Guitarist George Lynch can say he’s among the few who got to see Van Halen before they were even called Van Halen. When they were an up and coming band called Mammoth.
“Back in the late ’70s, we used to do a lot of shows with Van Halen – well, they were called Mammoth back then, the early Van Halen,” said Lynch, who recently appeared on Rock Talk with Mitch Lafon. “Half of their set – if not more – was covers. But they played it in their style, and it was awesome.”
Prior to finding fame as lead guitarist of Dokken in the 80s, Lynch worked the Sunset Strip clubs in Hollywood with The Boyz, who formed in the mid 70s. After The Boyz disbanded around 1977 Lynch soon after formed Xciter with fellow Boyz bandmates Mick Brown (drums) and Monte Zufelt (bass).
Lafon told Lynch, “They were doing KISS covers back in the day which was like, ‘Whoa!'”
Lynch responded, “And ZZ Top, and Montrose, just everything. They were just awesome and they made everything sound amazing.”
You can hear Lynch’s entire interview with Lafon below: