Lacing Up
Ozzy initially tapped Irish guitarist Bernie
Tormé to fill in after Rhoads’ death, but his
sound and style was deemed too different
for the Prince of Darkness. After a few days
of observing Tormé perform with the band,
Gillis plugged in and took over.
Left: Brad Gillis onstage with Night Ranger and his battered ’ 62 Strat, which is equipped with an original Floyd Rose tremolo. Gillis first found fame when he was tapped to replace Randy
Rhoads in Ozzy Osbourne’s band. Photo by Thomas Scott McKenzie Right: Stacey Blades—who replaced Tracii Guns in the glam-metal band L.A. Guns—onstage with his Floyd-outfitted
“super Strat.” Photo by Charlie Murcha
the table? For the musician in question, it can
seem like an unwinnable situation.
a gig expecting the original Tracii Guns, but
Blades strives to win them over.
“It was quite a trying experience and the first
two weeks were really tough for me,” Gillis
says. “A lot of the fans weren’t expecting me
and were giving me that look like, ‘Let’s see
what you can do.’ I had guys in the audience
flipping me off, holding up ‘Randy Rhoads
lives’ signs, and just giving me that look.”
“I had to tell a guy in Laughlin, Nevada, that
I’m not Tracii,” Blades says of a recent gig.
“He got this confused look on his face and
said, ‘You still rock, bro.’”
“I had never played with the band, never
rehearsed with the band, and there was my first
show—sold out, to 8000 people in Binghamton,
New York,” Gillis recalls. Today, he’s prepar-
ing for a big summer tour with his band Night
Ranger, which is perhaps best known for the
huge 1984 power ballad “Sister Christian.” Gillis
says last year was one of the band’s best ever
and that they anticipate building on that success
with as many as 70 tour stops in 2010. But Gillis
originally cemented his shredder reputation with
that challenging stint with Ozzy back in ’ 82.
Stacey Blades of L.A. Guns has the difficult
task of performing in a band that carries his
predecessor’s name. He joined the group in
2003 and set out to win over fans by performing the songs and solos as they were
originally recorded by Tracii Guns. His choice
to honor the original music was not only out
of respect for the audience but also his own
personal tastes and interests.
Whenever a new guitarist comes in and has to
play classic tunes, the fans sit back and start
speculating. Will the new guy totally change
everything in an attempt to put his own stamp
on things? Or, will he simply mimic the original
runs and bring nothing new or different to
“As a fan of the band, I wanted to learn those
leads like they are on the record,” Blades
says. “I wouldn’t play it any other way.”
He says that after seven years in the band, he
seldom receives negative feedback from con-
certgoers today. Rarely, a person shows up to
If Blades rocks in a band named for the
guy he replaced, at least he gets to wear
his own footwear. For current Kiss guitarist
Tommy Thayer, the adage about filling in
someone’s shoes is literal. After working in
various capacities with the Kiss organization
for years, Thayer officially assumed the role of
the Spaceman in 2003 when he donned the
costume made famous by original guitarist
Ace Frehley. After a few smaller gigs the pre-
ceding year, Thayer’s first real show with the
face-painted rockers was with the Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra in Australia. That con-
cert involved 70 additional musicians and
different song arrangements, and it was also
recorded for CD and DVD releases.
“It was a really diverse set with a lot going on,”
Thayer says. “That was playing on my nerves
