Guitarist Ace Von Johnson explains why Faster Pussycat haven’t released any music since 2009

Guitarist Ace Von Johnson explains why Faster Pussycat haven’t released any music since 2009

L.A. Guns (feat. Lewis and Guns) guitarist Ace Von Johnson was recently interviewed by Chuck Shute for the Chuck Shute Podcast.

In September 2018, it was announced that Von Johnson would be handling guitar duties whenever the L.A. Guns version spearheaded by guitarist Tracii Guns and singer Phil Lewis were embarking on longer tours.

Eventually, the tour schedules from Faster Pussycat and L.A. Guns (feat. Lewis and Guns) ended up overlapping and Von Johnson ended up choosing to play in the latter band while guitarist Sam “Bam” Koltun filled in for him in Faster Pussycat.

Faster Pussycat‘s last studio album The Power And The Glory dates back to 2006 while their last live album Front Row For The Donkey Show was released back in 2009. In terms of why Faster Pussycat have not ever released any music since then, Von Johnson indicated (as transcribed by the Chuck Shute Podcast with slight edits): “Yeah. And you know, what’s interesting is I wouldn’t have been able to answer that until about six months ago. And because I never knew, and it infuriated me that I went from putting out an album every six months in all my bands [to nothing]. So I mean, sometimes I was putting out five albums a year or whatever it was, planning on joining Pussycat. I was 26…. I’m trying to do the math…”

Von Johnson added: “I was 26 when they brought me in. And I was 27 when I became a member. So because I came in, in 2009, and I didn’t actually, I rehearsed with them for about a month and then off and on, and then didn’t get on stage with them for a few internal reasons until 2010. So but then at that point, became a member. I don’t know if it’s my position to be able to disclose why, but Taime [Downe], and some of the original guys collectively had some sort of bogus thing where basically, I’m trying to be vague here because I don’t want to sell my place to tell but I think the merchandising company that they owed money to, and they had basically garnished some sort of something to do with publishing. Okay, so basically, Taime said, ‘I’m not putting out music until this gets resolved.’ Because they were taking his money. And so go figure, it got resolved in the last, or is being resolved or has been resolved.

And so now that I’m sort of basically not really in the band anymore, now, he’s recording music left and right. That being said, I recorded probably 15 songs with Taime in my ten year tenure, tenure if you will, with the band, but none of them will ever come out. And I have all those recorded with Gilby Clarke. I mean, you know, I’m sure someday I’ll bootleg all those songs too. Oh, I love Gilby too. He’s a good friend and and so we would record something and re-record it and Taime would change his mind and then he got sober. Then he wanted to scrap everything and start from scratch and then that became a whole other process and so it just kind of went on and on and on, and then I got the L.A. Guns gig two and a half years ago and then put all my focus there. And then my… I’m kidding a bit, but he’s sort of my protegé — Sam “Bam” Koltun — who’s playing for Pussycat. He’s been over there because he’s kind of a phenom…”

You can read the rest of the transcribed interview with Ace Von Johnson at Buzz Sprout‘s website and/or listen to the interview below: