Iconic guitarist George Lynch has explained his decision to return to using the LYNCH MOB name for his solo project.
George had been actively touring throughout the U.S. under the name ELECTRIC FREEDOM, which he had previously announced was his new band name after deciding to retire the LYNCH MOB moniker in 2020. However, it was recently reported that LYNCH MOB would once again be taking to the live stage, with George and the current group lineup of drummer Jimmy D’Anda, bassist Jaron Gulino, and singer Gabriel Colon.
Lynch discussed his return to the LYNCH MOB band name in a new interview with Full In Bloom,saying (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “[LYNCH MOB is] just a brand I’d established for decades, obviously — over three decades. Nothing’s perfect, and I’ve gotta just live with the fact that it has some negative connotations that I probably have to continue explaining for the rest of my life, and I don’t mind doing that. But it is a brand that I built, and I’m just gonna stick with it. As far as a marketing thing and a brand thing and a business thing and a working thing, and it keeps my band guys working and it keeps the fans happy, it makes sense.
“I really felt, when I adopted ELECTRIC FREEDOM, that I was really going against the grain more than keeping the old name,” he laughed. “I really felt a lot more resistance than I’d ever felt having LYNCH MOB; that was actually the reality of it. Nobody really liked it. And I didn’t like living with that; it was just kind of uncomfortable. It’s, like, ‘Okay, well, we’ve just gotta put up with George’s decision here to do this, but nobody agrees with it. We’re not comfortable with it.’ It has a sort of disingenuous ring to it. As much as my motives were pure — I felt honest — it just never caught on, on all kinds of levels.”
When George was asked if he had gotten any negative comments from anyone over the LYNCH MOB name, George said: “I may have had a few in the 35 years it’s been around, but I’d say probably the most negative criticism I’ve had of it came from me. So I was my own worst critic with the name, especially in later years. I got a lot more criticism with ELECTRIC FREEDOM.
“It’s a brand,” George explained. “I mean, nobody wants Coke to change their recipe. Just stay the same, and that’s what you built over the years. Why would you…? ‘Why would you change it’ is a rhetorical question. Why I’m probably not more successful in some ways in my career is because I followed my aspirations musically rather than sometimes be smart about just sticking to the plan. [Laughs]”
Metal Sludge first revealed the news of LYNCH MOB‘s return in a post from October 1.