February 18, 2025 • 9 mins
In his episode I talk about one of my favorite guitar players John Sykes who pass away last year. I talk about some of my favorite High lights and the bands he played with.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up, everybody. This is Sea Bass from Rocking with
Sea Bass, and today we're gonna talk about one of
the best guitar players of all time and his name
is John Sykes. Now. John sadly passed away in December
of twenty twenty four. It was a very tragic loss
of very unexpected too. I mean, we haven't really heard
(00:20):
much of what John was doing within the last like
five years of that time, and you know, all of
a sudden, we just get this, you know, social media
tweet and that's how I got it stating that John
has passed. He died of cancer and he was only
sixty five years old. I mean, wow, that that very unexpected.
I don't think anybody was expecting it. I wasn't. But
(00:45):
a really good guitar player, probably one of my favorite
guitar players of all time. He's literally like in my
top ten. I've put him probably around maybe number five,
maybe four, I don't know. He's just an extraordinary guitar player.
And I just wanted to get on here and talk
about some of my favorite things that he has done
(01:06):
within the band's like Blue Murder, which was his own band,
and White Snake and also Thin Lizzy. He was also
in another band called Tiger's Pantang, But I just wanted
to focus on my favorite highlights that he has done.
So one highlight, it's a very underrated highlight I wanted
to bring up. He was in the band Thin Lizzy,
(01:29):
part of the Thunder and Lightning album, which was the
twelfth and final album for the band Thin Lizzy. John
Sykes was hired to replace Snowy White after the nineteen
eighty once Renegade. Sykes helped to provide a more heavier
sound for Thin Lizzy. This was like a very different approach.
You know, Thin Lizzy really isn't a heavy band or
(01:51):
you know, kind of hard rock, but when he came in,
he kind of cranked it up to eleven and he
just made the band heavier. This was super cool, and
he didn't like write very much except for one song
in this album. It was called Cold, Sweat and Cheese.
Look up the music video for this song. It is fantastic.
(02:13):
They're filming the video in London at some concert that
they're doing and man, you could just see how good
John was in this Like this like really shows his
aggressive playing, how well he can move his fingers. I mean,
this man was extraordinary in the concert and Phil the
singer of than Lizzie. I mean, he was just singing
(02:34):
it up and I'm sitting there just thinking to myself, like, man,
this is very different from you know, the previous then
Lizzy stuff. So I just wanted to mention that that
part that time of him and the band was just amazing.
So after then Lizzie, he went on to join one
of the biggest bands in the eighties, known as Whitesnake.
In nineteen eighty four, he was part of the Sighted endtour.
(02:59):
What's really interesting thing about this is, you know, he
didn't really like write anything and Slide It In, but
he surely did contribute to it. I mean he went
back and he like remixed some of the songs and
made it better. And if it wasn't for that, I
don't think Slide It In would be a big album.
Like he literally made it into a more heavier, cooler
(03:21):
sound that helped White Snake like become big, Like they
soared their way because of this. So yeah, John definitely
played a huge, huge role in the band of White Snake.
One of my favorite music videos of that era of
White Snake. What happened to be Love Ain't No Stranger.
It's a great video. It's really cool. It's like, like
(03:43):
I just loved the tone of it, the atmosphere. You know,
David Coverdell's walking at night and he's you know, hitching
a ride with a bunch of strangers. You know, get it,
because Love Ain't No Stranger. But John in that video
is you know, really sticks out. Like how he plays
that guitar on the stage. He is just loving it
(04:04):
and he does it with style. So a few years later,
Whitesnake released their nineteen eighty seven self titled album. The
album that featured songs like Still of the Night is
his love, Crying in the Rain, also Here I Go Again,
the song that I hear on the radio like every day.
That's like one of the most popular songs. I love it.
It's one of great songs. But I think my favorite
(04:27):
song off the album is Crying in the Rain. I mean,
that's probably one of my favorite songs. But the song
I want to talk about is Still of the Night.
That guitar on Still the Night is just brilliant. It's amazing.
The distortion of it is amazing. The best part of
the song is obviously the part where you hear that
(04:47):
no no no no no no no no no no
no no no. And I'm thinking to myself, is he
playing a violin or something. No, He's just playing the guitar,
and he does some little trick to it. I know
in the music video Adrian Vandenberg, I think it was
like using a violin stick in the video and pretending
he was playing the violin with the guitar. I know
(05:09):
that was all theatrics and everything, but it was still
kind of cool. Also shout out to Adrian for doing
an awesome job in that music video. Loved his style
in it, loved what he did in that video anyway.
After John left Whitesnake, he went on to form his
own band, Blue Murder. He recruited drummer Carmina Piece and
bassist Tony Franklin. They released their first album, which was
(05:33):
self titled Blue Murder. This featured probably the band's biggest hit,
jelly Roll. It's a great song. Not my favorite song
off the album, but still a good song. I love
the acoustic thing in the beginning, and also I got
to like mention the fact that John sings in this
band that literally just blew my mind. When I first
(05:54):
heard this band, I was like, man, John really recruited
a good singer. And then my friend looked at me like,
oh no, that's John. John's actually singing. I'm like what.
