Tracii Guns

American rock star Tracii Guns is best known as the founder and guitarist of L.A. Guns, who have released over a dozen albums, including the gold-certified L.A. Guns and Cocked and Loaded. They are perhaps best known for their international 1991 hit ‘The Ballad of Jayne’. Guns is also famous for putting the “Guns” in Guns’n’Roses, having been a founder member of the band. He has also played in numerous rock supergroups, including Contraband, Guns of Destruction, and the Devil City Angels.

Guns was born in Los Angeles and formed his first band whilst still at high school. In 1983, he formed the first line-up of L.A. Guns, who released one EP before merging with another local band, Hollywood Rose to form Guns’n’Roses in 1985. Within a few months, however, Guns and singer Axl Rose had fallen out and Guns left (ultimately being replaced by Slash) to reform L.A. Guns. The band signed with legendary heavy metal label Vertigo (home of the likes of Black Sabbath) and released their eponymous debut LP in 1988. It sold over half a million copies, made 50 on the Billboard 200, charted in the UK and Japan, and is still regarded as a “hair metal” classic. The follow-up album, 1989’s Cocked & Loaded, fared even better, reaching 38 on the Billboard 200 and spawning the group’s biggest hit, ‘The Ballad of Jayne’.

In true rock fashion, the L.A. Guns line-up has evolved repeatedly over the years, with Guns leaving at times to front his own version of the group, called Tracii Guns’ L.A. Guns. There are currently two bands called L.A. Guns, one of which is fronted by Guns. They released the single ‘Let You Down’ in summer 2020.