Tracii Guns

Tracii Guns is a very private person who doesn’t like to share details of his personal life with the media. He is reportedly engaged to a lady called Kristen.

Tracii Guns, named Tracy Richard Irving Ulrich at birth, was born in Los Angeles, California on January 20, 1966 to non-observant Jewish parents. Not much about his childhood and early life is known to the media.

He became interested in music as a little boy. He was deeply inspired by the legendary guitarist of the rock band ‘Led Zeppelin’, Jimmy Page, after hearing his song ‘Whole Lotta Love’ on the radio for the first time.

Later, his uncle taught him to play the guitar, further fueling his inherent passion for music. When he was twelve years old, he formed his first band with his friends and used to play around the city.

Tracii Guns formed his first major band in 1983 with bassist Ole Beich, vocalist Michael Jagosz, and drummer Rob Gardner. However, the members could record only one EP titled ‘Collector's Edition No. 1’ before Jagosz left the band and was replaced by Axl Rose as the lead singer of the band.

In a similar turn of events, the band soon witnessed another exit. Rose left the group soon after joining to form his own band, Hollywood Rose, with guitarist Chris Weber and childhood friend Izzy Stradlin.

In 1985, Guns and singer Paul Black reformed the band by recruiting other members, such as Nickey "Beat" Alexander on drums and Mick Cripps as the bassist. In 1988, the band released their eponymous first album on Vertigo Records which ranked at No. 50 on the Billboard 200. A year later, the band released their second album ‘Cocked & Loaded’, which became even more popular, reaching the 38th spot on Billboard 200.

The band released their third album ‘Hollywood Vampires’ in 1991 and released eight more albums in the ensuing years, ‘Vicious Circle’ in 1995, ‘American Hardcore’ in 1996, ‘Shrinking Violet’ in 1999, ‘Greatest Hits and Black Beauties’ in 1999, ‘Cocked & Re-Loaded’ in 2000, ‘Man in the Moon’ in 2001, ‘Waking the Dead’ in 2002, and ‘The Missing Piece’ in 2017.

Tracii Guns left the band in 2002 only to return in 2005. Later in 2013, he took another break and returned in 2016. Over the course of his association with the band, he contributed to eleven albums in total.

In 1985, after Axl Rose joined and then left L.A. Guns to form his own band Hollywood Rose, both Tracii and Rose decided to merge their respective bands to form a new one named ‘Guns N’ Roses’, combining their own names.

The newly formed band had Axl Rose performing vocals, Tracii Guns as the lead guitarist, Ole Beich on bass, Rob Gardner on drums, and Rose’s long-term friend Izzy Stradlin on rhythm guitar. But within a year Tracii, along with his former L.A. Guns members Ole Beich and Rob Gardner, left the band due to a dispute with Rose.

They were later replaced by the former band mates of Rose, the legendary guitarist Slash, Steven Adler, and Duff McKagan. Tracii didn’t release any albums with the band; however, he did write a couple of songs while being associated with the group.