It has been an interesting time for Black Eyed Sons. Cowboys In Pinstriped Suits was seen as a triumph of passion, resilience, and raw talent. This was acknowledged by the UK Charts. Left to pick up the mess after “whatever it was” that happened with Quireboys, Guy Griffin is looking good and the excitement is now building towards their UK Tour.
Black Eyed Sons were rewarded with Cowboys In Pinstriped Suits landing in the UK Official charts and hitting the Number One spot on the Official Jazz & Blues Album Chart. When the news broke, Guy Griffin shared his thanks to fans and friends who had stuck with the band over “a couple of turbulent years.”
As Black Eyed Sons prepare for a slot at Hard Rock Hell 18 with a seven-date tour to follow, Guy Griffin told MetalTalk’s Paul Monkhouse that there were a lot of nerves as it got closer to album release day. “There was quite a lot of trepidation,” he said, “‘cos when you’re coming out of a split or whatever it was with the last band… There were factions, let’s say. Very tribal and a lot of stuff I hadn’t experienced before. A lot of good stuff, but a lot of negativity as well.
“You’re worried anytime you throw anything out there. You’ve gotta have a thick skin, I guess. But it was amazing when the album came out. I mean, literally every review was great, and I’ve never really had that before. It was really cool. I never ask about sales, but it went to number one in the UK Blues chart.”
Here, Guy shows his UK Chart award. “I’ve never shown this off,” he smiles. “You only get that if you get a number one. It hasn’t bought me a Rolls Royce, but it’s nice to have a bit of validation.”
It is a great reward, as with new material as well as a new band, you are never sure how people will receive it.
“With what had happened and with it being a brand new thing, obviously with all the guests on there, that was quite good,” Guy says. “You put a few guests on there and you think, well, maybe they won’t slag us off because they don’t want to slag off their favourite rock stars that are on the record [laughs]. No, it was good.
“When I look back at the record, I’m very proud of it because it started off as one thing and then morphed into something else, and different people got involved. Even mixing and mastering it in Sweden with Martin Eklund, who’s worked with us before, was great. Just the support from a lot of the people involved. Anyone that we asked if they’d like to do something just immediately said yes, which was just quite humbling, really. It’s nice.”
For Guy Griffin, digging into his little black book, there was no intention to have a specific number of guests as a plan. The first collaboration was with Dan Reed on the song So Glorious. “This was the song that’s probably the least of what people would expect on the album,” Guy says.
“At the time, I wasn’t sure, but it definitely wasn’t gonna be like a Quireboys song. I was in contact with him [Dan] before all this stuff happened. I sent it to him. I said just do what you want with it, ‘cos I wasn’t that precious about the song. It was a bit different for me. I was open to whatever. Then what came back, I was like Wow. This is brilliant. You forget that these people are very, very talented people. They’re coming from a different angle, and you go Wow, that’s right. This is pretty interesting.”
The February 2022 Monsters of Rock Cruise included the Quireboys as a five-piece, with Guy Griffin covering vocal duties, after “a last-minute nonappearance” from Spike.
“We had played just after all the stuff that happened,” Guy says. “We had a gig that was contractually there. Well, actually no. We had tours that were contractually there after it all happened. When the sort of split actually happened, when we were kind of unaware of what was happening, we were on our way to America to do a Monsters of Rock cruise with mostly American bands.
“The number of people who came to see us. I had to step in without any rehearsals or anything, and I was under a lot of pressure. I had recently lost my brother, and it was just a really horrible time.
“It was a lot of pressure, but the gigs went well, and the number of other bands that were in the audience was amazing. The encouragement I had from a lot of those American bands. Chip from Enuff Z’Nuff and Stevie [Dacanay] and [Josh] Todd from Buckcherry.
“Obviously, I went back a long way with Billy Rowe, who’s in Buck Cherry now. He lived across the road from the Quireboys when we were doing our first album in LA when he was in Jetboy. They were managed by my old manager from my old band, Glimmer, Larry Mazza. So it was great.
“I was hanging out with them, and then I just said, Oh, if you’ve got any riffs or anything knocking about. Steve sent me a couple of things. The one that really stuck out was what later became Medicine, which Todd sings on with me as well.
