MIKE TRAMP: Why WHITE LION Will Never Reunite

In a new interview with Shawn Ratches of Laughingmonkeymusic, former WHITE LION singer Mike Tramp once again spoke about the possibility of a reunion of the band's classic lineup, featuring guitarist Vito Bratta. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "WHITE LION will, of course, not get back together. We would have done it 20 years ago. Vito has not been in a studio or on a stage since '91. Him and I are friends, we share certain things, and we don't go any deeper than that.

"You know what? Since no one else is gonna say it, I don't believe a WHITE LION reunion would be better than the original WHITE LION were back then," he explained. "We're not that kind of band that should get back together and represent 1988 because the band would not do like I do, which is mature the songs. The band would go out and try to play them note for note. And I have already changed the keys of these songs to be able to sing them also as a grown man, et cetera, et cetera."

Mike added: "And I also don't wish my mom and dad rise from the grave and get back together. That life is done."

Tramp previously discussed the chances of WHITE LION getting back together in a recent interview with "The Chuck Shute Podcast". At the time, he said: "I speak often to Vito and things like that, and him and I are on real good terms. I don't think either of us want a WHITE LION reunion. I also do not believe that a WHITE LION reunion would be an honest reunion where actually the four guys would come into the rehearsal with wide-open arms, saying, 'Bam! It's good to be back.' So unless the big hotel in Dubai offers us a million dollars, like they offered one of the guys from KISS, and then he says, 'Well, if I bring the other three for $4 million, will you pay?' 'Yeah, okay.' But that's not to say that maybe there wouldn't come the opportunity where Vito and I would do something, but I think both of us would want to do something new with the knowledge of what we have… What kind of song would we write today?"

Asked if Vito has fully recovered from his 1997 hand injury which prevented him from playing the guitar for a number of years, Mike said: "I can't speak for Vito. Vito will speak when Vito needs to speak. I know that he is playing, and he's also trying some other things and stuff like that. I will not force anything out of him. He will tell me when he will tell me."

Back in 2019, Tramp revealed in an interview that he had apologized to Bratta for trying to resurrect his former band without his onetime songwriting partner and bandmate.

The Danish-born singer hasn't played with Bratta since WHITE LION performed its last concert in Boston in September 1991.

In the 32 years since WHITE LION broke up, Bratta's public profile has been virtually nonexistent, while Tramp has remained active, recording and touring as a solo artist and with the bands FREAK OF NATURE, THE ROCK 'N' ROLL CIRCUZ and, more recently, BAND OF BROTHERS. Tramp also attempted to revive WHITE LION with the 2008 album "Return Of The Pride", featuring new members. Two years later, Tramp ceded ownership of the name WHITE LION to Bratta in an out-of-court settlement.

Speaking to SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation", Tramp said that he and Vito are once again on speaking terms following his ill-fated attempt to bring back WHITE LION nearly a decade and a half ago.

"I have, over the past couple of years, been the one out there basically both admitting and apologizing that the only thing that I never planned to do in my career and wanted to do was go back and rehash a version of WHITE LION that had nothing to do with WHITE LION, nothing to do with the guys that played in the band," Mike said. "Mike Tramp's heart was not in it. It was just a moment of weakness, not believing enough in my solo albums. [You listen to] some guys saying, 'Hey, if you put a new WHITE LION together, you can play festivals and get much more money.' And then you fall for that and you engage in it and you go out there, and then you realize it's not what you wanna do. And then, of course, Vito did not want the name WHITE LION to be used without him being in the band. And it actually took a couple of years for me to really understand how much it meant to Vito. And when Vito one day told me in one of these conversations… First of all, he told me, 'Mike, I'm not against you. I just don't wanna turn YouTube on and see the title 'WHITE LION live in so and so,' and somebody doing 'When The Children Cry' solo and it's not me. WHITE LION was you and me, it was our band, we wrote the songs. That is the memories I want for the rest of my life.' And when he told me that, I had tears in my eyes and I totally understood it, because I had also gotten to that point that when we closed WHITE LION, we felt that this is where we wanted to stop it. There was something, going into the '90s, that didn't agree with the things we were looking at, and we wanted to somehow end it on a higher level than something that would not represent us in the future. But it just took many years to really understand it."

Asked if he understands why Vito doesn't want to play music professionally anymore, Mike said: "Yes, I do, because there are actually times when I also don't feel like doing it anymore. When all the magic around us, the stuff that made us fall in love with rock and roll — first of all, our heroes, then the industry, then the touring stuff — when all of that was really exposed that it was a two-faced kind of thing, that the people we thought loved us — and I'm not talking about the fans; I'm talking about the people that made money from us, and stuff like that — turned their back on us and stabbed us in the back, it really ripped us apart. And maybe it's just that I came from a different background than Vito, that I maybe was a little bit stronger or just of a different nature that I just fought back, but Vito just said, 'I just don't wanna deal with this.' And I understand now — I understand it from every conversation that I have with him."

Tramp also once again closed the door on a possible WHITE LION reunion, saying: "I can't be Mike Tramp 1988. I can't sing like that, and I'm not going up on stage and doing a half-assed job, which most of the bands out there are doing."

Mainly active in the 1980s and early 1990s, WHITE LION released its debut album, "Fight To Survive", in 1985. The band had its breakthrough with the double-platinum-selling "Pride" album, which produced two Top 10 hits: "Wait" and "When The Children Cry". The band continued its success with the third album, "Big Game", which achieved gold status.

By the time WHITE LION released its final album, 1991's "Mane Attraction", alternative rock was in the ascendancy, leading to a swift decline of the so-called "hair metal" scene in terms of sales, popularity, radio play, and most importantly, relevance.

Mike will release "Songs Of White Lion", on April 14 via Frontiers Music Srl. As the title implies, the album sees Tramp re-imagining select cuts from WHITE LION's catalog.

Tramp will embark on the "Songs of White Lion" U.S. tour in May 2023 as well as participate in the original "Rock Meets Classic" tour in Germany this April.