John Sykes

John James Sykes (born 29 July 1959) is an English guitarist, best known as a member of Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy and Tygers of Pan Tang. He has also fronted the hard rock group Blue Murder and released several solo albums. Following a stint in the heavy metal band Tygers of Pan Tang in the early 1980s, Sykes joined Irish hard rock group Thin Lizzy for their 1983 album Thunder and Lightning. He then joined Whitesnake, with whom he recorded the multi-platinum selling 1987 album. However, Sykes was let go from the band before the record's release under acrimonious circumstances, which led to him forming his own group Blue Murder. After two albums and a live record, he embarked on a solo career. For the remainder of the 1990s and early 2000s, Sykes split his time between his solo career and a reformed Thin Lizzy, which he fronted until 2009, when he left to focus on his solo career. Influenced by the likes of Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore and Gary Moore, Sykes is known for his distinctive playing style, characterized by his fast alternate picking, use of pinch harmonics, and sense of melody. In 2004, he was included on Guitar Worlds list of "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists of All Time". In 2006, Gibson released a limited line of John Sykes Signature Les Pauls, which were modelled after his 1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom. Early life John James Sykes was born 29 July 1959 in Reading, Berkshire. He first became interested in the guitar at age fourteen, when his uncle showed him how to play some of Eric Clapton's licks. At the time, Sykes and his family were living in Ibiza, Spain, where his father and uncle owned a discothèque. For the next two years, Sykes practiced playing blues songs on an old nylon-string guitar. After three years in Spain, the Sykes family moved back to Reading. There, John entered a relationship and essentially gave up the guitar for a year and half. He didn't start playing again until he moved to Blackpool, when he was asked to join the band Streetfighter by his friend Mervyn Goldsworthy, who would later play bass in Diamond Head, Samson and FM.