Eric Gales’ method of playing a right-handed guitar left-handed and upside down gives him a sound that’s distinctively his. If you watch videos of him playing, you’ll notice he plays with his thumb wrapped around the top of the neck, like Jimi Hendrix or John Mayer. However, since his guitar strings are flipped upside down, his thumb is fretting what would be the first string to most people. This not only puts your brain in a whirl when trying to steal licks, but it also opens the door for some truly unique chord voicings. Gales, who fuses blues, rock, and classical together, constantly manages to play some truly otherworldly licks and passages.Gales’ speed and cleanliness are his bread and butter, but what sticks out to me in his playing are those chord voicings and substitutions he uses masterfully in his approach. He is one of the best at spicing up standard shapes. In this lesson we’re going to dig into Gales’ interpretation of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing,” using a pair of different live clips to showcase how he tends to mix up his chordal choices from performance to performance.“I remember on this last tour me and Myles [Kennedy] were on the bus looking up stuff and we ran into some Eric Gales clips and we were just like, ‘This guy could be the best player on Earth.’” – Mark TremontiIn Ex. 1, we’re checking out Gales’ performance from the 2019 Keeping the Blues Alive Cruise. When he kicks off the “Little Wing’’ intro, every note is the same as what Jimi Hendrix originally played. It’s worth noting that Gales also typically tunes down a half-step. It’s a straight-up cover, that is, until Eric does his “thing” when going from the IIm to VIm chords in the progression.Eric Gales – Little Wing – Sail Away Show – KTBA Cruise 2019At 0:26 in the video Eric uses a diminished triad to work his way up the fretboard, resolving on a Bm7 triad for just an eighth-note before moving to the Em7. His use of the open third string in the Em7 chord provides a nice jangle.Ex. 1At approximately 0:35 in the song, Gales uses (with a tasteful hammer-on embellishment) a Bbm9(11) and Bbm11 to descend to the IIm chord. He then gives an Am9(11) chord the same embellishment and voicing jump with an Am11. To end this phrase, Gales resolves an F6(9) to an Em11(b13), as shown in Ex. 2.Ex. 2The last nugget we’ll look at from this specific performance is pretty simple: a single F6(9) chord around the 0:51 mark. Shown in Ex. 3, Gales works this chord into his arrangement to build tension and grab your ear before beginning the verse of the song. As with the other examples, the notes being played are not difficult. It’s the application, however, that gets the listener’s attention. If you’re at all familiar with “Little Wing,” you’ll see that this chord comes out of nowhere in his arrangement.Ex. 3The next two examples are from a seminar that Gales did at the University of North Carolina–Greensboro Center for Creative Writing in the Arts. It’s clear that Gales is going a little out on this interpretation, and he is also tuned to E standard.Eric Gales “Little Wing”In Ex. 4 we’re looking at the same part of the intro as Ex. 1 (around the 0:22 mark), but Eric has a much different approach. He arpeggiates an Ebmaj7(#11) and uses a hammer-on to turn it into an Ebmaj7(#5). He then uses a pull-off to return to an Ebmaj7(#11). To complete the phrase, Eric uses a hammer-on to switch between an E7sus and an E9sus three times.Ex. 4The last example (Ex. 5) is a real finger twister. At 0:29 he plays an insanely tasteful Bm9 voicing and descends to a Bbm9 before continuing to an Am9. If you listen close, Gales is sprinkling in an open first string. Because he is playing a right-handed guitar upside down, he can add that extra open string to the chord voicings. If you play a guitar that is not flipped upside down, you logistically won’t be able to add that open string.Ex. 5Eric Gales is a completely underrated guitarist in my book. Nobody else sounds like him, and it’s refreshing to hear someone truly being different in the guitar community. You could spend countless amounts of hours picking out the licks and passages he plays. Unless you’re learning cover tunes note-for-note for a gig, try stretching your creativity in the way that Eric does. Now that you’ve seen how an old standard such as “Little Wing” can be dressed up with this chord voicing and substitution approach, run with the idea and see what you can create.

