L.A. Guns bassist Kelly Nickels says that his Hollywood glam-metal band isn’t trying to be like Mötley Crüe

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JUNE 17, 1988

By Steve Newton

Remember being slapped as a kid for farting at the dinner table? Neither do I, but that doesn’t mean it never happened. Nowadays you might provoke the same response from your parents by putting on the latest record by Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction, one of today’s top proponents of rock ‘n’ rude. As the following lyrics from “Prime Mover” prove, they ain’t no Peter, Paul and Mary:

“Well I’m Christ in shades, I’m a napalm God/Your lipstick flickers round my lightning rod…”

Offended? Disgusted? Even just a little put off? Well Zodiac Mindwarp (a.k.a. Mark Manning) would be happy to hear that, and he’d like to invite you to the Commodore this Monday (June 20) to hear the rest of the lyrics (which the editors cut out of this preview). He and his band will be sharing a triple bill with Balaam and the Angel and the almost-as-crude L.A. Guns.

Cultivated and refined Zodiac isn’t, but with the help of his Love Reaction band–guitarists Flash Bastard and Cobalt Stargazer, bassist Trash D. Garbage, and drummer Slam Thunderhide–Mr. Mindwarp creates hard rock in the Cult and AC/DC mold that should please even the most discriminating raunch lover.

On their latest album, Tattooed Beat Messiah, the British rowdies really hit it off with such tunes as “Skull Spark Joker”, “Backseat Education”, and “Spasm Gang”. Not surprisingly, commercial radio has found such tunes a little too vulgar for public broadcast.

“They don’t like you singing about normal, healthy pursuits,” gibes Zodiac, now the one feeling offended. “They’d rather have you sing about murder and satanism.”

Airplay or not, the Love Reaction’s uncouth brand of ill-bred rock has won it plenty of fans. The album debuted at number 20 on the British national pop LP chart and has made an impressive dent on the Billboard chart in the U.S.

So has L.A. Guns’ self-titled debut album, which has had to fight the same type of battle.

“Radio and MTV have been really hard on us,” complains L.A. Guns bassist Kelly Nickels, “but we’re still doin’ really good without ’em. MTV only plays our videos on Saturday, and sometimes they won’t even do that. So what if the song [“Sex Action”] has the word ‘sex’ in it? They’re taking all the fun out of everything.”

L.A. Guns are an amalgamation of various bands. Nickels played in Faster Pussycat before his motorcycle accident caused that band to find a quick replacement for him. Lead guitarist Tracii Guns was an original member of Guns N’ Roses, drummer Steve Riley is from W.A.S.P., and lead vocalist Philip Lewis used to sing in the British group Girl, the same band Phil Collen left to join Def Leppard.

The current sound of L.A. Guns is a lot like that of early Mötley Crüe–maybe too much so. As with many bands coming out of L.A. these days, L.A. Guns even look like Vince Neil and the boys.

“We do get compared a lot because of the black hair and tattoos,” admits Nickels, “but we’re not tryin’ to be like them. We just do what we do and they do what they do.”

Uh-huh. Sure thing Nikki…I mean Nickels.

To hear the full audio of my 1988 interview with Kelly Nickels of L.A. Guns subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 750 my uncut, one-on-one conversations with rockers since 1982.