John Sykes — guitarist for Whitesnake and Skinny Lizzy, amongst different bands — has died on the age of 65 after a battle with most cancers. The unhappy information was reported on the veteran musician’s official Fb web page.
The assertion learn as follows: “It’s with nice sorrow we share that John Sykes has handed away after a tough fought battle with most cancers. He will likely be remembered by many as a person with distinctive musical expertise however for many who didn’t know him personally, he was a considerate, type, and charismatic man whose presence lit up the room.”
It continued, “He definitely marched to the beat of his personal drum and at all times pulled for the underdog. In his ultimate days, he spoke of his honest love and gratitude for his followers who caught by him by way of all these years. Whereas the influence of his loss is profound and the temper somber, we hope the sunshine of his reminiscence will extinguish the shadow of his absence.”
The UK guitarist first made a reputation for himself within the metallic bands Streetfighter and Tygers of Pan Tang within the early ’80s earlier than becoming a member of Skinny Lizzy in 1982, and showing on their ultimate album, 1983’s Thunder and Lightning. The band broke up later in 1983, a pair years previous to the passing of frontman Phil Lynott. Sykes subsequently grew to become a member of a brand new incarnation of Skinny Lizzy in 1996 and remained with the band till 2009.
In between his stints in Skinny Lizzy, Sykes began to work with Lynott in a brand new band known as Grand Slam, which was solely energetic for roughly a 12 months earlier than Lynott’s passing. Nonetheless, Sykes turned his consideration to Whitesnake once they recruited him for the band in 1984.
He appeared on Whitesnake’s multiplatinum albums Slide It In (1984) and Whitesnake (1987), the latter of which featured the hits “Nonetheless of the Evening,” “Is This Love,” and the huge chart-topper “Right here I Go Once more ’87,” a re-recording of an earlier Whitesnake tune that grew to become a ubiquitous staple on MTV.
Nonetheless, previous to the discharge of the self-titled album, Whitenake frontman David Coverdale fired all of the members of the band together with Sykes, whose relationship with Coverdale remained acrimonious within the many years since then.
Sykes went on to type and entrance the band Blue Homicide, which featured bassist Tony Franklin and drummer Carmine Appice, and lasted from 1997 by way of 1994. After that, he launched a collection of solo albums within the ’90s and early 2000s. In 2021, he launched his first new solo songs in 20 years, “Dawning of a Model New Day” and “Out Alive.”
Among the many musicians who’ve paid tribute to Sykes upon studying of his passing is Coverdale, who regardless of their contentious relationship, wrote, “Simply heard the stunning information of John’s passing…My honest condolences to his household, associates & followers.”
Carmine Appice acknowledged, “I’m am saddened in regards to the information of my band mate John Sykes. I’m shocked about his passing. We performed such nice music and had such nice instances collectively … I beloved him like a brother. We lived shut to one another after we had been in Blue Homicide we frolicked on a regular basis. He was an incredible guitarist and along with Tony Franklin on bass we had an important rock trio.”
Drummer Mike Portnoy, who labored with Sykes on a undertaking that by no means got here to fruition, wrote, “Completely shocked and saddened to listen to of the passing of the nice John Sykes. As lots of you may know, John & I spent a variety of time working collectively again in 2011 after we had been planning on launching a brand new band. We even demoed 12 of his songs and went on That Steel Present collectively to announce the undertaking. Sadly it by no means went anyplace and the demos by no means noticed the sunshine of day, however working with him and spending as a lot time collectively as we did supplied me with so many nice reminiscences. He was an unbelievable expertise and it was an honor to work with him. Such a tragic loss ”
Our condolences exit to John Sykes’ household, associates, and bandmates throughout this troublesome time. See a video of him performing with Whitesnake in 1985 under, in addition to a music video of him fronting Blue Homicide.