L.A. GUNS
Biography and full discography of L.A. GUNS, with a page for every album, on METAL BOOST.
Biography
L.A. GUNS
Biography
Overview
L.A. Guns is a hard rock band started in Los Angeles in 1983 by the guitarist Tracii Guns. It reached the centre of the Sunset Strip with its 1988 debut, after Phil Lewis — previously the singer in the British band Girl — joined in 1987. Cleopatra Records, the band's current label, introduces them as "L.A.'s longest standing Sunset Strip era hard rock outfit".
The name is also, quite literally, half of another band's. The L.A. Guns Tracii Guns led merged with Axl Rose's Hollywood Rose in 1985 to become Guns N' Roses; Guns left soon afterwards and rebuilt L.A. Guns. King Records, introducing the Japanese editions, describes him as the guitarist who worked alongside Axl Rose in the Hollywood Rose days.
This site carries sixteen records: the fifteen studio albums from the 1988 debut to Leopard Skin in 2025, plus the 2026 concert album Live from the Guild Theatre.
1983 to 1987 — where the name divided
Tracii Guns started the band in Los Angeles in 1983. In 1985 it merged with Axl Rose's Hollywood Rose to become Guns N' Roses, but Guns did not stay long in the new group. He left, took the L.A. Guns name with him and put his own band back together. From that point the two followed completely different roads: one became a worldwide phenomenon, the other built itself up from the clubs of the Sunset Strip.
In 1987 the band brought in Phil Lewis, who had been singing with the British hard rock band Girl. His voice had a different texture from most of the singers working in Los Angeles at the time, and that one choice is what turned the band from another Strip act into one that could make records.
1988 to 1994 — the Vertigo years
The debut, L.A. Guns, came out on Vertigo in January 1988. In Japan it has always carried a Japanese title of its own; the pressing at the time was PPD-1043, and Universal Music Japan reissued it as a limited budget edition (UICY-78616) on 14 March 2018. "Sex Action", "One More Reason", "Electric Gypsy" and "Hollywood Tease" are all already here — four songs still in the live set nearly forty years later.
The second album, Cocked & Loaded, released in August 1989, is the record the band is known by. The line-up was Phil Lewis on vocals, Tracii Guns and Mick Cripps on guitars, Kelly Nickels on bass and Steve Riley on drums. "Rip and Tear" went out as the first single and did nothing on the charts; the ballad that followed it, "The Ballad of Jayne", took hold on MTV and became the band's biggest hit. Songfacts records that Kelly Nickels and Phil Lewis wrote it, with the credit split across the whole band because that is how they divided songwriting. On the subject, Lewis has said that Nickels had the actress Jayne Mansfield in mind while he himself was thinking about every unsuccessful actress ending up a waitress and fading into Hollywood.
On the third album, Hollywood Vampires (June 1991), the opening "Over the Edge" was used in Point Break that same year and went out on MTV alongside "Kiss My Love Goodbye", "Some Lie 4 Love" and "It's Over Now". This is the record from the point where the band reached furthest. Universal Music Japan reissued it on SHM-CD on 25 March 2026 as UICY-16387 with a bonus track, "Ain't the Same".
Vicious Circle, the fourth album, came in 1994 and was the last the band made under Vertigo / PolyGram. Fifteen songs, leaning towards weight and speed, with a cover of Ten Years After's "I'd Love to Change the World" at number eleven.
1996 to 2005 — labels and singers change
American Hardcore (1996) came out on CMC International. It brought in programming and an industrial surface, taking a deliberate step away from the Sunset Strip sound of the eighties, and it remains the most divisive record in the catalogue. BMG Funhouse issued the Japanese edition on 21 November as BVCP-984.
Phil Lewis left after it, and Jizzy Pearl of Love/Hate sang on Shrinking Violet in 1999 — the only studio album this band has made without Lewis. The Japanese edition appeared on 24 July 1999 as ZACB-1008.