In a recent interview with RadioactiveMike Z, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM radio program “Wired In The Empire”, EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt was asked how he first met original EXODUS guitarist Kirk Hammett, who has been a member of METALLICA for the past 39 years. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “The first time I met Kirk was in my high school music room, Richmond High, and EXODUS came and played. [Original EXODUS drummer] Tom Hunting grew up, like, 50 yards from my house, across from a park, but he went to a different school — he went to De Anza High, where Kirk did. I knew Tom, I’d see him around, but I didn’t know him that well. But I was really good friends with the other guitar player in EXODUS, Tim Agnello, who I did know. And they came in and played in the music room, and it was awesome. Even though Kirk sang [SCORPIONS’] ‘Another Piece Of Meat’, and it was just really awful, as you can imagine — Kirk Hammett trying to sing Klaus Meine at his greatest; it was bad. But there was something about… Even though I’d been to many concerts, being in a room and hearing an electric guitar that up close and personal, it was kind of like a special moment for me, ’cause I’d never experienced it. I’d only seen guys onstage; I’d never stood five feet away. And it was killer. I totally [knew] that’s what I wanted to do. And then we went to see Ted Nugent and the SCORPONS together, and we became best of friends from that first time we hung out. And then he said, ‘You wanna learn to play guitar?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he taught me the basics and some chords. I think the first thing he ever taught me was some ROLLING STONES song and a couple of licks and all that, and six months later I was in the band.”

Asked if he had a favorite METALLICA song, Gary said: “I’d have to go… I’ve got a lot of favorites — that’s one of those tough questions — but one that’s always near and dear to my heart is ‘Damage, Inc.'”

Three months ago, Holt was asked during an appearance on “Put Up Your Dukes”, the podcast hosted by ex-EXODUS singer Rob Dukes, if Hammett was involved in the songwriting for any of the material that ended up on EXODUS’s classic debut album, 1985’s “Bonded By Blood”. “There were riffs that I had written while Kirk was still in the band, and he tried to adapt them, tried to change ’em a little bit — the old, ‘I changed it a little bit. I’m a co-writer on this riff,'” Holt recalled. “And that was, like, two riffs, I think. And the rest of ’em were written after he left. We never used a Kirk Hammett riff, ever, until [2004’s] ‘Tempo Of The Damned’ [album] when we recorded [the early EXODUS song] ‘Impaler’.”

Explaining that “the first two [EXODUS] songs finished post-Kirk Hammett were ‘Strike Of The Beast’ and ‘No Love’,” Holt continued: “The biggest talent I have, if you wanna call it a talent, is my fucking memory. I can remember fucking everything. I remember showing him… I can picture it as a film, showing Kirk the riff to ‘Strike Of The Beast’, and I can picture it as if I’m watching it on a film — in the jam room, me in my spot where I played him [the riff] and him wanting to change the higher note to a lower note; I remember it all as if I’m watching a movie of it. I remember all of it — every last minute of it. I remember details from fucking most meaningless shit.”

The original lineup of EXODUS consisted of guitarists Hammett and Agnello, Hunting and vocalist Keith Stewart. Holt joined the band in 1981, while Kirk left two years before “Bonded By Blood” saw the light of day.

Although EXODUS rarely gets mentioned alongside the so-called “Big Four” of 1980s thrash metal — METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX — “Bonded By Blood” inspired the likes of TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL, VIO-LENCE and many others to launch their careers and is considered one of the most influential thrash metal albums of all time.

Back in 2018, Kirk spoke about the fact that riffs from songs by EXODUS, “Die By His Hand” and “Impaler”, found their way into “Creeping Death” and “Trapped Under Ice”, from METALLICA’s “Ride The Lightning” album. “What I think happened was when Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer] and James [Hetfield, METALLICA frontman] were thinking about getting rid of Dave [Mustaine], our sound guy, Mark Whitaker — who was EXODUS’ manager — gave them EXODUS’ demos,” Kirk said. “I think ‘Die By His Hand’ might have caught their ears. So when they were writing ‘Creeping Death’, they went, ‘Great. ‘Die By His Hand’. Put it right there.’ It was definitely not me going, ‘I have a riff here in this EXODUS song, and it needs to be here in this METALLICA song.’ By the way, I wrote that ‘Die By His Hand’ riff when I was, like, 16 years old.”

