John Sykes, guitarist with Tygers Of Pan Tang, Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake, and Blue Murder, has passed away aged 65 “after a hard-fought battle with cancer.” A statement on his website and Facebook page says, “He will be remembered by many as a man with exceptional musical talent, but for those who didn’t know him personally, he was a thoughtful, kind, and charismatic man whose presence lit up the room.”
Tygers Of Pan Tang
Born in 1959 in Reading, Berkshire, Sykes followed his obsession with playing guitar and would play with Tygers Of Pan Tang before joining Phil Lynott and and Thin Lizzy for Thunder And Lightning, released in 1983.
It was with Whitesnake that Sykes would receive global acclaim. Slide It In was the first album that David Coverdale would do under his own steam, having revamped the band. Sykes would audition for Whitesnake after the album was first recorded, though Cozy Powell was not keen.
John Kalodner, from Geffen, would sit with Coverdale one night, suggesting that David would never fulfil his potential unless he had a guitarist who would complement his power. The Coverdale/Sykes partnership was born.
“I feel very strongly that he can take us to another level,” Coverdale said of Sykes at the time. “He’s a very powerful guitarist, a very talented young man, no question at all.”
Sykes would not only revitalise the band musically but would give them the motivation to make their stage show hot. Love Ain’t No Stranger would be released as a single in 1984, along with an atmospheric video which included Sykes. With some UK pubs starting to have video jukeboxes, the styling of the band would lead to many plays over an evening’s drinking.
With Martin Birch mixing the European version, Keith Olsen mixing the US, Canadian and Japanese versions, plus discussions about using Eddie Kramer, there was much going on. Sykes would join to record a bunch of new guitar parts, and the US Slide It In version would be completed with Kalodner’s aim of the record being more intense satisfied.
Neil Murray would rejoin the band, and with Cozy, Coverdale and Sykes, they would hit the stage at Donington in 1984, with Richard Bailey providing off-stage keyboards. January 1985 found Whitesnake playing the first Rock In Rio, after which Cozy would leave. Work was also underway to improve the band’s image.
Coverdale and Sykes would travel to Le Rayol in the South Of France during spring to write new material. “I think at a time when he was writing stuff, David found it pretty inspiring,” Neil Murray has said. “John would come up with rhythm tracks, and then they worked on songs to some extent. Then I went out and joined them. This is kind of May, June ’85, and I had made some contribution, but by that point, David was fired up by what John was coming up with.”
The trio of Sykes, Murray and Coverdale would decamp to Los Angeles, and having auditioned plenty of drummers, Aynsley Dunbar would join. They would move to Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver, Canada, to record, but Coverdale’s vocal troubles would take their toll.
Whitesnake, the album, was released in March 1987. Quite different from the Marsden/Moody era, the album would sell over 8 million copies in the US alone.
Sadly, by this point, the Sykes/Coverdale relationship had broken down, and the Still Of The Night video lineup signified the public end of a relationship.
Sykes was joined by Tony Franklin and Carmine Appice for Blue Murder. “It might have been a bit too heavy,” Sykes said in a 1999 interview. “That one has almost become like a cult classic. It’s like a record that you really like and then still like it ten years later. It doesn’t sort of get old and wear out on you. It still stands the test of time. I definitely had a lot of angst in me at that time.”
The Blue Murder debut album was a beast and one that I really liked on its release. Release in April 1989, it would sell half a million copies, by Sykes’s account, but would suffer from inconsistent promotion, something aimed at Geffen, who had both Sykes and Coverdale on their books.
Riot was an immense opening track and set the scene for what could have been a classic. Valley Of The Kings was the first single, again an excellent track, that would receive some MTV play. Blue Murder would tour with Bon Jovi and Billy Squier and release Nothin’ But Trouble in 1993 after Franklin and Appice’s departures.
John Sykes subsequently pursued a solo career and released four studio albums.
“Absolutely shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of the great John Sykes,” Mike Portnoy wrote. “As many of you might know, John & I spent a lot of time working together back in 2011 when we were planning on launching a new band. We even demoed 12 of his songs and went on That Metal Show together to announce the project.
“Sadly, it never went anywhere and the demos never saw the light of day, but working with him and spending as much time together as we did provided me with so many great memories. He was an incredible talent and it was an honor to work with him. Such a sad loss.”
“In his final days, he spoke of his sincere love and gratitude for his fans who stuck by him through all these years,” the statement read. “While the impact of his loss is profound and the mood sombre, we hope the light of his memory will extinguish the shadow of his absence.”
Sykes married Jennifer Brooks Sykes in 1989. They divorced in 1999. He is survived by his three sons, James, John Jr and Sean.
John Sykes – Photo: JohnSykes.comThe post
John Sykes / Guitarist For Thin Lizzy And Whitesnake, Dies At 65 first appeared on
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