MIKE TRAMP Says 'There's No Chance In Hell' Of Classic WHITE LION Reunion

Former WHITE LION frontman Mike Tramp took part in a question-and-answer session and a short acoustic performance at the Swedish metal convention Rockmässan on October 27 in Malmö, Sweden. You can now watch video footage of his appearance below. A couple of excerpts from the Q&A follow.

On the possibility of a WHITE LION reunion:

Tramp: "WHITE LION is a combination of [original WHITE LION guitarist] Vito [Bratta] and I writing the songs together, and that's sort of how it comes out. But there's no chance in hell that that will ever happen, and it's all because of the feedback I get from Vito. And also, I'm not fighting to put WHITE LION back together. These days, when I go out and play the songs from WHITE LION, it's to give it to the fans who just wanna hear the songs that night. I try not, again, to call myself WHITE LION, but more like, 'Mike Tramp celebrating the songs of WHITE LION,' so you come to the club tonight and we'll just play the songs and enjoy the songs. But if I go out there with four new guys, I don't feel good calling it WHITE LION. I did it for a short time, and when I look back, I kind of almost regret it. I could have called it something else, because it's not WHITE LION. And a lot of bands that [are] doing the same are not that. THIN LIZZY's not THIN LIZZY [without Phil Lynott]. There's too many other people in the band that are part of the sound. It doesn't mean that you should not be allowed to hold on to what you are, but I also think you've gotta respect the fans in that way. And I have so much respect for Robert Plant saying [about LED ZEPPELIN], 'I did it. And the albums are there. Maybe I cannot do what I did then, so let the memories live on.' I mean, I talked to somebody… Here's WHITESNAKE [version] No. 57. Why couldn't it just be called David Coverdale's WHITESNAKE? Anybody is free to do what they want, but it took me a little bit of time to understand that. Because when I formed FREAK OF NATURE and when I finished FREAK OF NATURE, it was, to me, [to signify] that I was finished with WHITE LION, that I wanted to get away from that and do my solo albums; I didn't wanna do WHITE LION. But then you are playing the clubs and you play for 25 people and the next show is not very good. And then somebody sits on a train and says, 'You know what? If you put a new version of WHITE LION back together — maybe with John Sykes and Steve Harris or something like that — you could really play the big festivals.' And you go, 'Really?' And then you fall for it and then it just doesn't work. So whenever I play WHITE LION songs or FREAK OF NATURE songs, I will make it very clear that, obviously, this is not an attempt to be the same band; I'm just playing the songs."

On what Vito is doing nowadays:

Tramp: "It's very difficult for me to talk about [Vito], because he always complains to me whenever we talk that I made fun of him. But the thing is that after WHITE LION broke up in '91, he has not done one single thing — he's not done one interview… he's not done anything. Meanwhile, already from FREAK OF NATURE and my solo albums, I have not done one single thing without somehow the name WHITE LION being mentioned or a WHITE LION song being played at a concert, etc. etc. So I really don't understand what it is, because the thing is he wants to hold on to the name that we basically own together, but he does not want me to do anything, because he does not have the balls to go out and do anything. So it's just been one of those things. And every time I talk to him, he just says the same over and over: 'I don't know.'"

On WHITE LION's split:

Tramp: "Vito is an incredible guitar player and and incredible songwriter, but if I had not dragged him out of his house, he'd fucking play the same Van Halen solos still. So it's sad that the memories are so spoiled with that kind of ending.

"We never got a chance to say goodbye to the fans. We never got a chance to make a statement to the press. Sometimes, [like if] FASTER PUSSYCAT had broken up for the tenth time, it's like 'Woah! Woah!' [and it becomes a headline on] Blabbermouth. WHITE LION was playing the last show and Vito and I just went to the airport — I went to California and he went to New York — and we just said… We didn't even look at each other. And it wasn't that we were fighting. And the interesting thing… [People say] 'Well, why shouldn't you carry on?' [But we got] no call from the record company, no call from the managers, no call from the merchandising company… All these people were making millions of dollars off us. It's like we just disappeared. There was never any closing. So it's taken me many years to really understand what the fuck happened here."

Tramp recently completed work on a new solo album, to be released before the end of the year.

Question-and-answer session:

Performance: