"I am a very undisciplined and uneducated guitar player...I, I was not taught how to play the instrument, I was entirely self taught, I mean I would literally sit down and I'd...old vinyl records, and I'd...old record player, and I'd be dropping the needle on Rory Gallagher records and trying to figure out how he played it....I would, I would say that Rory Gallagher was my first real guitar player whose, whose style I tried to learn from...
I was also really influenced at that time by Gary Moore and Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham, the guitar players for Thin Lizzy. They were all Les Paul cats. At one stage in my life, I could play the Thin Lizzy Live and Dangerous album note for note. So I bought that Les Paul when I was 14. The serial number is 72987537. It’s the only serial number of a guitar that I have ever memorized. It just meant so much to me because I had to work like a fucker for many, many, many months to get that guitar...
I wanted a gold Les Paul Standard, but this being Ireland in the 70s, it wasn’t like you could walk into Guitar Center and get what you wanted. I had to order the guitar and I had to wait for about six months. And everyday on the way back from school, I’d stop in to the music shop. I walked in one day and the guy said, “Good news and bad news: The good news is we got a Les Paul. The bad news is that it’s not a gold standard, it is a wine red Deluxe.” So being an impatient teenager, I took it. First thing I did—showing my Rory Gallagher influences, I hate guitars that are shiny and new—so I took sandpaper to it and I rubbed all the shine out of the finish. I eventually painted it a matte black. That was the guitar I used on the Holy Diver album and tour with Dio. So that was my first Les Paul.
When I came to L.A. I met Grover Jackson, and he very kindly loaned me a Charvel Strat with a Floyd on it and that kind of started my whole obsession with Stratocaster style guitars, that went through the 80's and ended up with the Buddy Blaze guitars...interestingly enough, it's come full circle, and I been playing Les Paul's again for the past 18 years or so, for the most part...fixed bridge, solid body guitars, which is where I started..."
I was also really influenced at that time by Gary Moore and Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham, the guitar players for Thin Lizzy. They were all Les Paul cats. At one stage in my life, I could play the Thin Lizzy Live and Dangerous album note for note. So I bought that Les Paul when I was 14. The serial number is 72987537. It’s the only serial number of a guitar that I have ever memorized. It just meant so much to me because I had to work like a fucker for many, many, many months to get that guitar...
I wanted a gold Les Paul Standard, but this being Ireland in the 70s, it wasn’t like you could walk into Guitar Center and get what you wanted. I had to order the guitar and I had to wait for about six months. And everyday on the way back from school, I’d stop in to the music shop. I walked in one day and the guy said, “Good news and bad news: The good news is we got a Les Paul. The bad news is that it’s not a gold standard, it is a wine red Deluxe.” So being an impatient teenager, I took it. First thing I did—showing my Rory Gallagher influences, I hate guitars that are shiny and new—so I took sandpaper to it and I rubbed all the shine out of the finish. I eventually painted it a matte black. That was the guitar I used on the Holy Diver album and tour with Dio. So that was my first Les Paul.
When I came to L.A. I met Grover Jackson, and he very kindly loaned me a Charvel Strat with a Floyd on it and that kind of started my whole obsession with Stratocaster style guitars, that went through the 80's and ended up with the Buddy Blaze guitars...interestingly enough, it's come full circle, and I been playing Les Paul's again for the past 18 years or so, for the most part...fixed bridge, solid body guitars, which is where I started..."