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS’ Chad Smith has shared a tribute video to FOO FIGHTERS drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died a week ago at the age of 50.

The two-minute compilation video, soundtracked by FOO FIGHTERS’ “My Hero” and put together by Daniel Catullo who directed the 2017 “Foo Fighters At The Acropolis” series on PBS that Smith hosted, features images of the two drummers over the years, including many moments on the road.

“Taylor’s my good buddy who I’ve known forever,” Smith says in an interview clip at the beginning of the video. The video ends with Smith’s tribute to Hawkins during the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS’ Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on March 31. “I have to give a shoutout to my brother Taylor Hawkins. I love you, Taylor,” Smith said in his speech. “He would laugh and make a smartass comment about this whole thing.”

You can watch Smith’s tribute to Hawkins below (courtesy of Variety).

Hawkins was found dead on March 25 at the Four Seasons Casa Medina hotel in Bogota, Colombia while FOO FIGHTERS were on tour.

An official cause of death for Hawkins hasn’t yet been released. But on March 26, Colombia’s attorney general’s office released a preliminary toxicology report, saying that medical examiners found evidence of 10 types of substances in Hawkins’s body, including opioids, benzodiazepines, marijuana and antidepressants.

Hawkins joined FOO FIGHTERS in 1997. Prior to that, he played with the Orange County band SYLVIA and was also in the backing band for Sass Jordan. He also toured with Alanis Morissette as her drummer.

Hawkins was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame last year as a member of the FOO FIGHTERS.

Hawkins’s most recent work with FOO FIGHTERS included last year’s “Medicine At Midnight” album, a collection of BEE GEES covers and FOO FIGHTERS’ horror film “Studio 666”.

Image and video courtesy of Daniel Catullo

Dave Mustaine says that he is “thrilled” about the return of bassist James LoMenzo to the MEGADETH ranks.

LoMenzo joined MEGADETH in 2006 and appeared on two of the group’s studio albums, 2007’s “United Abominations” and 2009’s “Endgame”. He was fired from the band in 2010 and replaced with returning original MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson.

In addition to MEGADETH, LoMenzo has played with Ozzy Osbourne, Zakk Wylde and WHITE LION. For the past nine years, LoMenzo has been performing with iconic rocker John Fogerty.

LoMenzo played his first show with MEGADETH in nearly 12 years last August in Austin, Texas. The concert took place three months following Ellefson’s dismissal from MEGADETH after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving him were posted on Twitter.

During an appearance on this past Wednesday’s (March 30) episode of SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”, Mustaine discussed MEGADETH’s reunion with LoMenzo, saying (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I’m thrilled. I think he’s a really awesome person to have in MEGADETH. He was when we tried it the first time. And for whatever reason that things happen, things happened and we took a little sabbatical from playing [together]. And when things happened as they did, it was obvious to me that I needed to get a super kickass bass player to come in and cut all the tracks and learn ’em in relatively no time, because we were in the studio already, so I needed to get somebody that could really do all that stuff. And I hadn’t made up my mind on James yet. So I ended up asking a super, super legendary bass player in the metal community, Steve DiGiorgio. I asked him if he would come in and guest on the [upcoming MEGADETH] record and help me to finish the record and cut bass parts. So he came out, and that was really wonderful to hear his interpretation of my songs and the stuff that Kiko [Loureiro, MEGADETH guitarist] and Dirk [Verbeuren, MEGADETH drummer] and I, the stuff that we’re starting to write together; we’re starting to really develop our chemistry. And I like it because there’s elements with Dirk and his writing that obviously remind me a lot of [late MEGADETH drummer] Gar [Samuelson]. But he’s actually a really good rhythm guitar player too, and that reminds me a lot of the ‘Peace Sells’ era. Because each one of the guys grew up with a different era of MEGADETH, so they’ve all got their MEGADETH. Like, Chris Adler [the former LAMB OF GOD drummer who played on MEGADETH’s 2016 album ‘Dystopia’] had said to me once before, ‘This is my MEGADETH.'”

