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Tracy Irving Richard Ulrich (born January 20, 1966), known professionally as Tracii Guns, is an American guitarist best known as the co-founder of glam metal group L.A. Guns, as well as the supergroups Brides of Destruction and Contraband. He was also a founding member of Guns N' Roses. However, he left shortly afterwards; he was replaced by guitarist Slash.
Ulrich attended Fairfax High in Los Angeles. While there, he met future L.A. Guns members Robert Gardner and Michael Jagosz. The three formed a band called Pyrrhus with bassist Dani Tull. Ulrich (now going by Tracii Guns), Gardner, and Jagosz recruited Danish bassist Ole Beich for their new band in 1983, officially starting L.A. Guns after leaving Guns 'N Roses.
Ulrich cites Johnny Thunders, Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen, Mick Jagger, Michael Schenker, Tony Iommi, and Jimmy Page as his influences.
July 1995 saw Guns and Steve Riley recruit vocalist Chris Van Dahl and guitarist Johnny Crypt (ex-Ripper, aka Johnny Crystal) after seeing them perform with their band Boneyard. Six months into recording sessions, Kelly Nickels left the band and Johnny switched to the bass. In 1996, the new L.A. Guns released their fifth record, titled American Hardcore. They toured throughout 1996 and into 1997 where Tracii let Chris go, who was replaced by singer Ralph Saenz. Tracii, Steve, Johnny, and Ralph toured for the remainder of '97 and in early '98 released the six song EP Wasted. Halfway through the band's 1998 Rock Never Stops tour, Ralph quit to form his own band, forcing the band to find a new singer. Joe Lesté from Bang Tango and Jizzy Pearl from Love/Hate were considered as candidates, with Pearl getting the job. They toured in late 1998 and early 1999 and released Shrinking Violet, produced by former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke. This release was followed shortly by Crypt's departure.
In September 1999, the classic lineup of Tracii Guns, Steve Riley, Phil Lewis, Kelly Nickels, and Mick Cripps prepared to reunite. L.A. Guns set out on the reunion tour in October 1999 and recorded a live album in their hometown of Hollywood, enlisting Gilby Clarke as producer. The album, named , was released the following year. After the reunion, Mick and Kelly couldn't commit to the summer 2000 tour, so they were replaced by guitarist Brent Muscat and bassist Muddy Stardust, respectively. Ratt and L.A. Guns teamed up with Warrant for a remainder-of-the-summer tour, which L.A. Guns dropped off in August due to booking problems. Mick Cripps again rejoined the band briefly in late 2000 to record an album with the band, entitled Man in the Moon, which was released on Spitfire Records in April 2001. L.A. Guns released the album Waking the Dead, the last album to feature Tracii Guns, in August 2002, produced by Andy Johns, to mainly positive reviews from critics and fans. The future of L.A. Guns was in doubt until both Steve Riley and Phil Lewis told the Hairball John Radio Show that the band would continue despite Tracii Guns' involvement in Brides of Destruction.
Guns left the band in October 2002.
In 2008, Tracii Guns' L.A. Guns signed a deal with Alexis Records and began working on material for a new album with producer Steve Thompson. Singer Marty Casey, of Lovehammers, was asked to co-write some songs with the band by bassist Jeremy Guns. Eventually Paul Black left the group and Marty was asked to replace him. They finished recording the album and set a release date for March 2009. The group toured through 2008 and early 2009 and also recorded a pilot for VH1. While waiting for a release date to be set for the new album, as well as deciding on a new name for the band, Marty Casey returned to Lovehammers releasing new album Heavy Crown. Jizzy Pearl returned to front L.A. Guns for a summer tour while guitarist Alec Bauer departed the band.
After a long-running dispute with Phil Lewis (Lewis had been touring as "Phil Lewis's L.A. Guns") over the name to the group, Tracii Guns disbanded his version of L.A. Guns in July 2012.
In June 2013, the band released their debut album, The First Record through Shrapnel Records. In August 2014, The Second Record was released, again with Shrapnel Records.
Sometime during 2017, Guns was approached by Serafino Perugino, President and A&R director of Frontiers Music SRL, about doing a solo album. Guns told Pariah Burke, "no way was I going to do an instrumental album." Eventually, Guns settled on the idea of writing and recording an album of music that reminded him of "what I used to listen to when I was a teenager first learning to play guitar." The result is an album of much heavier songs than Guns' usual songwriting for L.A. Guns or past projects Contraband and Brides of Destruction, though, Guns said, parts of the Sunbomb music are reminiscent of his playing in Devil City Angels. When it came time to choose a vocalist, Guns turned to Stryper's Michael Sweet, whom Guns told Burke he had befriended years earlier during a shared tour stopover in Massachusetts.
Evil and Divine also features drums by Adam Hamilton (L.A. Guns), Johnny Martin (L.A. Guns) playing bass on song "They Fought," and Mitch Davis playing bass on the other 10 tracks.
Contraband was a short-lived supergroup/side project that included vocalist Richard Black, of Shark Island, guitarist Michael Schenker, of Scorpions, UFO and Michael Schenker Group, bassist Share Pedersen, of Vixen, drummer Bobby Blotzer, of Ratt, and Guns taking up the second guitar role. They released one self-titled album in 1991 which received lukewarm reviews. The album was a commercial failure and the band disbanded shortly after, while concert tour with Ratt.
In 1999, Guns played a show in Hollywood, California with former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke, who produced the L.A. Guns album Shrinking Violet in the same year, as part of his solo band with the performance being released the same year as 99 Live. In 2002, Tracii contributed guitars on the Clarke's solo album Swag, with some of these tracks appearing on the 2007 compilation album Gilby Clarke. Also in 1999, Tracii released his debut album Killing Machine, which was later re-released in 2004 with the new title of All Eyes are Watchin.
Guns was also in Poison for a short time in early 2000, when C.C. DeVille departed the band for a month over a dispute. Guns joined Quiet Riot in December 2005, a move that was to be short lived; he left less than a month later.
In 2004, Guns featured on the album The Roots of Guns N' Roses, the album featuring the original demos by Hollywood Rose, on tracks remixed by Gilby Clarke.
In 2007, Guns guested on the debut album Dopesnake by Hollywood Roses along with Mick Taylor formerly of The Rolling Stones, Phil Lewis and Paul Black both also of L.A. Guns, Gilby Clarke formerly of Guns N' Roses and Rock Star Supernova, Fred Coury of Cinderella and formerly of London, Teddy Andreadis, Pat Travers and Hollywood Rose founder Chris Weber.
In October 2008, Steven Adler had formed a new supergroup with Guns called Guns of Destruction. The band's lineup rounded up by Adler's Appetite and Enuff Z'Nuff bassist Chip Z'nuff and singer Eric Dover of Sextus and formerly of Jellyfish and Slash's Snakepit. They were to make their live debut at the Key Club in Hollywood on November, 19 with "very special guests" in attendance. However the group was to be short lived and Dover soon announced that he was not involved in the project.
After performing together at the "Giving 2010" benefit event on May 3, 2010, Guns formed the cover band "Carnival of Dogs" with Matt Sorum (Velvet Revolver, Camp Freddy, formerly of Guns N' Roses and The Cult), Franky Perez (Solo, Scars on Broadway, DKFXP, Apocalyptica) and Phil Soussan (formerly of Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Idol and Vince Neil).
In 2012, Guns worked with Italian producer Pietro Foresti on the song "America Dreaming" with Italian band J27.
In 2013, Guns joined the band of the production Raiding the Rock Vault at the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino.
In 2014 Guns formed the Devil City Angels, featuring Brandon Gibbs (Cheap Thrills) vocals, Rikki Rockett (Poison) drums & Eric Brittingham (Cinderella) Bass. The self-titled debut album was officially released September 11, 2015.
| 2004 | The Roots of Guns N' Roses | Hollywood Rose | Cleopatra Records | Guitar overdubs on Gilby Clarke remixes |
| 2007 | Dopesnake | Hollywood Roses Not to be confused with Hollywood Rose | Abstract | Guitars on "Turbosheen" & "Come Down" |
Ulrich has jokingly referred to his bassist Jeremy Guns (born Jeremy Carson) as his son. the quitus int Several media outlets have mistakenly reported that Jeremy is Ulrich's actual son.
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