“That set the ball rolling. I was like, OK. Let’s call Charlie Starr, call Mike Tramp, call Scotti Hill. Just people that I’ve met along the way. With Scotti Hill from Skid Row, I got him on the Angry Anderson track [Dig Me Out Of This Hole], and I had read somewhere that he said how much he loved playing slide guitar, but he doesn’t really get the opportunity much in Skid Row. So I was like, we need some slide guitar on this song.”
Guy Griffin says he was pleased with how quickly things came together and the speed at which people would return their parts to him, given that they were all busy musicians. “If I’d told my 16/17 year old self that I’d be working with all these people that are in the top echelons of talent… It’s pretty cool.”
For Guy Griffin, seeing Rose Tattoo on the cruise was special, and they were everything you expect them to be. It was special, also, to see how many musicians were in the audience. “There was a decent audience,” Guy says, “but it wasn’t like a huge audience. It was a late-night gig, and I looked to my left. There was Billy from Jetboy, and there was Ryan Roxie. All these people from different bands who probably never had the chance to see Rose Tattoo. It was fantastic. When Rose Tattoo came out, they did the first song, and it was like Wow.”
Here, Guy Griffin checks the MetalTalk position on swearing. “I thought it was the coolest thing ever,” he smiles when told it is fine. “They finished the first song, and Angry Anderson goes, ‘We’re Rose Tattoo from Australia, we didn’t come here to fuck around.’ And I was like, yeah!”
While Angry Anderson would sing on Dig Me Out Of This Hole, this was not the version on the album. “It was languishing somewhere in a studio,” Guy says. “We didn’t know it had actually been recorded.”
A few months later, the Anderson vocal was found in a studio in Australia, and the new version of the song was released with a new video. “It was real fun, especially for Paul [Guerin, guitar] because Paul used to follow them around on tour when they’d come over to England back in the day.”
The title track from Cowboys In Pinstriped Suits features Joe Elliott, Ryan Roxy and Chip Z’Nuff. “It was obviously great to have Joe on a track, and it was the perfect track for him to sing. It was right up his street. I was actually thinking of putting out a quick new edit of the video because in the chorus, it’s ‘lizard kings and spacemen in platform boots,’ which was basically Ace Frehley, who unfortunately just passed.
“I didn’t put Ace in the video cos I didn’t know what the legal things are of using footage of people. But I might try and put something out, just as a tribute. One of the ultimate rock stars, really.”
While it is great to have these mates along, maybe for Guy Griffin, there was pressure in stepping up as a lead vocalist. We have known each other for a long tibme, and I have seen his development as a frontman. As a vocalist, it has been one of the most gratifying things for me to see that happen. How has it been for him?.
“It’s a lot easier when it’s called Black Eyed Sons,” Guy says. “It’s a whole different dynamic. When we went out under the old name, it was a lot of pressure. I had to put on a defiant front, really, to do it. But at the same time, we had these three tours that were booked, and if we don’t do them, we’re gonna go bankrupt. Literally, that’s the harsh reality of it. That’s the business side of things.
“We wanted to fulfil [the tour dates]. We didn’t wanna flake out on commitments that we had. So we did those gigs. I’m a guitar player. If I’m a front man, I’m a front man that plays guitar. It’s a whole different thing from what people were used to.
“I’m just glad to be out of all that and not have that weight anymore on my shoulders. The Black Eyed Sons thing stands on its own strengths or weaknesses. I did an interview with somebody, and they said some of the songs are fooling yourself. You know, Lie To Me and things like that, they have that swagger of the old band. I said, Well, it’s funny that. We were that band for 23 years or something. I was in that band, despite what you might hear.
“I was in that band on the first two albums as well and all the tours. We’ve got the elements. We can always draw on those influences, your Stones and your Faces and all that kind of stuff. This obviously was always gonna be all that ’70s influence, cos that’s when we grew up. When we first started getting into music.
“I suppose there’s a few more elements and some of the influences we’ve picked up whilst we were in the Down And Outs with Joe. So you’ve got some of the Mott The Hoople, Mark Bolan, and Bowie. There’s all that kind of influence in there.
