Bassist Anthony Esposito thinks Lynch Mob’s ‘Wicked Sensation Reimagined’ is a “mediocre” album

Bassist Anthony Esposito thinks Lynch Mob’s ‘Wicked Sensation Reimagined’ is a “mediocre” album

Red Dragon Cartel and former Lynch Mob bassist Anthony Esposito was recently interviewed by Richie for the Focus On Metal podcast.

As per Wikipedia, Esposito played bass in Lynch Mob from 1989 to 1994, in 1998 and from 2003 to 2006. Esposito played on the following Lynch Mob albums: Wicked Sensation (1990), Lynch Mob (1992), Evil: Live (2003), REvolution (2003) and REvolution: Live (2006).

Lynch Mob consisting of lead vocalist Oni Logan , guitarist George Lynch , drummer Brian Tichy and bassist Robby Crane released their album Wicked Sensation Reimagined via Rat Pak Records on August 28, 2020.

In regard to whether there were any discussions with Lynch for Esposito to play on Wicked Sensation Reimagined, the bassist indicated (with slight edits): “No, hell no. He never called me about the re-mastered or re-issued version of Wicked. He never called me about the re-imagined version of Wicked. He never called me about anything. Supposedly, it was an equal share so if I own 25% of the publishing I should be consulted and it’s like, it’s just bullshit. As far as the re-imagined version of Wicked goes, first of all those songs have nothing to do with the Wicked songs except for the lyrics and they changed some of them too. I think if you judge it as a record and not as a re-imagined version of a great record, just judge it as a record and forget the words and listen to the music and the melody. I think it’s a mediocre record and as it stands on its own, it’s a mediocre record and then if you try to compare it to Wicked, I think that’s kind of a joke.”

On whether Lynch had ever mentioned that he was uncomfortable with the band name Lynch Mob, Esposito stated:

“The first two gigs we ever played as Lynch Mob we were called Gay, Black, Nazi Bikers For Christ. If that wasn’t an issue, why would the name Lynch Mob be? Then secondly he was like Vernon Reid is on ESP Guitars and he’s making a big stink calling the band Lynch Mob and we ended up using the name Lynch Mob anyway and Vernon Reid left ESP Guitars. You have to realize here’s the deal, there’s money in the name, ok. If Jake [E. Lee] went out and called Red Dragon Cartel Badlands even though he’s the only guy in the band from Badlands, the guarantees per show would probably be three or four times higher. So the name on the marquee, the marquee value and the name of the band is worth money even though there is only one original member.

You put Foreigner on the marquee, it is worth money even though none of the guys are in it anymore and they still get paid a lot of money because Foreigner is up on the marquee. So for him to change the name and George is money driven, it’s got to be something else because he is going to lose money not being able to throw Lynch Mob up on the marquee. He did an interview a year or so ago when he did Sturgis for six days or whatever where he really bagged on the crowd as Trumpers and it was like he really degraded his fan base basically. And I think he’s changed the name more for fear of being considered a hypocrite for saying what he said in that interview about the Sturgis crowd and the Trumpers, and if he didn’t change the name, he would look like a hypocrite so he sort of painted himself into a corner.”

You can listen to the interview with Anthony Esposito at Focus On Metal‘s website.