PETE LORAN Says It Was 'Pretty Stupid' Of His TRIXTER Bandmates To 'Annihilate Each Other' In The Press

In a new interview with Waste Some Time With Jason Green, TRIXTER frontman Pete Loran was asked about the recent war of words between the band's drummer Mark "Gus" Scott and TRIXTER's only two actively touring members, guitarist/vocalist Steve Brown and bassist P.J. Farley. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, as far as beef with Gus and those guys, that went to a whole level during interviews where they were just annihilating each other. I think that was pretty stupid on everybody's part. Hopefully they're all past that. There's bad blood between a couple of those guys that I don't know if that's ever gonna get fixed."

Asked if there is any truth to online rumors that Gus tried to trademark the TRIXTER name behind the other members' backs after Brown let it lapse a few years ago, Pete said: "I'm not 100 percent sure about that… I'm thinking there's a lot more going on there than just what you think — probably years and years of stuff that just erupted. So, as far as I'm concerned, I'm good with everybody."

Loran, who is now based in Arizona, went on to say that he has no problems with Brown and Farley actively touring under the TRIXTER name — backed by Ben Hans on percussion — without him and Scott being involved. "I'm great with that," he said. "I'm all for it, and I'm glad they're doing it. I don't have the time to dedicate to it. Between stuff I have going on at home… Several years back my kids were both in their teens, two boys, so to do fly-out dates every weekend and be gone from Thursday to Monday or whatever it is, I felt like I was missing a lot of time there where things could go sideways, especially with kids at that age, so I wanted to be around for that. And also just financially, it wasn't gonna make things work for me anyway. So I stepped back, and I told those guys, 'Do your thing.' And it started out as acoustic TRIXTER, but it's really not. They call it TRIXTER, which is fine with me. I have no problem with that at all."

Asked who sings the TRIXTER songs for the Brown-Farley touring version of the band, Loran said: "Steve does. Steve sings them. And he sings them real good. I mean, for all intents and purposes, they're his songs. Most of the melodies, lyrics, they're all his anyway. I'm the voice known to sing those songs from most of the people, but he has no problem getting up there every night and doing them. Some of those songs are real tough to sing. And he's doing a great job with it. As a matter of fact, they were here [in Arizona] in March, and P.J. had reached out to me and said, 'Hey, we're coming through Phoenix area. You should come down and say hello.' And I had seen him. Several months before that he was coming through here on a tour with FOZZY with [Chris] Jericho. And it was the first time I had seen him in a while, and it was good for us. So we stayed in touch, and then he said, 'You wanna come down?' I said, 'I'll come down.' He goes, 'You wanna jump up and do a few songs?' And I was like, 'Oh, shit. Yeah. Now I got to.' So, I did do that. I jumped up and did a few songs. I hadn't seen Steve in years. That was good. We needed to see each other and just look each other in the eye and go, 'We're good. We're all good.' So that went really well, actually. And it was great for the fans that were there; they weren't really expecting that. And it was surreal for me to sit back there and watch those guys playing those songs. And I'm going, like, 'This is very strange.' But once I got up there with them, it was just like riding a bike."

Late last month, Pete released a solo single, "Around Again", which can be streamed below.

On March 22, Loran joined Brown and Farley on stage at The 44 Sports Grill And Nightlife in Glendale, Arizona to perform a couple of TRIXTER songs.

Speaking to Sonic Perspectives about how Loran's guest appearance came about, Brown said: "Man, it was awesome. We've talked, and let's just get everything straight: there's no bad blood between me and Pete. He's my brother. I love him. Like any family member, we have had our disagreements, but we always come back. And I hadn't seen him in seven years, and I walk in the dressing room, and there he is. And within 30 seconds, we revert back to the '80s when we were kids and the same jokes. And there was no question. We didn't say, 'Hey, do you wanna work on anything?' He came out after seven years — I don't think he's been on stage — and he crushed it. He sounded great. He looked great. And it was so much fun to have him."

Regarding the possibility of Loran making more appearances with TRIXTER in the future, Brown said: "Pete is always welcome to come out and play with us. And you never know what's going to happen." Steve then seemingly downplayed the likelihood of Pete performing with TRIXTER on a more permanent basis again, saying: "Hey, man, he's so happy in his life. His kids are doing great. He was telling me about his son. He's doing great. And that's ultimately what it's all about.

"Being a traveling musician, rock and roller, it's not for everybody," Brown explained. "It's easy when you're number one on MTV and you're playing arenas every night.

"P.J. and I, after it all fell apart in the '90s, we looked at each other and it was, like, 'All right, what are we doing now musically. And we started THROWAN ROCKS and we started a cover band and we started this cover band SUGARBELLY that went on for 10 years and we made a lot of money and that's how we supported ourselves as musicians. Some people get away from it, whether they want to go work for a car dealer or they want to be Indian chiefs or lawyers or whatever, that's all well and good. Music, for me, is life. It's in my blood. It's in my heart."

Both Brown and Farley have been critical of Scott in recent interviews, with Steve saying that the drummer is on "the shit list beyond belief" with the rest of the group, while P.J. compared being in a band with Mark to owning a disobedient dog. "Sometimes you let the dog off a leash and he just goes running to the middle of the street — no good," he said.

Since reuniting in 2008, TRIXTER has released two studio albums via Frontiers Music Srl — 2012's "New Audio Machine" and 2015's "Human Era".

TRIXTER toured extensively in the United States, Canada and Japan in support of its five major label releases. They have performed live in arenas and amphitheaters with crowds up to 35,000 people, appearing with such rock superstars as KISS, SCORPIONS, POISON, TED NUGENT, NIGHT RANGER, CINDERELLA, TWISTED SISTER, DOKKEN, WARRANT, GREAT WHITE and FIREHOUSE.

Photo courtesy of Alive Music Marketing