“There’s so many bands that I that I love, like the Mink DeVille cover we we did. It’s such a great song, and I don’t think that many people would be that familiar with it. We’re probably gonna do a video for that as well. We’ve got Alan Clayton from the Dirty Strangers on that one, and Steve Conte from New York Dolls, and Mike Monroe, and all sorts of people. Actually he played with Mink DeVille I should mention as well. So yeah, it’s nice to bring in all that stuff.”
Guy Griffin takes the more restrained version of the rock frontman to the stage, and he is, quite correctly, perfectly happy with that. “You can carry a song and just sing the song and interact with the audience,” he says. “You don’t have to be jumping around. That’s good for whoever wants to do that sort of stuff and is good at it. I’m not, it’s not my thing. I wouldn’t feel comfortable wearing trousers that are slightly too tight for me and jumping around. It’s not my thing.
“I want the music to stand on its own merits, really, and showcase the band that we are. I’m proud to play with these guys. That is one of the many reasons there was a split because I wanted to continue with those guys. I had a loyalty to them as my friends. We’d gone through hell and back together all us us lot.
“We all live in different parts of the country now. We don’t see each other as much now cos we’re not on the road constantly like we used to be. So I’m actually really looking forward to getting back together with the guys. I’m actually looking forward to playing rather than it becoming like a job.
With the forthcoming tour playing across the country, I say I am really looking forward to seeing the Black Eyed Sons. There is always a great pure, rock ‘n’ roll show. It’s real musicians, real music, and I think there’s so much these days in this TikTok generation where everything is 30-second snatches, and it has got to be glossy.
When these guys hit the road, it is authentic. There’s no backing tracks, there’s no auto-tune. It is raw and captures that visceral thrill of the original music that captured people from the ’50s onwards.
‘Yeah,” Guy Griffin agrees. “It’s just rock ‘n’ roll music. There’s not many bands really that are rock ‘n’ roll bands as such. There’s a lot of rock bands, there’s lots of classic rock bands…classic rock, whatever that is. I guess, going more into the Viva La Rock sort of world. The band I play with as well, the Dirty Strangers, I say that sort of scene is more rock ‘n’ roll. Even though Black Eyed Sons is sort of pushed more into the box of classic rock and all that kind of thing, I think we almost fit more into that other side, really.”
There are rumours of friends from the album popping up at the upcoming gigs, and Guy Griffin that is something he has thought about. There will be a couple of requests put out, but it comes down to availability as well.
“We’re playing the Hard Rock Hell festival, and I know Mike Tramp is playing. But I think we might be ships passing in the night. But if not, it would be good to get him up for the song that he sang [Your True Colours]. He did a brilliant job. It’s such a great vibe he brought. It’s a real Stonesy song. He sings the majority of the song.
“That’s the thing. I still consider myself more of a songwriter and a band member rather than a frontman, and I have to put myself in that headspace when it comes to doing the gigs.”
Guy Griffin says with Black Eyed Sons he does not feel that he has to sing everything. If he is not the best person to sing a particular piece, there is no compulsion to sing it. Your True Colours is a case in point. Mike Tramp sent the vocal track back, and Guy says that, on hearing it, it did not make sense for him to sing at all.
“I listened to the bridge of the song and Mike had sort of got the timings wrong, ‘cos he hadn’t really heard it properly.”
Mike was on the road, so he had no time, suggesting that Guy sing it. “So I sang the the middle eight and that’s it,” Guy says. “It would be nice to have some guests, but we’ll see. We’ll try something for the London show, but obviously I’m not gonna be flying Charlie Starr or Josh Todd over. I don’t have the money. Sorry folks. There are a lot of American guests on the album, so there are a lot of big flights and things involved. We’ll see. You never know.”
The tour will be great and Black Eyed Sons have already begun planning for album number two. “I’ve got quite a few songs in the tank,” Guy says. “There’s been a lot of writing over the last 2 or 3 years. Lots of stuff would have been in that box of, what can I do with this, cos it doesn’t really fit with what people expect.
“Now it’s Black Eyed Sons, and it’s an open book, an empty template now. We can do what we want, really.”
Cowboys In Pinstriped Suits is out now via Off Yer Rocka recordings. The Black Eyed Sons tour kicks off in Bridgewater on 8 November, running to The Underworld in Camden on 20 December 2025. As Guy Griffins says, it is “A perfect way to start Christmas.”
For more Black Eyed Sons details and tour tickets, visit BlackEyedSons.com
