Guitarist John Sykes has passed away from cancer at the age of 65. While not a household name, he was highly respected in the hard-rock and metal community as a talented, important, and influential musician whose mark on the albums he played on and bands he was in was indelible.
Sykes did a short stint with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal band Tygers of Pan Tang in the early ‘80s before joining Thin Lizzy for their final studio album Thunder and Lightning and the tour supporting it. The album was classic Lizzy, but certainly had a metal edge, thanks to Sykes’ aggressive style. John would go on to front the band for a time after the death of Phil Lynott.
After Lizzy, Sykes was recruited by David Coverdale and joined Whitesnake, contributing guitars to the U.S. pressing of their (in my opinion) best album Slide it In and their mega-smash self-titled album that was released in 1987, the majority of which Sykes co-wrote. Coverdale fired his band for a more polished-looking supergroup for the tour, and Sykes moved on to form Blue Murder with Carmine Appice and Tony Franklin, who left during the recording of the sophomore album.
John Sykes had a solo career after Blue Murder, including a killer 2004 live album called Bad Boy Live that touched on solo, Lizzy and Whitesnake material. Severely soured by the cutthroat music industry, Sykes soon after ducked out of the public eye and was rarely heard from in recent years. There are some contributions to compilation albums and always rumors of a Blue Murder reunion, other bands being formed, and a completed but unreleased solo album somewhere, but nothing significant has been released since the live album.
I first knowingly heard John Sykes when I saw the video for “Slow an’ Easy” on Night Flight’s Heavy Metal Heroes, at two in the morning, one summer night at a buddy’s house in northern Michigan. I immediately fell for the bluesy groove, the amazing vocal, and that incredible playing and have been a Whitesnake fan since. I soon realized that the Thin Lizzy album (Thunder and Lightning) I’d been cranking for the last few months – actually my introduction to Thin Lizzy – featured the same guitarist. I followed John and his career from that point on, but sadly never got to see him play.
John Sykes doesn’t share the same public prestige as some of the guitar playing hard-rock and metal gods of the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, but he left more than a mark on some of the era’s best albums, and those that knew…those that scoured liner notes and the pages of Circus and Hit Parader magazines, knew and loved John Sykes as well as any of them. He will be missed, but his legacy and the music he left behind will not be forgotten.
Jeremy Porter lives near Detroit, fronts the rock and roll band Jeremy Porter And The Tucos, and plays acoustic shows all over the place. Follow them on Facebook to read his road blog about their adventures on the dive-bar circuit.
www.thetucos.com
www.facebook.com/jeremyportermusic
www.rockandrollrestrooms.com
Twitter: @jeremyportermi | Instagram: @onetogive & @jeremyportermusic
