John James Sykes (born 29 July 1959) is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. Sykes joined Tygers of Pan Tang in 1980, and played guitar on the albums Spellbound (1981) and Crazy Nights (1982), as well as participating on two tracks for their 1983 release, The Cage.
In 1982, John Sykes was recruited by former Uriah Heep frontman John Sloman, for his new band Badlands, alongside his future Whitesnake bandmate Neil Murray. Badlands broke up shortly after formation and no music has ever been officially released, although bootlegs of rehearsals do exist. Sykes also auditioned, unsuccessfully, for Ozzy Osbourne's band following the death of Randy Rhoads.
At the age of 23, Phil Lynott asked Sykes to join Thin Lizzy, filling the spot left by guitarist Snowy White. He participated in the recording of the band's final studio album Thunder and Lightning, and contributed the track "Cold Sweat". Sykes toured with the band until the autumn of 1983 to promote Thunder and Lightning, from which the live album Life was recorded. Following the tour, Thin Lizzy disbanded but Sykes joined Phil Lynott for Lynott’s solo tour of Europe in a band dubbed The Three Musketeers featuring Lynott, Brian Downey, Scott Gorham, Darren Wharton, and Sykes.
David Coverdale hired Sykes to join Whitesnake following the release of Slide It In in 1984. He re-recorded some guitar tracks for the US release, and toured in support of the album, culminating with the 1985 Rock in Rio festival. Sykes co-wrote the majority of the songs on Whitesnake's 1987 self-titled album Whitesnake with David Coverdale, and recorded the guitar as well as some backing vocal tracks. Near the end of the 1987 sessions Coverdale fired the entire band (allegedly because of personality clashes and matters of ego) and brought in Adrian Vandenberg to record the solo on "Here I Go Again" (one of the few songs on the album that wasn't co-written by Sykes.) This was Whitesnake's most successful album, selling over eight million copies in the United States alone. Although I'm sure Sykes made stacks of cash for playing on this album, I don't feel that he gets nearly enough credit for his contributions to Whitesnake.
After Coverdale fired the 1987-era band, Sykes went on to form Blue Murder with Vanilla Fudge drummer Carmine Appice and The Firm bassist Tony Franklin. In the early stages of the band, drummer Cozy Powell - who Sykes played with in Whitesnake - was attached to the project. Ray Gillen, who had previously sung for Black Sabbath, sang for an early version of Blue Murder, and the band recorded demos with him. Upon comparing the original demos with Sykes singing to the demos with Ray Gillen, A&R executive John Kalodner encouraged Sykes to handle the vocal duties himself, though Tony Martin (who, ironically, replaced Gillen in Black Sabbath) briefly worked with the band. Blue Murder released two studio albums: Blue Murder in 1989 and Nothin' but Trouble in 1993. A live album, Screaming Blue Murder was released in Japan only in 1994, but has since been released elsewhere via iTunes.
The band was dropped by their label, at which point Sykes, the only consistent member of Blue Murder, recorded Out of My Tree in 1995 with Blue Murder band mates Marco Mendoza and Tommy O'Steen, effectively transforming Blue Murder into a Sykes solo project. In the years following Blue Murder, Sykes recorded several solo albums: Out of My Tree (1995), Loveland (1997), 20th Century (1997) and Nuclear Cowboy (2000). In 2004, the live album Bad Boy Live! was released, covering a number of "greatest hits" from Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake, Blue Murder, and his solo work.
In 1996, he reformed Thin Lizzy with Scott Gorham, Brian Downey, and Darren Wharton. Sykes, as well as taking on the role of lead guitarist, handled the lead vocals due to the death of Phil Lynott years earlier.Touring occasionally with Thin Lizzy, a live recording One Night Only was released in 2000. On 7 July 2009, Sykes parted ways with Thin Lizzy, stating "I feel it's time to get back to playing my own music"
In 2011, Sykes started working with ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy and Mr Big bassist Billy Sheehan. But widely different work ethics (Sykes is very conservative and takes his time, while Portnoy wants everything done yesterday) caused Portnoy and Sheehan to replace Sykes with Richie Kotzen. (Their Debut cd, The Winery Dogs, was released in 2013.)
John Sykes has announced that his fifth solo album is due for release in 2013, and he has written over 30 new tracks. The album has not yet been released.
In 2006 Gibson Guitars began producing a Gibson Les Paul modeled after Sykes' 1970s-era Les Paul Custom. There were two versions available; an "aged" look (recreating the exact looks of John's Les Paul) and a "standard" model. This was a limited edition run, with 66 aged look models created, and just over 100 standard models created. His amplifiers include several modified Marshall amps he's used since the early 1980s. He took a break from Marshall in the late 1980s when he started using Mesa/Boogie amplifiers.He once again started using his marshall amps when he began touring solo and for the Thin Lizzy "reunion" tours. Although rarely, he can also be seen using Roland Jazz Chorus combos for his clean tones.
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