Asked by host Eddie Trunk if having different people in MEGADETH over the course of the last 40 years has been a benefit in terms of keeping the band recharged and refreshed or if he would have preferred it if MEGADETH could have been composed of the same four guys the whole time, Mustaine said: “Well, I think that the answer is… It’s a very complicated answer to a really simple question. For me, what I probably would say the short answer is have the same people the whole time, the ones that I’ve grown to love the most and that are the easiest to get along with, that have the most common view to mine and have guys that are willing to constantly improve themselves.

“One of the things that we do backstage, Eddie — I know you’ve seen this with me; we’ve been friends for so long, and there’s been so many concerts we’ve hung out backstage,” the MEGADETH leader continued. “Part of my routine, for your listeners, is before we go onstage, we have the crew guys come backstage, and before we hit the deck, we go over a couple of songs; each night it’s a couple of different songs. We change the setlist, hopefully, every night, but we’re constantly in review. So once we get to the very last song, ‘Holy Wars’, and we’ve gone over that with our soundman and our engineers and so on, we start all over again. And I think that’s something that if we had the same guys the whole time, for familiarity and security and steadiness for the fans, and they were constantly trying to improve themselves, that would be the perfect scenario.”

MEGADETH’s new album, “The Sick, The Dying, And The Dead”, is tentatively due on July 8. The follow-up to “Dystopia” features a cover of DEAD KENNEDYS’ “Police Truck” and Sammy Hagar’s “This Planet’s On Fire”, the latter of which includes vocals from Hagar himself.

DiGiorgio is widely renowned as a pioneer on the fretless bass in heavy metal music, having played with TESTAMENT, DEATH and SADUS, among others. Within his genre, Steve is respected for his playing skills, versatility and incredible technique. He has more than 40 studio album recordings and over 20 years of touring the world.

Three months ago, Mustaine confirmed that James LoMenzo will play bass for MEGADETH when the band returns to the road in April for the second U.S. leg of “The Metal Tour Of The Year”. Joining them will be co-headliners LAMB OF GOD along with special guests TRIVIUM and IN FLAMES.

Ellefson laid down his bass tracks on MEGADETH’s sixteenth LP in May 2020 at a studio in Nashville, Tennessee. A short time later, he raved about his performance on the record, telling the 96.7 KCAL-FM radio program “Wired In The Empire” that his musical chemistry with Verbeuren was comparable to the interplay between Geddy Lee and Neil Peart on classic RUSH albums. “I feel like on the new MEGADETH record, me and Dirk have those same moments,” he said. “It’s MEGADETH — it’s not RUSH, obviously — but in the field of what we do, there were these moments that I was just going, ‘Oh, my God.’ This is me as a kid going, ‘This is my Geddy/Neil moment right here.'”

In June 2021, Mustaine announced during an episode of his Gimme Radio program “The Dave Mustaine Show” that Ellefson’s bass tracks would not be used on the new MEGADETH LP.

Ellefson was in MEGADETH from the band’s inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest departure.

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During today’s (Friday, April 1) edition of “The Nightly Nuge”, a news-style clip in which outspoken conservative rocker Ted Nugent offers his take on the news of our world every night, he reflected on the recent passing of FOO FIGHTERS drummer Taylor Hawkins. Ted said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It’s heartbreaking on so many levels. Fifty years old with a horrible, long-term celebration of substance abuse. I’m not… Well, I am casting judgment because substance abuse is selfish. His wife and daughter, they should have been taken into consideration. Is spending time with your wife and daughter more important than getting high or less important than getting high?

“I’ve told the story many times, but I’ve witnessed it,” Nugent continued. “My bass player Greg Arama — so gifted at 15; listen to the bass part on ‘Journey To The Center Of The Mind’ by the AMBOY DUKES — and the guy was just a gifted, a virtuoso, a savant of groove and musicality. And he started smoking dope and ended up with heroin and died when he was — I don’t know — early 20s. And the future he could have had. I told Jimi Hendrix, I said, ‘No, I don’t want your dope, and it’s gonna kill you, Jimi.’ Bon Scott [AC/DC] would come to the studio when my band was recording ‘Weekend Warriors’ [1978] out of Miami and AC/DC was coming in [and working on] ‘Highway To Hell’ — just phenomenal musical powers. And he’d come in drunk every day with a [bottle of] Jack Daniel’s or an Old Grand-Dad [whiskey] and he’d go, ‘Hey, Teddy, try some of this.’ And he smelled like a diaper. What a talent. What a nice guy. These were all nice guys.

