John Sykes

Bio

Name: John Sykes
Born: 29th july 1959 in Berkshire, UK
Style: Heavy Rock/Shred guitarist

Started his career in 1980 with rock group Tygers of Pan Tang
Past bands John has played in are Badlands (Not the Jake E Lee band), Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake, Blue Murder and his solo project "John Sykes".

Thin Lizzy

After leaving Tygers of Pan Tang in 1982, John joined Thin Lizzy and recorded 2 albums, a studio album "Thunder & Lightening" and a live album entitled "Life". Unfortunatly for John in `83 Thin Lizzy disbanded temporarily for Phil Lynott to persue a solo project.

Whitesnake

1984 saw John join Whitesnake, the band toured extensivly promoting the "Slide it in" album (which featured john`s guitar work on the US version of the album.
Whitesnake`s next album was self titled and released in 1987, John co-wrote some of the tracks on that album, notably "Still of the night" and "Is this Love" after the albums release John left Whitesnake and went back to the UK to form his own band.

Blue Murder

1989 and Blue Murders first album is released with John now not only playing guitar but the main vocalist for the group.
Blue Murder was to last 5 years and release 3 albums

To Date

John continues to release albums under the simple name of "Sykes" and continues to tour with Scott Gorham as Thin Lizzy, John now sings the vocals for Thin Lizzy for the late Phil Lynott

Guitars

John has a preference for Gibson Les Pauls, for most of his career he has used the same Black Les Paul custom, he has used it on every recording in the last 20 years and has performed thousands of shows with it, it is showing considerable signs of wear and has been re fretted 3 times in its life.