L.A. Guns singer Phil Lewis has predicted veteran Australian band Rose Tattoo will go “gangbusters” when they play a Caribbean cruise on a rare trip to the US in February. The Angry Anderson-fronted originators of biker rock are taking part in the Monsters Of Rock Cruise out of Miami from February 24th to March 1st as part of a bill made up largely of eighties hair metal bands. The Tatts have just announced that their new drummer is Jackie Barnes, son of Another Australian rock legend, Jimmy Barnes.

L.A. Guns are one of the biggest stories of Sunset Strip acts and Lewis tells the White Line Fever podcast the Tatts are, “not that well known at all but the people that know, know Rose Tattoo. And I think they’re going to go down great. They’re going to be the band that everyone goes ‘oh, I’ve heard of them but aren’t they good? Wow, we’ve got to see them more often. Because, you know, they never really toured the States - or they haven’t for a very long time. I think they’re going to do gangbusters.”

Rose Tattoo is a veritable all-star line-up now, with original vocalist Angry Anderson and long-timer guitarist Dai Pritchard joined by former AC/DC bassist Mark Evans and ex-The Angels and Skyhooks axeman Bob Spencer.

L.A. Guns covered Rose Tattoo’s “Rock ’N’ Roll Outlaw” and “Marseilles” by The Angels on 2004’s Rips The Covers Off.

“I was enamoured with those two bands, those two Australian bands, in the mid-eighties when I was in London in the mid-eighties - around 1985,” Lewis explains. "I saw Angel City (as The Angels were known in the US) open for Cheap Trick at Hammersmith Odeon in London and I was absolutely blown away how good they were, how unique, how… a little scary, you know? They were different… very rock’n’roll but there was something theatrical, a little scary, a little Phantom Of The Opera, if you will. Doc, the singer, just an incredible charismatic performer. Then when I started getting into the records, it was like ‘oh yeah, this is so good’. And Rose Tattoo, I’ve always done ‘Rock’n’Roll Outlaw’. That’s always been in my set. It was amazing when Angry showed up one time when we where in Brisbane and he got up and he did it with us. That was the greatest endorsement, as a fan, that I can ever have because I am a fan. I great up a fan, I still am a fan. It was magic. Just meeting him was amazing. Him getting up and ripping through it with me was just such an honour.”

(Angry Anderson photo - Steve Mascord)