October '99. Freshman year of "college" (JuCo). After classes, a few of my buddies and I went to Mars Music to check out some gear. At the time I had been playing guitar for maybe 3 years or so, but still very new to that whole world. Get to Mars, check out the wall of pedals. Hoping to find something I could use with my Peavey Blazer 158 amp
. So Mars is a HUGE store. Big enough that they had a stage in the middle. So we notice some dudes setting up their gear, and we figure we'd stay and check them out.
Guitar player comes on stage decked out with Kappa soccer pants, and a black t-shirt. Dude was JACKED. Had this really bad ass guitar that had some 3D zombie design on it or something. So they start playing, and that guitar player was just lighting it up on stage. Some of the wildest 2 finger tapping I'd ever seen (mind you - at the time still new to guitar players and didn't realize people other than EVH and Satch did tapping)
I lean over to my buddy who's been playing a lot longer than me, and I ask him "Dude, so who is that guy?"
"That's George Lynch. He was like a guitar god when he was in Dokken in the 80's"
This was my introduction to Lynch, and this was ironically the Smoke This/Lynch Bizkit tour. That guitar? Yeah that was his infamous Skull n Crossbones guitar (Likely the repro ESP version). At that point I had no clue what the band Dokken was. Immediately bought the Smoke This album (which I really liked back then, and still listen to occasionally), then bought the s/t Lynch Mob album. Week or so later bought Dokken's Beast from the East and Greatest Hits albums and was absolutely hooked on Lynch. Bought his REH and Guitar Bible vids some time after that, and I remember that next summer I was literally in the basement playing for 8-10 hours a day jamming to those vids and trying to learn his ways.
I haven't heard the Wicked Sensation record until at least 2004. I've been to a few Lynch concerts between 99 and 04 where they'd obviously play some from that album, but I never heard the studio release. When I finally did find that album, ho-lee-chit. That was the ultimate game changer for me as a guitar player. That album is my holy grail of tone and phrasing.
After that set in Mars Music, I got autographs from all of them. Lynch, Kirk Harper, Kooky McCarthy, and Gabe Rosales.
Here's the best part:
When Lynch signed my paper, I said "Dude you're really good. How long have you been playing?"
(I was so naive to who he was!)
