Stacey Blades
An interview with the L.A Guns guitarist
by Tina Hall
August 2010
Stacey Blades - guitarist for L.A. Guns
Canadian born Stacey Blades is best known as the guitarist for L.A Guns. He has also played in Roxx Gang, Mojo Gurus, Supercool, and is a solo artist. His solo album album Symphonic Slam is currently available on Itunes and Amazon.com
Maximum Ink: Who were your earliest musical influences? Which of your influences have affected your playing style most?
Stacey Blades: Well for bands it was, The Cars, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, Ozzy, Motley and Hanoi Rocks. Guitarists are Randy Rhoads, Joe Perry, Jimmy Page and Hendrix. Definitely Randy Rhoads influenced me the most for guitar players. He was amazing and died waaayy too young! I love those first two Ozzy records. His playing on those is just incredible.
MI: When did you first take an interest in music?
SB: Well I come from a long line of musicians in my family so I was kind of lead into it. But when I heard Kiss Alive and the roar of that crowd and those images it sucked me in!!
MI: How would you say the music scene in Canada differs from here in the U.S?
SB: Well the bands just don’t get pushed in the states like they do in America. Canada has some great bands but something changed in the late 80’s and the labels really just didn’t care about most of the bands they had and or signed. I saw a few good bands from the circuit I played there get signed to major labels and didn’t do shit.
MI: Do you prefer working in the studio or touring most? Why?
SB: Well that’s hard. They are so completely different. I really enjoy making a record. Being in the studio with the producer and laying down the magic and watching this beast you have created blossom. Touring is great though, different scene everyday and the rush of playing live, there is just nothing that compares to that.”
MI: What is it like to tour with L.A Guns?
SB: Amazing!!! Great guys and we have a blast together.
MI: Is it true you provide the vocals for “Nothing Better To Do” at the live shows with them?
SB: Yes, Kelly Nickels the original bass player used to sing it and we did that song for quite a few years with me signing it. It’s a three chord punky song so isn’t that hard to sing with a little attitude, lol.
MI: Which of their many songs to you enjoy playing the most?
SB: I love Wheels of Fire, Slap in the Face, Over the Edge to name a few.
MI: What was the best advice you ever received as an aspiring musician and who was it from?
SB: I think it was from the guitarist from Coney Hatch and he said “give er hell!”. I think I was 17 at the time.”
MI: What hobbies do you enjoy when you are not on the road?
SB: I love to cook!!! It really relaxes me and love to grab dinner with friends at some of L.A’s many cool restaurants.
MI: If you could be anything other than a musician what would you most want to be?
SB: Psychiatrist, lol I love to get into peoples minds and see what drives them and controls their personality traits and dysfunctions.
MI: What can your fans look forward to in the future?
SB: Got lots of cool things going on right now. My book—Snake Eyes is still available at amazon.com. I recently released my first solo instrumental album “Symphonic Slam”
MI: Can you tell us a little about that? What made you decide to do one?
SB: I was approached by Cleopatra Records to do a few classical tracks. It turned out so well that they decided to do a whole record. The album came out just amazing!!! It features numbers from Strauss, Bach, Beethoven, Handel to name a few. Adam Hamilton produced it as well as playing drums, bass and he did all the orchestration on it as well. The album just rocks!!!!
MI: How does doing your own solo album differ most from working with L.A Guns?
SB: Well it’s all guitar dominated, lol. It was a lot of work creating all the passages for each song. Basically the guitar was the main vocal so I really had to get creative with the passages and solos. Adam did such a great job producing it and arranging!! It was really cool to use all kinds of different guitars and amps to capture the mood of each track.
• Wiki
Stacey Blades
CD: Symphonic Slam Record Label: Deadline Records
• Purchase Symphonic Slam on Amazon
• Download Symphonic Slam on Amazon