George Lynch said he became increasingly uncomfortable with his band name Lynch Mob as the years passed, and he knew his argument for using it was “disingenuous,” even in its early days.
The guitarist formed the group in 1989 after Dokken split, and it remained sporadically active until he announced that the “problematic, inexcusable” name would be retired after the release of their 30th-anniversary record, Wicked Sensation (Reimagined), which arrived in August.
“There’s always been a problem with the name from day one,” Lynch told BODS Mayhem Hour. “I remember doing an interview with The Village Voice the first year Lynch Mob were formed and we decided to use that name. And the interviewer was a young black woman who was very bothered by the fact that I used that name. … I had to try to explain it. And I found myself not really being able to explain myself very well – I knew my argument was disingenuous.”
He noted that he can “make the argument that, yeah, it’s my last name. I know that that’s not what most people think about. … I know what the word represents. So, in the younger, younger days, I was able to just sort of rationalize it.”
Lynch added that he was able to say that since the band had a “desert, Western vibe,” he could be referring to how “they strung up cattle rustlers, too.” But, he admitted, “It’s a silly argument – I don’t buy it myself. I wouldn’t use it these days. I found myself really scrambling for a logical way out of that interview, and she really had me pinned down. And I felt bad – not bad enough to get rid of the name. So I held on to it, obviously, for 30 years.”
The guitarist reflected that, “in all the years that I’ve had that name, it’s gotten more and more uncomfortable … recently to the point of not being able to rationalize it any longer.” He found it easier to disconnect from the moniker because he was happy with the new album as a “bookend,” making him feel like he could “wrap it all in a nice, neat package and put the bow on it.”
“I felt like the time was right to do that,” he explained. “Everything sort of triangulated, and events all just coordinated to come together at this point to make it pretty obvious it would probably be a good time to go ahead and move on.”