“But what happens is the music can be so overwhelming, the delivery of your comedy or your art or your dream, it can be so obsessive that it’s hard to get rid of it. You know how with just a guy that doesn’t make music, sometimes it’s hard to get a song out of your head? Well, think of how difficult it is for those of us that make the art. And if they don’t have a bow and arrow — and a lot of people will dismiss this as being just absolutely too simple, but it’s not; it’s perfectly simple — if you’re so obsessed with delivering your art that you can’t escape it, they think drugs and alcohol with help. It only makes it worse.

“So, if you loved Taylor Hawkins — I loved him; I loved the man; I still love him,” Ted insisted. “But I love his wife and daughter more. Because they didn’t break his heart; he broke their heart.

“So, God rest Taylor Hawkins’s soul and all those stoners and drunks that died prematurely. Thank God for every day you’re above ground. Breathe deep, concentrate on the positive and show reverence for your gift of life and your sacred temple. Do not poison your sacred temple. It’s that simple.”

In February 2021, Nugent revealed during a Facebook Live stream that his “mom and dad were alcoholics. I didn’t know they were alcoholics. I thought they just had a Tom Collins [cocktail] every night — whatever the hell that is — or a martini with olives,” he said. “So my mom and dad were smoking, drinking alcoholics. And I was surrounded, in the rock and roll world, by smoking, drinking, drugged idiots.

“So what’s the difference between a person that falls for that versus a person who defies that? I haven’t the faintest idea,” he admitted. “Because I think God gave all of us everything we need.

“Some people look for an easy way out, and some people don’t. I didn’t. I think it was just shit luck. ‘Cause my brothers and sisters smoked and drank, and they didn’t even surround themselves with goofball rock and roll dirtbags. I did.”

Ted went on to say that most of his influences “got high — right in front of me. And I admired the living shit out of ’em,” he said. “The MC5, they were all stumbling, puking, stupid drunk and stoned, and I admired them beyond description. But then it caught up with them, and I said, ‘Oh.’ Thank God I didn’t go, ‘Hey, they’re smoking a lot of hashish, and they’re just kicking out the jams. Maybe I’ll try the hashish.’ And luckily, I didn’t. Luckily, I watched them blow up. I watched the drugs and alcohol destroy the energy that I admired, destroy the groove that I admired. And to this day, Wayne Kramer is a dear friend of mine. Wayne, I love you, buddy. And he knows I love him. And we have great conversations. And he’s probably polar opposite of my ideologies. But not really, because he has a work ethic, and he’s a family guy, he’s a loving guy, he’s a productive guy, he’s a conscientious guy, he’s a caring guy. But I think to this day, he thinks that dope is essential… I don’t wanna presume — I had a conversation with him not that long ago where we disagreed on the use of marijuana and other intoxicants, or whatever category you wanna put ’em in.

“The point is that lucky me, I could differentiate between the delivery of the things I admired versus the occasional and, more often than not, conduct of those that I admired,” Ted added.

“Jimi Hendrix offered me his drugs, and I said no. John Belushi offered me his drugs; I said no. Keith Moon offered me his drugs and alcohol, and I said no. Bon Scott offered me his drugs and alcohol, and I said no. I said no to everybody.”

Back in 2018, Nugent said that Canada was “absolutely crazy” for its decision to legalize marijuana, explaining that he has “never seen one moment of positive outcome from someone getting high.” He said: “I’m all for medical marijuana, I’m all for medical anything, as long as it’s really beneficial to people suffering from health issues, but to legalize recreational comfortably numb is a guaranteed script for ruined lives.”

Nugent has served on the boards of more than two dozen political and charitable associations, including the National Rifle Association (NRA), Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.), and Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) law enforcement program.