TDC- John Sykes

[diablo175]

One of the more underrated players in the sizable pack of shredders in the 80's. Did some really great stuff w/ Tygers of Pan Tang, Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake & Blue Murder.

Long battle with cancer.

[DaveL]

Oh that’s too bad,   I loved his tone and rhythms…   Pretty solid body of work       That Lizzy album is one of my underrated gems   

 

 

[bubs_42]

Song Writing, Vocals and Guitar, he was the complete package. RIP

[LucSulla]

WTF! I didn't know he had cancer. He had one of my favorite sounds of all time. 

[Jakeboy]

Wow…only 3 years older than me….love him on the Whitesnake album….may he RIP.

[Bluesking]

The total package if there ever was one.

I saw him up close in a small bar in Tucson when Thin Lizzy was starting back up again in the early 2000s. They did a few club shows to work out the kinks and get things rolling.

I stood 5 feet in front of him all night - total attendance was about 100 people.

Sykes blew the doors off that joint - outside of Gary Moore, I've never seen such a fierce player. 

He punished that Les Paul like it owed him money and slept with his sister. 

RIP, Mr. Sykes.

[Biz Prof]

1 hour ago, Bluesking said:

The total package if there ever was one.

I saw him up close in a small bar in Tucson when Thin Lizzy was starting back up again in the early 2000s. They did a few club shows to work out the kinks and get things rolling.

I stood 5 feet in front of him all night - total attendance was about 100 people.

Sykes blew the doors off that joint - outside of Gary Moore, I've never seen such a fierce player. 

He punished that Les Paul like it owed him money and slept with his sister. 

RIP, Mr. Sykes.

This.

[alantig]

RIP, sir. 

[cmatthes]

Aw man...

[LucSulla]

 

[Disturber]

Saw him live with Thin Lizzy in 1983. A concert to remember. RIP.

[Hackubus]

RIP 😪

[Dave Scepter]

4 hours ago, Disturber said:

Saw him live with Thin Lizzy in 1983. A concert to remember. RIP.

RIP 🙏 

 

[holLoWskull]

Just found out about this…what a huge loss in the rock world!  I was in a band about 20 years back that had the privilege of opening for him when he was fronting Thin Lizzy (post-Phil obviously).  John was awesome, great tone, killer lead work, and did it all while singing lead vocals.  I didn’t get to really chat with him, as they stayed on their bus, but he gave our band opener props (always appreciated when a national gives a tip of the hat to the “local nobody band “ lol. RIP Mr. Sykes…you and Gary Moore where two of my biggest rock influences style-wise. 

[velorush]

12 hours ago, LucSulla said:

 

I have never seen that - absolutely amazing and explains a lot to me vis-a-vis Whitesnake. I went down the Sykes rabbit hole a couple of years ago on Spotify but never ran across anything I liked as much as that.

By far my favorite rendition of that song.

[Biz Prof]

Dude was just a monster player, vocalist, and writer. By most accounts, Coverdale really screwed that 1987 lineup, but most pointedly, he really bent Sykes over. Without Sykes, that album never happens in the way it did, never hits big, and Coverdale continues meandering aimlessly in the hair metal era.

 

Reminds me of the Ozzy debacles with Kerslake, Dailey, and Jake.

[LucSulla]

57 minutes ago, velorush said:

I have never seen that - absolutely amazing and explains a lot to me vis-a-vis Whitesnake. I went down the Sykes rabbit hole a couple of years ago on Spotify but never ran across anything I liked as much as that.

By far my favorite rendition of that song.

I always thought that one showed what an absolute beast he was. I'd have more willingly paid to see him do Whitesnake than Whitesnake after seeing him doing stuff off the 87 album. 

So cool that we both latched on to a 78 LPC as out #1s too. Makes me happy to still have Ole Red even more. 

[scottcald]

Holy crap!  I didn't even know he had cancer.  Sort of explains why he's been laying low for a number of years.  The two Whitesnake albums and Blue Murder were in heavy rotation back then.  The 1987 album and the Blue Murder album both had killer tone and phenomenal playing. 

[RobB]

1 hour ago, Biz Prof said:

Dude was just a monster player, vocalist, and writer. By most accounts, Coverdale really screwed that 1987 lineup, but most pointedly, he really bent Sykes over. 

What happened? Did Sykes not get his mailbox money?

[velorush]

Listening to this as I work. Fantastic:

[Biz Prof]

43 minutes ago, RobB said:

What happened? Did Sykes not get his mailbox money?

Coverdale attempted to circumvent Sykes' wtiting credits. Even re-recorded "Here I Go Again" after the 1987 album hit the charts with all new guitar tracks (and an offensive array of synth pads) to avoid paying Sykes his due.

[RobB]

6 minutes ago, Biz Prof said:

Coverdale attempted to circumvent Sykes' wtiting credits.

Did he succeed? I don’t recall hearing Sykes talking about this. Seems to me YouTube should be blown up with hundreds of videos on the topic. That ‘87 Whitesnake record (and “Slide it In”, et al) should have set Sykes up for life. 

[Biz Prof]

I should clarify. He had writing credits, but after (mis)interpreting that Sykes and Bob Rock were attempting to replace him as lead singer during a prolonged hiatus (> a year, I think) from recording that 1987 album, Coverdale fired Sykes without telling him directly, prompting Sykes to fly over and confront Coverdale about it in the studio. Allegedly, it was a hell of a row.  In at least one interview years later, Coverdale suggested that Sykes' writing contributions were less than credited. 

Anyway, coverdale began replacing some of Sykes' tracks with replacement cuts laid down by Vandenberg and Dann Huff. These specific tracks denied Sykes performance credits. 

[RobB]

Dang. Thanks for the clarification. Coverdale always did come off as a bit of a pratt.

That modern Whitesnake vid posted in another thread ain’t him singing. The vocals are either triggered at FOH or he has a, “helper”, in an ISO booth offstage. 

[elduave]

Eddie Trunk did like an hour on him yesterday. Apparently he kept his publishing and didn’t live beyond his means. I shouldn’t have slept on that Sykes fronted version of TL.