GEORGE LYNCH Talks 'Guitar Generation Tour'

Rock Confidential recently conducted an interview with legendary guitarist George Lynch (DOKKEN, LYNCH MOB, SOULS OF WE). An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Rock Confidential: How are things goin', George? I know you've got a full plate already this year.

Lynch: The SOULS OF WE record has been out for a couple of months. We're working on a video for the song "January". We're also in the middle of working on a new LYNCH MOB record called "Smoke And Mirrors". We're doing that at Sound City Studios in the San Fernando Valley in LA. It's actually the first studio I ever recorded at in the mid 70s and they haven't changed anything. It's the same as it was. METALLICA was just in there for six months. You name any band and they've been through there. It's just an awesome studio. It's so original and it's got so much mojo. LYNCH MOB is going to be out this summer and fall touring pretty extensively and we've got Oni Logan back in the band. He's commuting from Switzerland back and forth if you can believe it. We've got Marco Mendoza on bass and Scot Coogan on drums.

Rock Confidential: That is very exciting news for LYNCH MOB fans. Those guys are super talented and it's great to see Oni back. You've also got the Guitar Generation Tour that features Richie Kotzen, Paul Gilbert and yourself.

Lynch: Yeah, we've been rehearsing for that. It starts today in San Diego and all the shows are at House Of Blues venues.

Rock Confidential: Who had the initial idea for this tour?

Lynch: Paul and I are managed by the same management company. It was just a brainstorming idea, really. I had been playing with the idea of something called the Strung Out Tour for years. It's the same idea but different in the aspect that it would represent multi-generations of guitar players. You'd have a guy from the '70s, a guy like myself who was known through the '80s, and someone more contemporary and modern, like Alexi from CHILDREN OF BODOM. You'd have a variety of generations represented. The Guitar Generation Tour came as an independent idea from my management company.

Rock Confidential: Each guy gets 45 minutes on stage each night. You've got a pretty extensive catalog. What do you consider when it's time to put together a set list for a show like that?

Lynch: I wanted to stay away from the expected choices. I don't want to do the same set I would do for a DOKKEN or LYNCH MOB set. I'm doing two SOULS OF WE songs, a HENDRIX tune, an extended version of "Mr. Scary", and some things off "Sacred Groove". We've mixed it up quite a bit. We've got some guest singers coming in as well. Jeff Pilson is coming down to sing "Tooth And Nail", Oni Logan will come up to sing "Wicked Sensation". London may be getting up to sing the SOULS OF WE material. We'll see.

Rock Confidential: There's only a handful of dates now. Will you be adding more later?

Lynch: I don't know yet. We have to balance it out with the LYNCH MOB tour and that takes priority. It all depends on what LYNCH MOB will be doing this summer.

Rock Confidential: Any ideas of what songs you guys will do during the jam at the end of the night?

Lynch: There's about a dozen songs being kicked around — FRAMPTON, old DEEP PURPLE, THE DOORS, THE ALLMAN BROTHERS. It's a little more organic-y rootsy stuff that I would have expected but it's challenging to get three guitar players who are already playing way too many notes to come together so the songs have to be somewhat simple. You can't do something more complex without a lot of rehearsal because it just gets turned into a huge, chaotic clusterfuck!

Read the entire interview from Rock Confidential.