Lewis returned for Man in the Moon (2001), and Waking the Dead followed in 2002. That record was the last Tracii Guns played on before leaving; Lewis and Steve Riley then carried the band, and made Tales from the Strip in 2005.
2006 to 2016 — two L.A. Guns
From 2006 there were two groups working under the name at once: one led by Phil Lewis and Steve Riley, the other by Tracii Guns. Hollywood Forever, which the Lewis / Riley line released in 2012, is the last studio record made in that period. The title comes from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, and the album deals fairly directly in the memory of the city the band came out of.
MusicBrainz keeps the name as three separate artists, and this site follows that line. Renegades (2020) and The Dark Horse (2024) are records by Riley's L.A. Guns, the band Steve Riley led until his death in 2023, and they are not in the discography here. They stream under the same name, which makes the confusion easy, but they are a different band's work.
2017 onwards — the reunion, and Japan
In 2017 Phil Lewis and Tracii Guns returned to the same band. The first record of it was The Missing Peace that October, and the title says outright what it closed. In the same month the band played Loud Park 17 at Saitama Super Arena on 14 and 15 October, their first Japanese show in a long time. Writing about Leopard Skin years later, King Records noted that the band had been releasing records steadily ever since that visit.
The count bears it out: The Devil You Know (2019), Checkered Past (2021), Black Diamonds (2023) and Leopard Skin (2025) — five studio albums in seven years. Leopard Skin turns away from the metallic direction of the two before it and back to the sleazy rock and roll the band was built on; King Records introduced the Japanese edition as a record on which "the passion of the early days and hard rock and roll explode".
On 10 July 2025 the band played a launch show for Leopard Skin at the Guild Theatre in Menlo Park, California, and that night became the following year's concert album, Live from the Guild Theatre. The line-up at that point was Phil Lewis on vocals, Tracii Guns and Ace Von Johnson on guitars, Johnny Martin on bass and Shawn Duncan as touring drummer.
In 2026 the band toured the United Kingdom and Europe at length, then came home to Los Angeles to play the Whisky a Go Go on New Year's Eve — the room they came out of in the first place.
Members (as of 2026)
| Name | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Phil Lewis | Vocals | Joined 1987; previously of the British band Girl |
| Tracii Guns | Guitar | Founder, 1983; left in 2002 and returned in 2017 |
| Ace Von Johnson | Guitar | Named as current line-up on the official site |
| Johnny Martin | Bass | Named as current line-up on the official site |
| Shawn Duncan | Drums | Touring drummer; plays on Live from the Guild Theatre |
Discography on this site
| Year | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Live from the Guild Theatre | Live album |
| 2025 | Leopard Skin | Studio album |
| 2023 | Black Diamonds | Studio album |
| 2021 | Checkered Past | Studio album |
| 2019 | The Devil You Know | Studio album |
| 2017 | The Missing Peace | Studio album |
| 2012 | Hollywood Forever | Studio album |
| 2005 | Tales from the Strip | Studio album |
| 2002 | Waking the Dead | Studio album |
| 2001 | Man in the Moon | Studio album |
| 1999 | Shrinking Violet | Studio album |
| 1996 | American Hardcore | Studio album |
| 1994 | Vicious Circle | Studio album |
| 1991 | Hollywood Vampires | Studio album |
| 1989 | Cocked & Loaded | Studio album |
| 1988 | L.A. Guns | Studio album |
A note on sources
This article was written against the band's official site lagunsmusic.com, King Records' own artist page and its product page for the Japanese edition of Leopard Skin (KICP-4098), Cleopatra Records' product page for Live from The Guild Theatre, TOWER RECORDS ONLINE's product pages for the Japanese editions (KICP-1858, KICP-1974, MICP-11659, MICP-11777, UICY-16387 and UICY-78616), the release data MusicBrainz holds for artist 87684162-ab42-4cfa-bf22-ebe237035f54, the Apple Music Japan catalogue, Songfacts' entry for "The Ballad of Jayne", and articles published by Blabbermouth (26 June 2026) and Loudwire (17 April 2025). Release dates, labels and catalogue numbers are taken where the MusicBrainz original-pressing rows and TOWER RECORDS ONLINE agree. Every video was checked against the channel that uploaded it, and no fan re-upload is included.
Trivia
In 2017 — the year Phil Lewis and Tracii Guns returned to the same band — L.A. Guns played Loud Park 17 at Saitama Super Arena, their first Japanese show in a long time. Writing about the Japanese edition of Leopard Skin eight years later, King Records pointed back to that appearance and noted that the band had been releasing records steadily ever since. Five studio albums came out in those eight years.
The band's name is, quite literally, half of another band's. The L.A. Guns that Tracii Guns led merged with Axl Rose's Hollywood Rose in 1985 to become Guns N' Roses; Guns left soon afterwards and rebuilt L.A. Guns. King Records, introducing the Japanese editions, describes him as the guitarist who worked alongside Axl Rose in the Hollywood Rose days. The band's own site puts it more bluntly, calling Tracii Guns the man who put the Guns in both L.A. Guns and Guns N' Roses.
For a stretch of years the name "L.A. Guns" belonged to two bands at once. Tracii Guns left in 2002, and from 2006 one group led by Phil Lewis and Steve Riley worked alongside another led by Guns. Lewis and Guns reuniting in 2017 ended that particular arrangement, but the name stayed divided: MusicBrainz still keeps three separate artists under it — the L.A. Guns that began in 1983, Riley's L.A. Guns, and Paul Black's L.A. Guns. Renegades (2020) and The Dark Horse (2024) belong to the second of those. They stream under the same name and they are not in this discography.
"The Ballad of Jayne", the band's biggest hit, is about Jayne Mansfield, the actress killed in a car crash in 1967 at the age of thirty-four — or half about her, depending on which of its two writers you ask. Phil Lewis has explained that while bassist Kelly Nickels had Mansfield in mind, he himself was thinking about every unsuccessful actress who ends up waiting tables and fading out of Hollywood. Nickels and Lewis wrote the song between them; the credit went to the whole band because that is how they divided songwriting.
The 1988 debut is sold in Japan under a Japanese title of its own, a single character meaning "gun". The pressing at the time was PPD-1043; it was reissued as PHCR-4130 on 21 October 1993, and Universal Music Japan put out a limited budget edition on 14 March 2018 (UICY-78616, ¥1,100 including tax). TOWER RECORDS ONLINE still lists it under that Japanese title, with a one-line description calling it the major-label debut, and a big hit, by the Los Angeles hard rock band formed by the ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist Tracii Guns and the ex-Girl singer Phil Lewis.
The Japanese editions of this band's records almost always carry a song the import does not, and more often than not it is an acoustic version. The Missing Peace (KICP-1858) adds an acoustic "Christine"; Checkered Past (MICP-11659) an acoustic mix of "Get Along"; Black Diamonds (MICP-11777) an acoustic "Shattered Glass"; Leopard Skin (KICP-4098) an acoustic mix of "The Masquerade". The Devil You Know (KICP-1974) is the odd one out: its Japan-only extra is a live version of "Killing Machine", a song from Vicious Circle in 1994, a quarter of a century earlier.
Hollywood Vampires, from 1991, was reissued by Universal Music Japan on SHM-CD on 25 March 2026 — thirty-five years after the fact — as UICY-16387 at ¥2,000 including tax. The reissue adds "Ain't the Same" as a bonus track. The Japanese pressing at the time of release was PHCR-1085.
The 2026 concert album Live from the Guild Theatre documents a single night: 10 July 2025, at the Guild Theatre in Menlo Park, California. The show had been put together to celebrate the release of Leopard Skin, the studio album that had come out that April. Writing about the set, the band's own site singles out "Sex Action" from the debut and remarks that the song had probably not been in the repertoire since the eighties.
