In a new interview with The Jeremy White Show, former White Lion singer Mike Trump says that the rise of grunge in the early 1990s kept most hard rock bands out of radio and MTV, leading to a decline in album and tour sales. I looked back on the dramatic decline in the number of people. He said (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “The ’80s were killed and put to sleep by the record companies and the industry. If they had success with WHITE LION, they signed to SKID ROW, and once they signed to SKID ROW, they signed again. The new SKID ROW was just an assembly line, it’s already in the design phase, that’s the real question, but how long do we have to wait to give viewers that option? The excesses of 80’s bands basically encouraged all 80’s bands to commit suicide. Because in the end – and I won’t say it myself – the last wave of ’80s bands were a total joke. They copied us 5 million times and I can’t bear to hear or see it, because there’s no originality, there were just too many waves, and then You can all sit back and say it, but when I say it. Look at it, that’s how I see it, it was a clone. ”
Trump elaborated on how the popularity of grunge influenced the so-called “hair metal” scene of the 1980s, saying, “It’s funny that there’s a word grunge, but there’s also a word alternative. If you look at it, the alternative is, I don’t want that black car, but instead I have a gray car… After two and a half years, no one has come up with anything new. .”
Trump previously spoke about the demise of the 1980s hard rock scene in a May 2019 interview with Scotland’s Rockfiend Publications. He said at the time: “Now I think of the ’80s as a vacation. Something happened, something ended, and it ended really hard. There was no grace period. It was like someone coming back from the old days. It didn’t feel like space, or divers coming up from the ocean floor, or (someone says) “You have to do it gradually.” No, it totally slapped you in the face – almost like that, you might say it took me a year or so, but by the end of the ’80s almost… I say. It’s a fictional story about a man who was walking down Hollywood Boulevard one day and suddenly all he had was a flannel shirt and a Starbucks coffee, no Jack Daniels and no leather pants, no long hair. So there was a second wave where grunge came in, and I think it’s fair to say, in real terms, that “alternative” (taking over) finally burned down the 80s. ”
Trump continued, “If you go back to the last few albums that have been released by new bands — I don’t even know the names — they’re true copies of other copies of the originals. It’s just what it is. Mötley Crue. Especially when they released “Shout At The Devil,” I think you could say, “Oh, that’s a little bit.” A KISS song, a little NEW YORK DOLLS song.” (But) there weren’t any bands like that around at the time, and it was the same with DEF LEPPARD’s sound on “Hysteria” and “Pyromania.” ”, that was the first step of something, but at some point “we” started copying parts of it and it was the blonde template. Three people (guys) with hair and black hair, you have an 80’s band, add “white” or “black” to it, find an animal and combine it, that’s the name (of the band) It will be. return. It’s not the same feeling when we’re in the middle of it and this bullet train is going 300 miles an hour. Once you’re on board, there’s no time to think. We had to decide quickly what to do. And then, in 1988, it was very difficult to become Kurt Cobain and do something that goes against the norm. Why would you want to do that when you have just tasted success? But the truth is, we basically ended up committing suicide. And actually, I don’t think it matters if you could have gone or not. It was meant to happen. ”
Tramp released “Songs Of White Lion – Vol. II” on Frontiers Music Srl on August 23rd. It is a sequel to “Songs of White Lion,” which was released in April 2023.
MIKE TRAMP’s WHITE LION, a band fronted by the former WHITE LION singer, finished their US tour this summer.
