Phil Lewis explains why Johnny Monaco left L.A. Guns and why band can’t keep a line-up together
Phil Lewis explains why Johnny Monaco left L.A. Guns and why band can’t keep a line-up together
L.A. Guns frontman Phil Lewis was recently interviewed by The Pure Rock Shop on WNJR 91.7 FM and the first question was what it was like to have guitarist Johnny Monaco in the band! About two weeks ago, it was announced that Monaco was out of the band and was being replaced by Adam Hamilton who was returning to the group after an 11 year absence.
Lewis replied: “[Laughs] I can’t really ’cause he quit.” Lewis was then asked when this did happen to which he stated: “It happened about — about two weeks ago. Ummm. We played a show in LA. We were — Jack Russell was supposed to play a venue down at the beach but he got sick and couldn’t make it so they asked to stand in for him last minute, which we did. And we flew Johnny in from Chicago ’cause that’s where he lives and he just went back and he said that he couldn’t do it anymore. He said he hated the travel and just wanted to focus on his own stuff. And that’s it so yeah, he was in the band a total of like two weeks maybe?… So we got Adam Hamilton…. You remember Adam?… He was the bass player on Waking The Dead. So Johnny Martin is still going to be playing bass and Adam is going to play rhythm guitar.”
Lewis went on to state: “Yeah, so that will be good. Somebody that’s happy to be in there. I mean, it wasn’t personable, personal with Monaco. You know, we still love him and he’s definitely a lifer…. Yeah, it kind of threw me for a bit of a curve… You know, things are different now. People are like, ‘Oh. How come you guys can’t keep a line-up together?’ You know, it was different in the old days because we had record companies and record companies would invest a lot of money into career development. So if you had a record deal, chances are you had a pretty good chance at having a career in music. It doesn’t work that way now. You know, there are — none of those umbrella record deals that we had years ago where you know, artists and development — that doesn’t happen anymore. We’re kind of on our own and we just kinda have to — you know, it’s killed or be killed sometimes and you just got to be cut and dry about it, and not get too sentimental, not get too attached. You know, people have different priorities.”
You can listen to the interview with Phil Lewis at The Pure Rock Shop on WNJR 91.7 FM.