Photos by Brian Schroeter

Though hard rock has arrived at retirement age, its senior classmen are flourishing on tour. Really, these years are the first in which old metal musicians exist, and 2011′s foundation will be built on someday by geriatric Gojira, decrepit Devin Townsend, crotchety Cave In, et al. Right around 2025, those bands might look to Ronnie James Dio, who played all aces til his final days; to Metallica, who in middle age flagged fast; to Judass Priest’s withdrawal from major touring (or whatever) and to the renaissance of Whitesnake, whose recent face-blasting gig with L.A. Guns and Skid Row was like a survival guide for bands seeking to enjoy fruitful third and fourth decades! I was there and learned a lot! Check it out:  Click to read more…

MS commenter “Sat,” also of HeavyStreet.com, has been requesting an MS interview with former Winger/Dokken/Whitesnake/Night Ranger shredder Reb Beach forever. Though today is not that day — and Hair Metal Week at MS is likely not that week — perhaps we’ll get to a Reb Beach interview some day. I honestly wouldn’t even know who to contact about that, but I’ll bet he’d be game; how many interview requests do you think Reb Beach gets?

I see why Sat wants a candid look into Beach’s mind, though; dude is a bonafide virtuoso that isn’t just about shredding for the sake of shredding. It’s obvious that the guy’s got a great sense of song structure and melody and has a great idea of what makes shred interesting instead of just a series of notes played in rapid succession. To classify him simply as a “shredder” would also be a gross mis-categorization… dude’s just a fantastic player through and through; he uses nifty chord voicings, has a great sense of melody (as previously mentioned) and has a bluesy tint to his playing.

Shred on, Reb, shred on. There is no question that your are an infinitely more talented player than Kirk Hammett.

-VN

Do people really compare Reb Beach’s guitar playing to that of Kirk Hammett a lot? I’ve never heard that fucking comparison in my life. I think you know how many hours of my life I’ve wasted sitting around stoned and contemplating metal to a ridiculous degree, and never in any of the many, many conversations I’ve had with friends about the guitar playing of Kirk Hammett or Reb Beach has the other musician’s name come up. I’m not even sure what the comparison would be, other than they’re both shredders. They play completely different styles of metal, and I don’t recall Beach ever being as fond of the wah pedal as Hammett.

My point being, I have no idea why Classic Rock Revisited asked Reb Beach to compare his playing to Hammett’s, but they did. And Reb Beach, as it turns out, is no Kirk Hammett fan. A transcript of Beach’s answer, courtesy the fine folks at Blabbermouth, follows:

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Loyal MetalSucks Maniac Steve S. sent us an email a couple of weeks back with a link to this video, asking us, “Who the fuck is Reb Beach?”

Dear Steve,

FAIL. EPIC FAIL.

Sincerely,
Vince and Axl

Steve comes close to redeeming himself with the following observation: “the editing makes it all dramatic.” Indeed, Steve, indeedily-do. We still love ya.

-VN

Say what you will about Winger, but Reb Beach was one hell of a fucking guitarist, surely up there with Nuno Bettencourt in the late-hair-metal-era-EddieVanHalen-inspired-underrated-guitarists category. Beach took EVH’s fretboard tapping, Floyd Rose dive-bombing sound and upped the cheese factor to the next level. But the dude had undeniable skill and he’s still got it, as evidenced by this video of him performing in the Suhr Guitars booth at NAMM last week:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/eauPpQFAvnE" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

And in case you doubt my assertion that he ever had it to begin with, take a look at this clip of Winger performing “Headed For a Heartbreak” live on MTV circa 1989. If you don’t have the patience, just fast-forward to the mammoth solo at 3:35. Oh… fuck… yeah! The thought of a nearly two-minute solo airing on MTV seems so distant these days… as does the thought of a five and a half minute song… as does a band performing live… as does rock music… as does any music…. sigh. But I digress. Watch this fucker go. The vid is after the jump.

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