Michael Grant states that he was fired from L.A. Guns out of nowhere and blames Phil Lewis

Michael Grant states that he was fired from L.A. Guns out of nowhere and blames Phil Lewis

With the shock announcement that guitarist Michael Grant was no longer a part of L.A. Guns, the question was what happened? L.A. Guns released a rather generic statement that Grant had left the band to pursue his solo band Michael Grant & The Assassins. Grant was interviewed by heavy metal news mogul, Eddie Trunk, on March 19, 2018 where he publicly provided his account of what really happened for the first time.

In terms of being surprised at staying in L.A. Guns when guitarist Tracii Guns reunited with singer Phil Lewis, Grant stated (as transcribed by Sleaze Roxx): “Absolutely. I was very surprised. Actually, I, I was looking at being a bartender [laughs].”

With respect to what happened in the last few weeks that resulted in Grant no longer being a part of L.A. Guns after five years in the group, the guitarist advised: “OK. Well the press release says that I left to pursue Michael Grant & The Assassins but truth be told, that is not true at all. I was actually fired out of nowhere and given absolutely no reason. So you know, I pieced together my own conclusions as with those kinds of details, that’s all you can do. And I’ll let the crowd, the audience do some basic emotional math. If Tracii Guns is sad about my departure, if [drummer] Shane Fitzgibbon is sad about my departure, if [bassist] Johnny Martin is sad about my departure, that only leaves one person that is not.”

Trunk noted that this was very surprising since he was Lewis‘ guy (given that Fitzgibbon and Martin were from Tracii Guns‘ band). Grant commented: “Correct. Yeah and I wasn’t even like given the personal courtesy of a phone call or any kind of reason at all so you know…” Trump asked whether the firing came out of nowhere to which Grant replied: “Just came out of nowhere. I was playing video games man, killing zombies and I got a call. It was from Scotty, the manager and you know, he was like, ‘You want the good news or the bad news?’ I said, ‘Always the bad news first bro.’ And he said, ‘OK. The bad news is we’re letting you go.’ I was like, pausing my game and said ‘What?’ I was like ‘What? Why?’ The reason I was given was ‘It’s time. It’s time.’ And I was just like ‘OK.’ I wasn’t resistant. I didn’t fight. I wasn’t like  a crying little girl. I was just like, ‘Alright. That’s how you guys want it’ you know. And then I proceeded to text the other members in the band like you know, ‘Did you know anything about it?’  No one knew too much about it. Tracii said that he had fought for me for about an hour but you know…”

When asked what was the good news, Grant advised: “The good news was that I saved some money on my car insurance by switching to Geico [laughs]. The good news is not much better than that, OK? The good news was, the good news was that they would make it seem like I left just to make it seem like it was my decision and to make it seem like things didn’t get dragged in the mud. And this whole time, I’m kind of like in shock so I am just agreeing to whatever, I’m like, ‘Whatever man. I don’t care. I have my own shit that I want to do anyways.’ And er, and er, that was pretty much it. So from that you know, my mind was going a little bit crazy for a while. I was kinda thinking what to do. You know, when you’ve invested five years into something and not even given the respect of you know, ‘Hey man.’ If the real reason was to support Michael Grant & The Assassins, it should have been ‘Hey man, giving you a call. You know, you should go off on your own. Just going to support you.’ But it wasn’t like that at all. It was fired for absolutely no reason. I was given no reason, no courtesy call, nothing.”

In terms of any issues between Grant and Lewis, the former stated: “There was one time when I called Phil Lewis a ‘cunt’ on social media ’cause we used to joke… He’s British you know. They slang that word a little differently than we do…. So I said it and one time, he got really mad. And this was at the beginning of me coming into the Tracii Guns / Phil Lewis line-up of the band. And he was just like, you know, ‘Don’t you ever fucking call me a cunt.’ I was like, ‘What the fuck?’ Where the hell is this coming from you know? And then he was saying, ‘You’re this close to being fired and you know, don’t ever disrespect me again.’ And I was like, ‘What the? Where is this coming from?’ You know,  people can get into homeboy’s head real easy so maybe somebody said some stuff. And he was like, ‘You are so close to being fired. I am this close to calling Keri Kelli.’ I was like, ‘Just call him then. Do your thing. Whatever you want to do.’

Eddie Trunk interview with Michael Grant on March 19, 2018:

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Michael Grant & The Assassins‘ “Break Me With You” song:

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