So I went online to kind of do more research,
and I you know, found some of their music videos.
One of the videos that everybody knows about its Valley
of the Lost Kings. When I saw that video and
(06:14):
saw him singing, I'm like, like, cow, I didn't know
he could sing. He has a good voice. I know
he's known mainly for his guitar playing, and rightfully so,
but we got to talk about this man's voice. This
guy has a great singing voice. I think with John
singing really made this band unique. Instead of having a
(06:36):
regular singer come in and just you know, sing in
this new band, he decided to just sing himself and
it worked. I also got to mention how good of
the drums were in this band. Uh, Carmine really nails
it on this album. Like you got to listen to
the song Riot, Like the way he is doing that
(06:56):
drum in that song, It's like, man, that is incredible.
Probably one of his most underrated drum tracks. Along with
the song Blue Murder, that one he really pounds He's
like and I was just like, man, Carmine, you got
some chops there, man. I actually interviewed Carmine, a cool guy.
(07:18):
We were talking about his new album at the time
when I was like talking to him, really cool dude,
really good experience, and love to talk to him again,
maybe talk to him about his experience with Blue Murder
and what was his favorite stuff and all that. Now,
what's interesting is they wanted to do a reunion in
twenty twenty four, and you know, with John passing, of
(07:41):
course that did not happen, But could you just imagine
that happening, Like, we haven't seen John in like five years.
We didn't know what he was doing, and then all
of a sudden, he'll come out and do Blue Murder again. Like, dude,
sign me up. I would love to see that. I
think it would have been incredible to see Blue Murder live.
I think they're one of the most underrated bands of
(08:04):
the eighties. I know they came out really not in
the right time, because you know, the grunge team was
starting to take over, and you know, the glam era
was starting to kind of die out a little, so
unfortunately that they couldn't get as big as they could have.
I think if they would have formed earlier, they probably
would have been bigger. So with that being said, that
(08:27):
is literally my highlights of John. I think he's one
of the greatest guitar players ever and he will sadly
be mess I hope he rests in peace. And to
all the people that has never heard of John's guitar
work or ever heard of Blue Murder or any of
(08:49):
the stuff he's done, go on YouTube and look him up.
He is an amazing guitar player. You'll definitely learn something
from this band. Well, anyway, that is all the time
I have for all of you. Join in next week
for the classic album duel. That's right, folks, I'm bringin
that back. I don't know what album I'm gonna do yet,
but I'll certainly surprise you. But in the meantime, this
(09:11):
is Sea Bass from Rockwood Sea Bass, and take care
and keep on rockin'.
What's up, everybody. This is Sea Bass from Rocking with
Sea Bass, and today we're gonna talk about one of
the best guitar players of all time and his name
is John Sykes. Now. John sadly passed away in December
of twenty twenty four. It was a very tragic loss
of very unexpected too. I mean, we haven't really heard
(00:20):
much of what John was doing within the last like
five years of that time, and you know, all of
a sudden, we just get this, you know, social media
tweet and that's how I got it stating that John
has passed. He died of cancer and he was only
sixty five years old. I mean, wow, that that very unexpected.
I don't think anybody was expecting it. I wasn't. But
(00:45):
a really good guitar player, probably one of my favorite
guitar players of all time. He's literally like in my
top ten. I've put him probably around maybe number five,
maybe four, I don't know. He's just an extraordinary guitar player.
And I just wanted to get on here and talk
about some of my favorite things that he has done
(01:06):
within the band's like Blue Murder, which was his own band,
and White Snake and also Thin Lizzy. He was also
in another band called Tiger's Pantang, But I just wanted
to focus on my favorite highlights that he has done.
So one highlight, it's a very underrated highlight I wanted
to bring up. He was in the band Thin Lizzy,
(01:29):
part of the Thunder and Lightning album, which was the
twelfth and final album for the band Thin Lizzy. John
Sykes was hired to replace Snowy White after the nineteen
eighty once Renegade. Sykes helped to provide a more heavier
sound for Thin Lizzy. This was like a very different approach.
You know, Thin Lizzy really isn't a heavy band or
(01:51):
you know, kind of hard rock, but when he came in,
he kind of cranked it up to eleven and he
just made the band heavier. This was super cool, and
he didn't like write very much except for one song
in this album. It was called Cold, Sweat and Cheese.
Look up the music video for this song. It is fantastic.
(02:13):
They're filming the video in London at some concert that
they're doing and man, you could just see how good
John was in this Like this like really shows his
aggressive playing, how well he can move his fingers. I mean,
this man was extraordinary in the concert and Phil the
singer of than Lizzie. I mean, he was just singing
(02:34):
it up and I'm sitting there just thinking to myself, like, man,
this is very different from you know, the previous then
Lizzy stuff. So I just wanted to mention that that
part that time of him and the band was just amazing.
So after then Lizzie, he went on to join one
of the biggest bands in the eighties, known as Whitesnake.
In nineteen eighty four, he was part of the Sighted endtour.
