Is Sykes an asshole?

[crwnedblasphemy]

Just wondering, cuz I listened to that Steve Stevens interview, and Ray Gillian was gonna sing on the first Blue Murder, and was in talks with Steve for Atomic Playboys but wanted half, in which Jake E Lee gave him for badlands....anyway, Steve said Ray wasn't getting along with John.

Past, i knew that project with Portnoy, which pretty much turned into Sheenan and Kotzen/winery dogs.

I always assumed Coverdale was the prick when he fired his whole band after 1987 release, but maybe i was mistaken?

Input?

 

[Badronald]

I'm sure there's plenty of ego to go around.

I know nothing about it though, so......

 

[Drew]

I'm pretty qualified to answer this as I worked with him from 1998 to 2012 and I can say the answer is a huge "NO!" He is a very good guy. He does admit to being a handful back in the day (but I didn't know him then).

 

[Chubtone]

I'm sure Coverdale loved a guy in his band that was quite a bit younger than him, looked like Sykes did, played like Sykes did, sang like Sykes did, wrote songs like Sykes did etc.

No challenge at all to a prima dona singers ego.....

 

[crwnedblasphemy]

Thanks for clearing that up Drew! Curt, yeah, that never happens. Hahaha

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I love Ray Gillen and admire his body of work... him in Blue Murder would have been off the charts as demonstrated by the one or two demos you can hear him sing but Sykes was no slouch in the vocal department either.

Anyway, I was doing some reading on Gillen and it turns out that as he had more success in his career, the ego may have gotten to him a bit as well. Sure he wanted his cut of things but he also wanted to write more commercially friendly tunes (Jake mentions this in a recent interview) and take advantage of his voice while he still could. Further to that, there are some not so friendly stories of him circulated which suggested he did not disclose STD's that he knew he had and eventually, even HIV. He knew he was a good looking guy with chops and he carried himself that way. The gig didn't work out in Sabbath either, was Iommi a total dick? Who knows.. I think it is safe to say that with skill like that, he prob had strong opinions on musical direction. He also was probably not willing to share the duties with Sykes and maybe Sykes wanted to do that. We can only guess... would have been killer though. I wish he had the chance to release more material, that's all I know.

 

[Metlupass2]

I'm pretty qualified to answer this as I worked with him from 1998 to 2012 and I can say the answer is a huge "NO!" He is a very good guy. He does admit to being a handful back in the day (but I didn't know him then).

Awesome. Can you explain what you did with John?

 

[Drew]

I'm pretty qualified to answer this as I worked with him from 1998 to 2012 and I can say the answer is a huge "NO!" He is a very good guy. He does admit to being a handful back in the day (but I didn't know him then).

Awesome. Can you explain what you did with John?

Getting CD's printed up and working deals with distributors, shipping them discs, handling his website, working with gear mfg on deals, getting various amps and bits of gear, selling unwanted gear and many other things that came up.

My favorite job was wingman after he was divorced and before he hooked up with his current long-time girlfriend. We had some serious fun running around LA in the early 2000's. He's a really fun guy with a great British sense of humor.

 

[chris lykins]

That is an excellent story!

 

[Metlupass2]

I'm pretty qualified to answer this as I worked with him from 1998 to 2012 and I can say the answer is a huge "NO!" He is a very good guy. He does admit to being a handful back in the day (but I didn't know him then).

Awesome. Can you explain what you did with John?

Getting CD's printed up and working deals with distributors, shipping them discs, handling his website, working with gear mfg on deals, getting various amps and bits of gear, selling unwanted gear and many other things that came up.

My favorite job was wingman after he was divorced and before he hooked up with his current long-time girlfriend. We had some serious fun running around LA in the early 2000's. He's a really fun guy with a great British sense of humor.

Very cool. Got any pictures?

 

[Mr. Willy]

Sykes, much like Jake, seems like the kind of guy that says exactly what's on his mind in a brutally honest way.

 

[1meanplexi]

Just wondering, cuz I listened to that Steve Stevens interview, and Ray Gillian was gonna sing on the first Blue Murder, and was in talks with Steve for Atomic Playboys but wanted half, in which Jake E Lee gave him for badlands....anyway, Steve said Ray wasn't getting along with John.

Past, i knew that project with Portnoy, which pretty much turned into Sheenan and Kotzen/winery dogs.

I always assumed Coverdale was the prick when he fired his whole band after 1987 release, but maybe i was mistaken?

Input?

To work with Coverdale? You would have to be. Two assholes in the same room......must have stunk !

 

[James Lugo]

My daughter dated his son for years. We were almost family.

 

[romanianreaper]

There are a few guitarists that get labeled as assholes (some are assholes) because they carry themselves in a certain way in interviews, etc. He seems like that type of guy. When he was interviewed on "That Metal Show" he came across as not interested, not as talkative, etc.

Some guitarists are born to do interviews and some are not. Glad that he is not an asshole.

 

[Valtyr]

With Portnoy, I think the issue was more with work style between him and Sykes. Portnoy always has multiple projects going (Neal Morse, Transatlantic, The Winery Dogs, Flying Colors...etc). He schedules a short block of time for the music to be written, arranged, and recorded. I got the impression Sykes didn't want to work at that pace.

 

[crwnedblasphemy]

Gotcha...