George Lynch reveals Dirty Shirley can’t do another album until singer Dino Jelusick sorts out legal issue

George Lynch reveals Dirty Shirley can’t do another album until singer Dino Jelusick sorts out legal issue

Lynch Mob, KXM, Sweet & Lynch and The End Machine lead guitarist George Lynch was recently interviewed by senior columnist Alexandra Mrozowska for Hard Rock Haven. Lynch was promoting The End Machine‘s upcoming sophomore album Phase2, which will be released via Frontiers Music Srl on April 9, 2021.

Lynch was asked about the comment from his Dirty Shirley partner / singer Dino Jelusick who indicated in a prior interview with Mrozowska that the guitarist thought that Dirty Shirley‘s self-titled debut album was in the top three records that he had ever done. Lynch replied (with slight edits): “Well, it was top three albums of that year that I recorded… Just kidding. I’m really impressed with Dino. I mean, it’s a funny story when the label [Frontiers Music Srl] first introduced me to him and asked me if I am going to work with him. I had no idea who he was and for some reason I had the impression that he was an Italian pop singer. And I agreed to do the project ‘cause I thought that would be really interesting, and different, and challenging. ‘Cause I love pop music and I love the structure of pop music that’s designed to work with how the human brain works… you know, repetitiveness, the heartbeat and all these frequencies and all that.

So I just thought that’s the kind of record I was making, so initially I started writing for that and I threw a couple [of] ideas out there to him. And as he lives in Croatia, there wasn’t any real direct contact other than some e-mails, I think. And then he sent me back what he did to the songs (laughs), and I was like, “Holy shit, this guy’s a monster, as if Ronnie [James] Dio and David Coverdale had a baby!” (laughs) So of course, I had to rethink my writing process… Honestly, he can overwhelm the record in a wonderful way. And if I had anything to do over, I’d definitely go and redo all the guitars over again, because I feel that when the vocal stops for the guitar solo, the energy just drops down like this [makes a gesture with his hand]. Oh my God, it’s like this power and this majesty, this guy’s singing like a fucking monster and all of a sudden I come along and it’s almost like a break for him so he can go to the bathroom or get a hot dog and come back (laughs). He’s a phenomenal artist, really incredible.”

In terms of doing a second Dirty Shirley album, Lynch indicated: “Right now we can’t, because there’s some legal thing going on with him, I think. Nothing to do with me, but that precludes him from working with a particular label, from what I understand. I don’t know too much about it. So unfortunately, as much as we both wanna do another Dirty Shirley record – we can’t, until he gets that business sorted out. But if we do one, we’ll definitely have a different album cover, ‘cause I don’t know where the hell that album came [from]. What does that mean…? I was like, who the hell thought of this? How did anybody look at this and think this is a good idea?”

Lynch continued: “You know, the name of the band was supposed to be a joke – and they used it seriously. They were asking me what I thought for a name, and in my studio I have this wall of amplifiers – and one of the amplifiers is a Friedman Dirty Shirley. And so I just was looking at my wall when I was on the phone with them and I said, “Um, what about Dirty Shirley?” And I was kidding, and that’s what they used. It’s a name of a freakin’ amplifier, and I just wasn’t serious about it. Gotta be careful what you say.”

You can read the rest of the interview with George Lynch at Hard Rock Haven‘s website.

Dirty Shirley‘s “Here Comes The King” video: