The record does sound like it was fun to make. Was this something you’d wanted to do for a while with this album?

No, it came about very quickly. There was a moment when the drummer Brian and I were at my storage unit getting some gear out or something. He was helping me. And he goes, ‘Hey, when did Wicked Sensation come out?’

I said, ‘I don’t know. I think ’89 or ’90 or something.’ So he looked it up and he goes, ‘Dude, this is your 30th anniversary!’ That was the beginning of the process.

And he came up with the reimagined idea, and he actually produced the record.

I like it. Lots of artists would have just done a remastered reissue with some old demos and live versions tacked on at the end.

We did work on this. We came up with a whole different narrative and we recorded a whole new thing.

It wasn’t like we took the songs and played them like we always do and regurgitated it. We put a lot of love into it, and we made it fun and exciting and interesting.

Do you think you’ll play these tunes live the way you redid them?

There’s no touring. They stopped touring. You probably haven’t gotten out of the house.

Yeah, I’ve been in here for like six months.

(Laughs) Dude, where’d you get your haircut? How’d you get that?

In New Jersey haircuts are legal now.

What? New Jersey has the highest, like, [COVID-19] deaths and stuff! Probably because of haircuts.

The coronavirus numbers have stayed relatively-low here since June; they haven’t resurged like in other places.

I know. I’m sort of kidding.

You’re also retiring the Lynch Mob name. Why did you feel like doing that at this point?

Well, I didn’t have to do it, and I probably never should have named the band that in the first place. Different time, different place, [I was] a younger person — probably a little ignorant — though always aware of what the name actually implies, despite it [including] my last name.

I knew it was always an insensitive thing. I just rationalized it and said, ‘Okay, whatever.’ I can deal with it, the name works, I’m just going with it.

Over the years, I’ve had problems with it, with other musicians and people I’ve played with that are very active in fighting racism.

I am a very progressive, liberal person. I've fought political battles and environmental battles my whole life.

I think because I know that about myself, I gave myself a pass, because I know myself (laughs). But other people don’t know me.

The current political climate definitely put pressure on me to make the decision now. The other window of opportunity was the fact that we did this 30th anniversary record. That really supported the crux of the argument to kind of end the chapter and make this a bookend and tie this up in a nice, neat little bow.

It just seemed like it happened, even though I didn’t decide for it to happen. It happened anyways.

With Black Lives Matter, all the political turmoil and strife, the pandemic, no more touring. We just redid the first record we ever did, our most successful record, we reinterpreted it — bookends. End of story.

Why didn’t you call it The George Lynch Band or something in the first place? Why have a band and not just be known as a solo artist?

‘Cause Lynch Mob is cool. It’s a cool name.

It actually grew out of a sub-group of Dokken fans in the ‘80s that would be sort of in my corner, on my side of the stage and I’d throw guitar picks to them.

Some fan came up with that name and [was] throwing picks at me that said that, and that’s where we got it.

It just kind of grew. When Dokken broke up, I thought, ‘Let’s just keep that going.’

You mentioned having problems with the name. You’re in KXM a band with Dug Pinnick; did you ever talk to him about it?

Yeah, and Cory Glover from Living Colour, who I’m also in another band project with, Ultraphonix, and also Angelo Moore, singer from Fish Bone, who I’m in another project with called Project Infidelica and many other people. People of color, black, brown or just white people I play with that are a lot more sensitive and smarter about all these race issues and things.

We discussed it backwards and forwards and endlessly.

What I’ve found is that the general consensus is that people I’ve worked with that care about this stuff deeply is ‘Yeah, it’s kind of dumb, it’s insensitive, but we’ve got bigger problems (laughs).’

I kind of feel that way too. I’m not as much concerned with a football team’s name, although I get it, it’s insensitive, it’s a stereotype, yada yada. But I’m much more concerned with Native Americans having access and control over their resources and their destiny.

Reparations in some way [should] align with enforcing treaties — 500 treaties — that were broken by our government. Treaties signed under the rule of law.

Naming a football team? Yeah, insensitive, wrong, but give these guys their water rights back. You stole 98 percent of their land and built a trillion-dollar economy on it — you stole all of that from them. They’re the only real Americans. Recognize it so that policies can be built going forward that bring some kind of closure and some kind of fairness that we’re being honest with ourselves and doing the right thing.

So that’s my thinking.

But yeah, it’s wrong to have the name Lynch Mob. It’s wrong to have the name Redskins. But I just like to prioritize as well.

Q104.3's QN'A