L.A. Guns feat. Steve Riley and Kelly Nickels to unveil new line-up for M3 Rock Festival in a few days

L.A. Guns feat. Steve Riley and Kelly Nickels to unveil new line-up for M3 Rock Festival in a few days

The L.A. Guns version owned by drummer Steve Riley and also featuring bassist Kelly Nickels and guitarist Scott Griffin will be unveiling their new line-up (i.e. who will be on lead vocals) in a few days. The Riley led L.A. Guns version is scheduled to play the M3 Rock Festival in Columbia, Maryland, USA on May 4, 2019.

The following message was posted on Nickels‘ Facebook page about an hour ago:

“M3 is definitely on…!!! LA rehearsals were awesome and we are super stoked to play for you all. We will be announcing the new line-up in a few days, Cheers…!!! ??‍☠️?☠️?”

Nickels granted a rare interview to Sleaze Roxx back in January 2019 where he spoke about what is prompting his return to a L.A. Guns line-up after more than 18 years had passed. Nickels replied: “[Laughs] That’s a pretty good question! Well, I got a call from Steve Riley and he told me what was going on and asked me if I wanted to do it. We talked about it for a couple of hours. I had questions and I wanted to make sure that things were like set up pretty good. I just want to have fun man! I just want to have fun [laughs]. It’s all about just going out and having a good time. The timing is right. My daughter just turned 18 so she’s got her stuff going on. I got time to go out and do it. I am so looking forward to it. It’s really the perfect timing. That’s it man!”

In terms of what type of questions that he had for Riley, Nickels indicated: “My questions were like ‘Who else is going to be in it so far?’ I was cool with all that. And then, ‘How far does he want to take this?’ So right now, it’s just for this one show. There’s possibilities of others. There’s a little talk of Europe and stuff. That might be jumping the gun but we’re looking at some other stuff. I don’t know where this is going to go. I’m just curious with where we could take this. I’m always got along well with Steve so really had no problems discussing it.”

Sleaze Roxx also interviewed former L.A. Guns bassist Scott Griffin (who will now play the guitar in Riley‘s version of the band) in late January 2019 and asked him whether their singer would be attending rehearsals in February [2019] and if they had

already chosen who their singer would be. Griffin replied: “I can’t comment on who the singer is, or if we even have a singer yet. But, yes, when we begin rehearsals, we will already have a singer, or will be auditioning singers at the very least. Kelly has already made the setlist, so I’m able to focus on what I need to learn. Like I said before, I’m not trying to compete with Tracii at all. I just want to play the songs as faithful to the original recordings as possible. That’s the best I can do. If I do a good job, I’ll be happy.”

Riley and Nickels‘ former L.A. Guns bandmate Phil Lewis was interviewed by Sleaze Roxx back in March 2019 and provided his thoughts on Riley‘s version of L.A. Guns as he stated: ‘”I’m laughing my head off. I’m absolutely — this is fucking comic gold that Riley is even stupid enough to accept this offer and the offer came about only because the organizers at M3 are mad at us for not doing it. We have this on full authority. You know, they dug up some people. They told him put a band together. They’ll give him a slot. And very stupidly without thinking, he agreed to do it without having any band personnel. He hasn’t played in years. He managed to persuade our old bass player [Kelly Nickels] to do it. Two old bass players — he’s got Scotty Griffin from the ‘Hollywood Forever’ album. He’s actually taking it upon himself to play guitar in the band. Scotty’s nice guy, a good bass player but as far as guitar playing goes, he ain’t no Tracii Guns. Let’s face it. So there you go, we’ve got a drummer that can’t play anymore, a bass player that never could, a bass player that’s going to be playing guitar parts that he can’t play and the icing, the cherry on top is they don’t have a fucking singer!”

When Sleaze Roxx commented that Riley‘s version of L.A. Guns has yet to announce their lead vocalist, Lewis stated: “No. They don’t. No one wants to do it. You know, all the people that Riley had in mind, you know like Jizzy [Pearl], Chris Van Dahl, they won’t touch it. They won’t go near it because they know how busy we are and what’s going on. Riley has not — he’s been under a rock since I’ve been doing this reunion. He has no idea what’s going on. He hasn’t heard “Speed” or any of this new stuff that me and Tracii are doing. As far as he’s concerned, we’re out playing sports bars [laughs].”