Lynch Mob - Rocklahoma 2008 - July 9-13

Many Incarnation

Lynch Mob’s a band that features former Dokken guitarist George Lynch, who has been the band’s only permanent member. The rest of the band has been a revolving door of members who have come and gone, and in some cases, come back. The first Lynch Mob album, titled Wicked Sensation (released in 1990), was praised by many fans as a great rock album.

The album featured vocalist Oni Logan who was fired shortly after touring due to unknown reasons. Many feel that songs such as the title track (the album’s lone single), “River of Love,” “She’s So Evil,” and “For a Million Years” would have done very well in the 80’s “hair metal” scene. However, due to the explosion of grunge and the waning popularity of “hair metal,” the album didn’t make much of an impact and sold rather poorly.

The next album was the self-titled Lynch Mob (released in 1992), which fared even worse upon its release. The album sported many great rock anthems such as “Tangled in the Web” and a cover of Queen’s “Tie your Mother Down.” It featured the vocals of new vocalist Robert Mason (who was briefly considered as a replacement for Stephen Pearcy in Ratt, but ultimately lost (turned down) that job to Jizzy Pearl, who has since left Ratt). Lynch Mob disbanded after the tour for the album. In 1995, Lynch and drummer Mick Brown would reunite with Dokken.

In 1998, Lynch was let go from Dokken. Consecutively, Lynch attempted to reform the original Lynch Mob line-up. Sadly the band broke-up again after a single writing session. The fruits of their session, a three-song demo, ended being released as SyGyZY.

Lynch then formed the third incarnation of the group, taking the music into a rap-metal direction, though the sound was entirely distinct from rap core bands such as Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park. In 1999, Smoke This was released to disappointed fans and critics. A tour followed the album and the band disbanded again.

In 2003, Robert Mason, original bassist Anthony Esposito, and Lynch reformed to record modernized Lynch Mob and Dokken material. Mick Brown stayed with Dokken and Michael Frowein was hired as the drummer. The new recordings on the album titled REvolution were heavier and faster than the original, and were well received by the Lynch Mob fans. Frowein was replaced by Chas Stumbo (Earshot) for the 2003 REvolution Tour. A Live CD/DVD package of the final show of that tour was later released. While the documented show ended up being the last ever Lynch Mob Show, the audio was from a different performance and often does not match the images.

Currently, George Lynch seems to be focused on his ‘Guitar Dojo’ lessons. He has toured Europe in 2006 but only under his own name and not the Lynch Mob. The popular lineup of Dokken was set to reunite to play Rocklahoma 2008 in Pryor, Ok and tour during the summer however those plans fell apart. George used this chance to reunite Lynch Mob (with vocalist Oni Logan) to play at Rocklahoma 2008 and is scheduled to tour with Cinderella and Warrant (who have reunited with their vocalist Jani Lane).