News
L.A. GUNS Take On DEEP PURPLE Classic Space Truckin’ For Cleopatra Tribute Album
Taken from Cleopatra Records’ forthcoming "Purple Storm - A Tribute To Deep Purple" and released on September 17. Tracii Guns said DEEP PURPLE are one of the band’s biggest influences and that any excuse to play one of their songs will be taken, adding that he and Phil Lewis chose a track they could blast out on. The original closed DEEP PURPLE’s 1972 studio album.
Play MVL.A. GUNS To Issue Concert Film 'Live From The Guild Theatre' Digitally On October 9
Cleopatra Entertainment has announced the October 9 digital video release. The label describes L.A. Guns as "L.A.'s longest standing Sunset Strip-era hard rock outfit".
Play videoAlbums
A concert album from the Guild Theatre in Menlo Park, California on 10 July 2025 — the night L.A. Guns launched Leopard Skin. Cleopatra issued it on 3 July 2026 on CD, CD with DVD and other formats; the Japanese edition, an import pressing with an obi strip, followed on 11 July. Seventeen tracks.
The fifteenth L.A. Guns studio album, released by Cleopatra on 4 April 2025 and built on hard, early-sounding rock and roll. King Records' Metal Frontier imprint issued the Japanese CD (KICP-4098) on 23 April with a commentary booklet, translated lyrics and one bonus track.
The fourteenth L.A. Guns studio album, released by Frontiers Music on 14 April 2023. Marquee Incorporated issued the Japanese edition the same day as MICP-11777 with one bonus track. Eleven songs.
The thirteenth L.A. Guns studio album, released by Frontiers Music on 12 November 2021. Marquee Incorporated issued the Japanese edition the same day as MICP-11659 with one bonus track. Eleven songs.
The twelfth L.A. Guns studio album and the second after the reunion, released by Frontiers Music in 2019. King Records' Metal Frontier imprint issued the Japanese edition on 13 March as KICP-1974 with a Japan-only bonus track.
The eleventh L.A. Guns studio album, and the first Phil Lewis and Tracii Guns made together again. King Records' Metal Frontier imprint issued the Japanese edition on 4 October 2017 as KICP-1858 with a Japan-only bonus track; that same month the band returned to Japan for Loud Park 17.
The tenth L.A. Guns studio album, released on 5 June 2012 by the Phil Lewis and Steve Riley line-up through Cleopatra / Deadline. Fourteen songs, and the last studio record made without Tracii Guns.
The ninth L.A. Guns studio album, released by Shrapnel Records on 15 August 2005. Fourteen songs by the Phil Lewis and Steve Riley line-up, written around the memory of the Sunset Strip.
The eighth L.A. Guns studio album, released by Spitfire Records in 2002 — the last studio record Tracii Guns played on before leaving. Ten songs.
The seventh L.A. Guns studio album, released by Spitfire Records on 24 April 2001 — the first with Phil Lewis back on vocals. Ten songs.
The sixth L.A. Guns studio album, released in 1999 and the only one with Jizzy Pearl on vocals. The Japanese edition appeared on 24 July 1999 as ZACB-1008. Twelve songs.
The fifth L.A. Guns studio album, released by CMC International on 29 October 1996 and reaching for an industrial surface across its thirteen songs. The Japanese edition followed on 21 November as BVCP-984.
The fourth L.A. Guns studio album, released by Polydor / Mercury in 1994 with fifteen songs. Mercury issued the Japanese edition on 5 October 1994 as PHCR-1254. It is the band's last album of the PolyGram years.
The third L.A. Guns studio album, released by Vertigo on 25 June 1991 with twelve songs. The Japanese edition at the time was PHCR-1085, and Universal Music Japan reissued it on SHM-CD on 25 March 2026.
The second L.A. Guns album, released by Vertigo on 19 August 1989 and the band's best-known record thanks to "The Ballad of Jayne". Fourteen songs; the Japanese pressing was PPD-1032.
The debut L.A. Guns album, released by Vertigo in January 1988 with eleven songs. In Japan it has always carried a title of its own, and Universal Music Japan reissued it as a limited budget edition (UICY-78616) on 14 March 2018.