns after I got out of WASP , I realized it ’ s very important for the health of the band to share song writing credits . All my favorite bands like Van Halen , Deep Purple and Black Sabbath share song writing credits . Even if someone brings in a gist of a song , it ’ s the band that puts all the finishing touches on the track and makes it a band track , and that ’ s kind of what happened on this album . We have 4 songwriters , all 4 of us brought in songs and we finished them together . When I joined LA Guns I told them that it was very important that we share credit , and if a song does good then we all get to share credit . It ’ s a really really democratic way of doing things . It ’ s a healthy way of doing things . If there is success in the band , then there ’ s success within the whole band if a song gets good .
LA GUNS at the M3 Festival in Maryland . The same show that got them signed to a new record deal with Golden Robot .