(02:59):
What's really interesting thing about this is, you know, he
didn't really like write anything and Slide It In, but
he surely did contribute to it. I mean he went
back and he like remixed some of the songs and
made it better. And if it wasn't for that, I
don't think Slide It In would be a big album.
Like he literally made it into a more heavier, cooler
(03:21):
sound that helped White Snake like become big, Like they
soared their way because of this. So yeah, John definitely
played a huge, huge role in the band of White Snake.
One of my favorite music videos of that era of
White Snake. What happened to be Love Ain't No Stranger.
It's a great video. It's really cool. It's like, like
(03:43):
I just loved the tone of it, the atmosphere. You know,
David Coverdell's walking at night and he's you know, hitching
a ride with a bunch of strangers. You know, get it,
because Love Ain't No Stranger. But John in that video
is you know, really sticks out. Like how he plays
that guitar on the stage. He is just loving it
(04:04):
and he does it with style. So a few years later,
Whitesnake released their nineteen eighty seven self titled album. The
album that featured songs like Still of the Night is
his love, Crying in the Rain, also Here I Go Again,
the song that I hear on the radio like every day.
That's like one of the most popular songs. I love it.
It's one of great songs. But I think my favorite
(04:27):
song off the album is Crying in the Rain. I mean,
that's probably one of my favorite songs. But the song
I want to talk about is Still of the Night.
That guitar on Still the Night is just brilliant. It's amazing.
The distortion of it is amazing. The best part of
the song is obviously the part where you hear that
(04:47):
no no no no no no no no no no
no no no. And I'm thinking to myself, is he
playing a violin or something. No, He's just playing the guitar,
and he does some little trick to it. I know
in the music video Adrian Vandenberg, I think it was
like using a violin stick in the video and pretending
he was playing the violin with the guitar. I know
(05:09):
that was all theatrics and everything, but it was still
kind of cool. Also shout out to Adrian for doing
an awesome job in that music video. Loved his style
in it, loved what he did in that video anyway.
After John left Whitesnake, he went on to form his
own band, Blue Murder. He recruited drummer Carmina Piece and
bassist Tony Franklin. They released their first album, which was
(05:33):
self titled Blue Murder. This featured probably the band's biggest hit,
jelly Roll. It's a great song. Not my favorite song
off the album, but still a good song. I love
the acoustic thing in the beginning, and also I got
to like mention the fact that John sings in this
band that literally just blew my mind. When I first
(05:54):
heard this band, I was like, man, John really recruited
a good singer. And then my friend looked at me like,
oh no, that's John. John's actually singing. I'm like what.
So I went online to kind of do more research,
and I you know, found some of their music videos.
One of the videos that everybody knows about its Valley
of the Lost Kings. When I saw that video and
(06:14):
saw him singing, I'm like, like, cow, I didn't know
he could sing. He has a good voice. I know
he's known mainly for his guitar playing, and rightfully so,
but we got to talk about this man's voice. This
guy has a great singing voice. I think with John
singing really made this band unique. Instead of having a
(06:36):
regular singer come in and just you know, sing in
this new band, he decided to just sing himself and
it worked. I also got to mention how good of
the drums were in this band. Uh, Carmine really nails
it on this album. Like you got to listen to
the song Riot, Like the way he is doing that
(06:56):
drum in that song, It's like, man, that is incredible.
Probably one of his most underrated drum tracks. Along with
the song Blue Murder, that one he really pounds He's
like and I was just like, man, Carmine, you got
some chops there, man. I actually interviewed Carmine, a cool guy.
(07:18):
We were talking about his new album at the time
when I was like talking to him, really cool dude,
really good experience, and love to talk to him again,
maybe talk to him about his experience with Blue Murder
and what was his favorite stuff and all that. Now,
what's interesting is they wanted to do a reunion in
twenty twenty four, and you know, with John passing, of
(07:41):
course that did not happen, But could you just imagine
that happening, Like, we haven't seen John in like five years.
We didn't know what he was doing, and then all
of a sudden, he'll come out and do Blue Murder again. Like, dude,
sign me up. I would love to see that. I
think it would have been incredible to see Blue Murder live.
I think they're one of the most underrated bands of
(08:04):
the eighties. I know they came out really not in
the right time, because you know, the grunge team was
starting to take over, and you know, the glam era
was starting to kind of die out a little, so
unfortunately that they couldn't get as big as they could have.
I think if they would have formed earlier, they probably
would have been bigger. So with that being said, that
(08:27):
is literally my highlights of John. I think he's one
of the greatest guitar players ever and he will sadly
be mess I hope he rests in peace. And to
all the people that has never heard of John's guitar
work or ever heard of Blue Murder or any of
(08:49):
the stuff he's done, go on YouTube and look him up.
He is an amazing guitar player. You'll definitely learn something
from this band. Well, anyway, that is all the time
I have for all of you. Join in next week
for the classic album duel. That's right, folks, I'm bringin
that back. I don't know what album I'm gonna do yet,
but I'll certainly surprise you. But in the meantime, this
(09:11):
is Sea Bass from Rockwood Sea Bass, and take care
and keep on rockin'.
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