CINDERELLA frontman Tom Keifer will team up with L.A. GUNS for a U.S. tour this summer and fall.The trek is currently scheduled to kick off on August 28 in Louisville, Kentucky and run through October 4 in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.Tom Keifer and L.A. GUNS 2025 tour dates:Aug. 28 – Louisville, KY @ Iroquois AmphitheaterAug. 30 – Eau Claire, WI @ The SonnentagSep. 01 – Paw Paw, MI @ Warner VineyardsSep. 04 – Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Music TheatreSep. 05 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theater & BallroomSep. 06 – Rockford, IL @ Coronado Performing Arts CenterSep. 12 – Airway Heights, WA @ Spokane LiveSep. 13 – Idaho Falls, ID @ Mountain America CenterSep. 14 – Boise, ID @ Morrison CenterSep. 17 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Theater at Virgin HotelsSep. 19 – Tucson, AZ @ Rialto TheatreSep. 20 – Phoenix, AZ @ Celebrity TheatreSep. 21 – Albuquerque, NM @ Revel Entertainment CenterOct. 03 – Carteret, NJ @ Carteret PACOct. 04 – Stroudsburg, PA @ Sherman TheaterIn an August 2024 interview with Rock 100.5 The KATT FM’s Cameron Buchholtz, Keifer was asked if he has commenced work on material for the follow-up to his sophomore solo album, “Rise”, which was released in September 2019 via Cleopatra Records. He responded: “Well, I think there’s a record probably brewing. There always is one. Music is kind of floating in the air. Songs are, they’re always out there somewhere. It’s just when the inspiration strikes you. I like to keep it organic and wait for a strong emotion or a feeling to hit that really feels like a song. And you kind of collect those. I call ’em like the little seeds of songs — you get these chorus lines in your head. I just kind of let ’em brew. And the ones that I remember I feel like are maybe the strongest ones or the best ones and then eventually those are the ones that get written. So, yeah, since ‘Rise’, there’s been a lot of ideas floating in and out. I’m kind of keeping track of ’em. I’d say albums are kind of like a lightning strike — you kind of know when you’re ready and when you have one, and just boom, it falls out.”He added: “The writing process is — I know this might sound weird, but it’s almost every day, because ideas go in and out of your head all day long, and the first question as a writer is, ‘Hmm, is that a song?’ And if one really sticks with you, you eventually write it. At least that’s how I work.”Asked how he keeps track of all of his musical ideas and whether he sings melodies into his phone, Tom said: “Usually I don’t. I didn’t for years. Every once in a while I will now, if there’s something that I think that’s really good that I won’t remember. But my natural filtration process used to be was not to record anything, and for decades that’s how I did it, because I figure if I forget it, then it’s not memorable. Now that I’m getting a little bit older, if something goes through my head that I think is really strong and I’m afraid that I’m gonna forget it, I might sing that into the phone. [Laughs] But I still try to do the natural filtration process where you see what sticks with you. It’s always worked for me. I’ve heard other songwriters say they do it that way, too — see what really sticks with you. And if it keeps haunting you and keeps coming back to you, then maybe there’s something there, I guess is the best way to put it.”In March 2024, Tom told SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” that he will release a new studio album “at some point.” He added: “Inspiration hits at the oddest times. When the first solo record [2013’s ‘The Way Life Goes’] was released, we were so focused on touring that I just thought, ‘Man, I’m never gonna write another song again. The inspiration’s not coming, and I don’t know when we’re ever gonna get another record done.’ And then, for some strange reason, when we got off the road in 2018. we just ended up in the studio and all these songs just fell out and we had ‘Rise’ in about six months’ time, between the writing and the recording and mixing and all. So I feel that coming again.”He continued: “I think that we all want to make another record, and there’s definitely some ideas for some songs starting to drift into the antenna. That’s how it always starts for me, is you get ideas for songs and you sing them into a voice memo or you jot down a line. I don’t usually finish them when they come to me that way; I just kind of store these ideas, and then at some point you’ve got a pile of them, you go, ‘Let’s go make a record.’ And then you finish out the songs and you record them. So, yeah, that process is going on all the time, of just collecting the ideas. You get an inspiration driving down the road, and you pull out the voice and then when you sing a chorus line into something and then don’t come back to it for who knows how long, but usually you come back to when you have a pile of those. And then you finish them out.”Keifer went on to say that he usually blocks everything else out and just focuses on finishing the songs when it’s time to make an album. “Yeah, that’s kind of when it gets serious,” he explained. “And that comes when you feel like you’ve got a bunch of ideas, because you don’t wanna go with the first 10 ideas you have. So then you feel, like ‘Whoa, this is really starting to pile up.’ Okay, then you go through and you pick, like, what are the best ideas here? And with the solo stuff, I write most of it with [my wife] Savannah, and she writes the same way, and she stockpiles ideas, and we just get to a point where we, like on ‘Rise’, we just started kicking ideas back and forth at each other, and then, before we knew it, they were finished. But, yeah, that’s the point where you’ve got to block the rest of the world out. And that’s what happened when we got off tour in 2018 and I had a ton of ideas and Savannah had some ideas and we kind of were going through ’em. And boom, it’s, like, we just started finishing ’em. It was, like, ‘Man, that’s a great idea. Let’s finish that one.’ And then next thing I know, I’m up in the studio with the band and we’re tracking them. And that record went really fast, compared to the first one, which was the better part of 10 years putting that one together, and it was recorded with session musicians and stuff. And there were a lot of obstacles that came into play with that record, but we eventually got it done and sounding the way we wanted it. And then, very pleasant surprise when we made ‘Rise’, it was the opposite experience. I mean, it was, like, no obstacles. It was, like, ‘All right, we’re making a record. Block the world out.’ Boom, all of a sudden it’s done. Every record’s different.”Tom’s #KEIFERBAND is rounded out by Savannah Keifer, Tony Higbee, Billy Mercer, Kendra Chantelle, Jarred Pope and Kory Myers.In 2023, Keifer told “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” that he hadn’t “recorded anything” new since “Rise”. “Some song ideas are starting to bubble,” he said.”The pandemic kind of threw a wrench in everything, obviously,” he explained. “We were in the middle of working ‘Rise’; we were on the second single, ‘Hype’, and were about to go out on that ‘Big Rock Summer Tour’ [with RATT, SKID ROW and SLAUGHTER]. And ‘Hype’ was kind of moving up the charts, and then everything got shut down. All the creative juices, all the energy during that couple of years just kind of… I know some people got creative; some people didn’t. I didn’t. [Laughs] So, it’s starting to come back now. I think getting back out on the road last year kind of ignited that spark again. But, yeah, we definitely wanna do a follow-up to it.”I would say records come in their time; I don’t like to rush them,” Keifer added. “But, yeah, there will for sure be a follow-up. And that antenna is starting to go up and song ideas are starting to kind of come in. Yeah, it’s coming.”According to Tom, the pandemic-related break from touring came just at the right time. “I kind of needed it,” he said. “We toured so much with this band leading right up to the last tour, right before the pandemic. We were actually out early that year, in 2020, ’cause the ‘Rise’ tour was still kind of continuing; we were still working the record. So it was 10 years straight for me — or not quite 10 years at that point. But there were three CINDERELLA tours prior to that. So I’d been on the road, like, 12 years straight. So I was crispy by the time that pandemic hit. None of us wanted that forced on us, obviously, but I guess it forced me to take a break, which I probably needed.”Although CINDERELLA hasn’t released a new studio album since 1994’s “Still Climbing”, the band started playing sporadic shows again in 2010 but has been largely inactive for the last few years while Keifer focused on his solo career.In March 2022, Keifer said that he was “not prepared” for the 2021 passing of CINDERELLA guitarist Jeff LaBar. Jeff was found dead by his wife in July 2021 inside his apartment in Nashville. He was 58 years old.L.A. GUNS’ new album, “Leopard Skin”, will be released on April 4, 2025. It will mark the first fruit of L.A. GUNS’ reunion with Cleopatra Records, a label known for its diverse roster and innovative approach to music production.L.A. GUNS’ founding guitarist Tracii Guns stated about the “Leopard Skin” album title: “There’s the saying, ‘a leopard never changes its spots.’ But even so, they have a million different spots. And they’re all unique. It’s the same with L.A. GUNS. We can’t shed our leopard skin, but there’s a lot of different spots in this band.”Not only is “Leopard Skin” hot on the heels of 2023’s “Black Diamonds” album, but is also L.A. GUNS’ fifth studio effort in seven years, since the core team of guitarist and band founder Tracii Guns and singer Phil Lewis reunited in 2017. “Leopard Skin”, like the last few L.A. GUNS records, reconvenes the tight-knit lineup of Guns, Lewis, bassist Johnny Martin, guitarist Ace Von Johnson and studio drummer Adam Hamilton, but beyond that it is its own unique beast. True to form, it’s a hard-and-heavy, tough-as-nails L.A. GUNS set. But the music also presents the band at their funkiest, rowdiest, most classic-rock-worshipping best. And it’s clear they’re having a helluva lot of fun playing it.Explains Tracii: “When we started doing records again in 2017, I wanted to be really aggressive. We hadn’t put out anything new in a lot of years, and we needed to be focused to have an impact. This one was a different approach. Musically, it was more about James Brown and soul music, with some ’70s sensibilities — things like Joe Walsh and THE ROLLING STONES and the NEW YORK DOLLS. And the process was more organic. It was, ‘Here’s a riff, go for it. Let’s see how many riffs we can build after this riff, and then going into the next riff.'”The results speak for themselves. You want a four-on-the-floor AC/DC-style stomper? Cue up anthemic opener “Taste It”. Slippery funk-rock? Try out “Lucky Motherfucker” or “Don’t Gimme Away”. Rollicking ’70s-style glam? Drop the needle on “If You Wanna”. Swampy, slide guitar-laced grooves? Crank up the ZEP-tastic “The Grinder”.Where does that position L.A. GUNS in 2025? Tracii returns to “Leopard Skin”. “The song title ‘Lucky Motherfucker’ kinda says it all,” he says. “Because I don’t know how many other bands that have been around almost 40 years are still out there not just touring consistently, but putting out records consistently, and the thing just keeps getting bigger and bigger from year to year.”He continues: “So the work ethic is yielding what it’s supposed to, you know what I mean? The fans stay excited, we stay excited, and we keep making records. And as long as we have that opportunity and there’s a place for this music in the world, there’s no reason to ever stop.”Last July, Tracii told On The Road To Rock podcast with Clint Switzer about the sound of L.A. GUNS’ new LP: “It’s different than the other records. That’s the thing about L.A. GUNS, is I never know what’s gonna come out. I don’t know what mood I’m gonna be in or whatever, but I’m really proud of what I was able to record. And all the management and Phil and the guys, they’re freaking out, like, ‘Where’d this shit come from?’ So, yeah, I’m always most excited about L.A. GUNS. It’s the complete playground for me. I love it.”L.A. GUNS’ latest studio album, “Black Diamonds”, came out in April 2023. It was the fourth studio album since the much-welcome reunion of the band’s core foundation of Lewis and Guns. It followed the well-received studio albums “The Missing Peace”, “The Devil You Know” and “Checkered Past”, plus the live release “Made In Milan”, and a covers EP “Another Xmas In Hell”.In April 2021, a settlement was reached between drummer Steve Riley and Guns and Lewis over the rights to the L.A. GUNS name. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Guns and Lewis continue to operate under the L.A. GUNS trademark, while Riley and his bandmates from the other version of L.A. GUNS were allowed to perform and record under the new name RILEY’S L.A. GUNS. Riley died in October 2023 at the age of 67.L.A. GUNS was formed in 1983 and have sold over six million records, including 1988’s “L.A. Guns” and 1990’s “Cocked And Loaded”, both of which were certified gold. “Cocked And Loaded” contained the hit single “The Ballad Of Jayne” that went to No. 33 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and No. 25 on the Mainstream Rock charts. From the mid-’90s to the mid 2000s, L.A. GUNS continued to tour and release new music. Following their successful performance at SiriusXM’s Hair Nation festival in September 2016, L.A. GUNS went into the studio to record the critically acclaimed “The Missing Peace”, which was the highest-selling release for Frontiers Music Srl in 2017. Their 12th album, “The Devil You Know”, was released in 2019 to the same critical acclaim. Since reuniting, Tracii and Phil continue to tour around the world with L.A. GUNS.