To make harmonics scream, I first dump my Floyd Rose real quick, hit a harmonic with my left hand while the string is still flapping, and then use the bar to pull it up to the pitch I wanna hit.
Most bands don't make it past two albums and tours, if that. We pulled it off, and everybody's been happy and cool, but we got to the point where we knew it was time to take a break.
When I first started experimenting with harmonics, I'd sometimes hook up two distortion boxes just to get my strings 'frying,' which helped bring out the harmonics.
I would just listen to records and learn what I could, then just roll it over and over and over.
I'm still the same cat I always was.
When I play live, I jump around like an idiot for an hour-and-a-half or more under a lighting rig that's hotter than hell.
People that love this form of music have loved it from way back - Sabbath, Zeppelin, the early days.
Pantera is the only band I've ever been in, and at the start we used to play covers to make a living.
Whenever I record more than two or three layers, it starts to get cluttered up, and you can't hear the cut of the guitars as good. It's hard to get four guitars to hit at exactly the same time and keep the attack tight.
I can never understand how a solo could ever be 'uncool.' Play something good, and it won't be uncool, you know?
I respect the Pantera fans with all my heart.
I've tried to force a solo before, but sometimes it's like, 'That thing don't really fit, man!'
I'm not going for a soft sound. I ain't lookin' for a warm sound. My sound is warm, but I don't need tubes to do it. The Randall RG-100 is the best amp for what I do.
I was lucky enough to get to see guys like Bugs Henderson, Jimmy Wallace, all those great Texas blues players.
Towards the end with Pantera - although I was never unhappy with the music we were making - it became one-dimensional, and we wanted to open things back up.
A lot of bands whine about the road and how tough it is.
My hair's a pain in live performance. I'm always inhaling it: I almost choked to death a couple of times.
Learn licks and songs from records.
All syncopation means is accenting beats that you don't normally accent.
'I'm Broken' was a sound check riff.
You can tune your guitar funky, and something's gonna come out. There's no secret to it - either you got it, or you don't.
Music drives you. It wakes you up, it gets you pumping. And, at the end of the day, the correct tune will chill you down.
My heroes were Eddie Van Halen - especially after Van Halen I, II, III, and IV - Randy Rhoads, Ace Frehley and dudes like that. My brother played drums and we jammed in the garage and started writing our own stuff.
Losing control of your pick on stage sucks, so I scratch some deep X's into both sides of my pick with something sharp, like a dart.
The local dudes who knew that my dad owned a studio would say, 'Ahh, dude is spoiled,' and this and that. But we didn't abuse it at all. I'd always ask if we could use the studio first, and if our dad didn't want us there he would tell us, and that was that. But I definitely tried to get down there as often as I could.
To get my sound in the studio, I double guitar tracks, and when it gets to the lead parts, the rhythm drops out, just like it's live. I'm very conscious of that.
Lessons didn't really work out for me, so I went to the old school, listening to records and learning what I wanted to learn.
To me, blues is more of a feel and a vibe, rather than sitting there and saying, 'Well, I'm gonna play bluesy now.'
To me, a sure-fire way to get in a rut is by sitting around playing by yourself for too long. You've gotta get out there and jam, man! You don't have to necessarily be in a band, all you've gotta have are a couple of buds who play too. They don't have to be guitarists either; jamming with a bassist or a drummer is cool.
We still get those kind of cats coming out to our shows. Once you're into it, you're into it for a lifetime.
On our early demos, I was really frustrated with my recorded sound. I'd tell my dad, 'Dude, I want more 'cut' on my guitar - I want more treble.' And he'd say, 'Now, son, you don't want that. It'll hurt your ears.' But my dad just didn't understand.
Way before we got a record deal, we were playing clubs seven nights a week, three one-hour sets a night. Then we got the record deal, and we took off on the road and stayed out.
Jamming with other people will create energy and excitement that you can feed off, and which will help push you to do things you'd never dream of doing by yourself.
Yeah, nothing feels better than knowing that I can put a guitar in my hands at any time and rip - even when I'm taking a crap!
Man, don't get me started on Pat Travers. That dude writes killer blues rock and roll riffs.
I used to skip school and paint my face with Ace Frehley Kiss make-up.
You can write every song on an album in E and not hurt a thing.
I'm not gonna say it's all done, 'cause it ain't ever all done.
When you're on the road, you've got to have your four-track - or some kind of recording device to jam on and have a good time.
Some of my favorite harmonics are located between frets. There are two really cool ones between the 2nd and 3rd frets that I use a lot.
I use some pretty radical harmonics at the beginning of 'Heresy.'
It kills me when I see some metal band trying to pass themselves off as an 'alternative band.'
I got food poisoning in Venezuela, and it sucked!
I'm not a super blues player, but I was exposed to the Texas blues sound while I was growing up, and that definitely rubbed off on me.
The easiest place to get a natural harmonic on any string is at the 12th fret. All you do is lightly rest one of your left-hand fingers on a string directly above that fret and then pick it.
I've become more interested in creating a band sound than trying to outshine the other guys.
Sometimes it's cool to play major third and minor third diads back-to-back, or a minor third followed by a root/fifth diad - whatever combo sounds good.
The harder stuff has always done it for me. Man, if it rips, I'll give it a thumbs up!
I'm into sounds, man.
