In a new interview with “Pariah Burke’s Hard, Heavy & Hair” show, George Lynch was asked about the overall lyrical message of the recently released sophomore album from his THE END MACHINE project, “Phase2”. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I have to answer that with a caveat. Jeff [Pilson; THE END MACHINE, FOREIGNER and ex-DOKKEN bassist] and I are aligned politically — we’re both very progressive in our political thinking and our little bit of activism that we try to participate in through our music. I don’t know how effective that is — probably not effective at all — but we feel compelled to try to do that because we feel it’s the right thing to do. Robert [Mason; THE END MACHINE and WARRANT singer] is not aligned with us politically in his messaging, so when we were writing the lyrics, of course, there’s a little bit of a rub there. But we all respect each other enough to at least honor the idea of deducing truth from whatever it is we’re discussing. And we can have a difference of opinion on the results of that analysis, but we don’t have a difference of opinion about how we achieve that, how we go about deciding if something is truthful or not. So we’re able to have discussions that are pretty civil and we can agree to disagree. And a lot of that is filtered down to some of the lyrics.”
George continued: “I’m not saying that the lyrics are a hundred percent a pure reflection of what I would consider to be the truth. I made some compromises, and I’m okay with that, because that’s the world we live in. But I think generally the message is the same message you would hear from any progressive activist, and it deals with massive inequality, injustice, environmental concerns and just the way we view ourselves as responsible animals and how we should behave. I think it’s very logical and common sense — it just seems to have escaped us, because common sense would dictate that we have to be responsible and do the right thing and wear a mask and not burn down our home and not poison our water and our air and treat each other respectfully. And money is not everything; it is something, but it’s not everything. So we have other metrics that we use to decide how well we’re behaving.”
Last month, Pilson also confirmed to Steve Mascord of the “White Life Fever” podcast that differences in political views exist between the members of THE END MACHINE.
“I think ultimately we all have the same goals in mind — we all want a safe, secure world and a prosperous world,” he said. “But, yeah, we have differences, and I think working them out and talking them out and finding common ground is a great thing.
“George and I actually fairly in sync thought-wise, but, yeah, it’s other guys. And that’s great. Like I say, I welcome that. The main thing is that we talk. The main thing is that we understand and respect what people say. I mean, to just throw out what the other side says, I think, is really, really a bad mistake. And I think we’ve done way too much of that.”
Asked if he has any advice on how to interact with people who have different political views from you without jeopardizing your friendship with them, Jeff said: “I think you always have to judge the situation at the moment. I don’t think there’s any one solution for everything. Some people don’t wanna talk reasonably. Some people just wanna reinforce their own beliefs. And when that’s the case, or even if I’m doing that, there’s no sense talking. But if you have a point of view that’s reasonable, why can’t you talk about it? That’s my feeling. Like I say, I think what’s really made it bad is that people have two distinct sources of what they believe is the truth. And that’s a problem — that’s a serious, serious problem. And if we don’t figure that out or something, we’re gonna be in more trouble. And I think it starts with talking. So, talk when you can. Talk when people want to talk, when they’re reasonable, when they have a desire to see what you think or when you have a desire to hear what they think. I think it’s important to talk.”
Back in 2017, Pilson — an acclaimed producer and a veteran bassist who has played with DIO, FOREIGNER, DOKKEN and T&N — said that then-President Donald Trump was “a dangerous man” whose vitriolic and divisive rhetoric could ignite another American civil war.
In September 2019, Lynch caught flak from some of his fans when he slammed Trump in an interview, calling the billionaire real estate mogul an “idiotic monster” and an “egotistical, self-aggrandizing, complete piece of shit” who “doesn’t know anything.” George was also criticized when told Australia’s “Scars And Guitars” podcast that “progressives are more compassionate people by nature — we’re wired to sort of be more empathetic and care about things outside of ourselves. We are about other people; it hurts us to see people in pain or suffer,” he explained. “So they call us ‘snowflakes.’ But people that are wired, on the right, the way their brains are wired, they don’t have that sense of empathy. I’m not saying it’s good or bad — I’m just saying it is. And these people are the ones that have the guns. And they’re willing to use them. And it’s becoming pretty frightening.”
“Phase2” was released on April 9 via Frontiers Music Srl. The album features drummer Steve Brown, younger brother of former DOKKEN drummer “Wild” Mick Brown, who played on THE END MACHINE‘s self-titled 2019 debut.
