Stacey Blades
L.A. Guns
Stacey Blades was born Bryan Todd MacLachlan in Calgary, Alberta- Canada on November 4th 1968.
Stacey started taking piano lessons at age of 9 and studied for 2 years. It was then at the ripe age of 11, that there was a guitar under the Christmas tree and it didn't take long for Stacey to become obsessed with that little acoustic! Stacey took lessons for 3 years and then bought his first electric guitar, an Ibanez Cherry Sunburst Les Paul Standard Copy. He spent hours in his room coping riffs from Van Halen, Led Zepplin, Ozzy, April Wine and Triumph!
When the first wave of L.A. Metal hit in 1984 with Motley Crue, Quiet Riot, Ratt, Wasp and Dokken, Blades become an obsseded Metalhead spending hours with his guitar perfecting his style with Randy Rhoads licks and George Lynch riffs!
Stacey's first gig was with his first band Blind Desire at his highschool Star Search night where he played in the auditorium to 750 highschool kids! He knew this was the exactly where he wanted to be rockin in front of big crowds. Stacey spent the next 3 years in various bands- Blind Desire, Heaven Sennt and Fraidy Katt working the Toronto Club Circuit. Releazing the Canadian Music Industry was a dead end, Blades set his sights to become big in the States. Oppurtunity came knocking after Fraidy Katt broke up after slugging it out for 2 years with an ad in Metal Edge magazine with Roxx Gang looking to replace their main guitarist. Blades already had Roxx Gang's debut on Virgin Records"Things You've Never Done Before" and felt he was a shoe in and certainely had no problem moving to the Sunshine State of South Florida. Blades flew down south and nailed the audition and joined the band in '92.
Blades stayed in Roxx Gang for a long 8 years and recorded 4 albums with band--"The Vodoo You Love", "Mojo Gurus", "Old, New, Borrowed and Blue" and "Smokin TNT and Drinkin Dynamite". Blades was also on the band's greatest hits album "Bodacious Ta Ta's". Stacey also did 3 professionally shot videos with the band--Time bomd, hot for love both off The Voodoo you Love and Tiger Lily off Mojo Gurus.
Blades started drifting from the band in 1999 with personal and musical differences. Stacey left the band in 2000 and after several trips to L.A from 1997 on he split for the West Coast in the summer of 2001. Stacey wasted no time putting together a new band with Eric Stacy from Faster Pussycat and Vikk Foxx of Enuff z Nuff. With a tour of Japan cemented and a six song EP Supercool was ready to rock. unfortunately the band only lasted 8 months. Lantz L'amour the singer guitarist from Supercool and Stacey put a great new band together called S.M.A.C.K and bit their teeth hard on the L.A Circuit with their brand of raunchy street pop punk. after a year and half and dozen of major label showcases S.M.A.C.K. called it quits.
Completely frustrated Blades was ready to pull his hair out but a God send came when a friend of Stacey's called him and send "are you interested in joining L.A. Guns?" Blades jumped at the chance and history ws made and Stacey replaced Tracii Guns in 2003. The band cemented insane chemistry with Blades and started touring the world heavily and recorded a cover record right away called Rips the Covers Off" with famed producer andy Johns! The following year the band released the highly cricticall accaimled album 'Tales From the Strip" in 2005. Blades garnished great respect from the fans with this fantastic album once again produced by Johns. The band contiues to tour the world and rip up stages from one end of the world to the other.
In April of 2009, Blades first book written by him entitled "Snake Eyes--Confessions of a Replacement Rock Star" was published and allowed fans to get a up close and personall glimpse of Stacey's life story! The book has done very well and recieved many 5 star and 4 star reviews on Amazon.com. Stacey also released his first ever solo Instrumental album entitiled "Symphonic Slam' It was released by Cleopatra Records in the summer of 2010. the album is comprised of classical numbers by Strauss, Bach, Handel and Beethoven to name a few! The album is all rocked out and really showcases Blades ability to rip up the fretboard!!!. Stacey was featured in the July 2010 issue of Premier Guitar magazine with an article called "Filling Big Shoes" which also features Dokken's Jon Levin, Brad Gillis from Night Ranger and Ex- Black n Blue guitarist Tommy Thayer now in Kiss.
LA Guns toured heavily in 2010 with the "Greatest Hits and Precious Gems Tour" which saw the band play with artists like the Scorpions, Dokken, Cinderella and Bret Micheals to thousands of people.
Be sure to catch Blades out on the Road and say hi! He's one of the coolest down to earth rockers out there folks!!
Stacey Blades's Gear
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Mockingbird Exotic Classic
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Gunslinger Retro
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