Remember this McRocklin kid from the late 80s?

[jchrisf]

He's back on the guitar. I guess he took a 20 year break from guitar because he became more involved in production, which led to becoming a mastering engineer. It also fueled his interest in electronic genres of music. To me it seems to have made him more rounded and excellent at this YT stuff. He has some great stories about his early career and is a fantastic guitarist and cool to watch with all his talent and knowledge of musical engineering. He started practicing 10 hours a day at around 5 years old and it shows. I guess his dad took him to an Ozzy show in their hometown in England around that time.. they got there early and were parked up close where he was playing around with his new Ibanez JEM and Vai's tech spotted him, brought him in to meet Steve and let him jam on his gear.. Ozzy walks in and says "what is this!" We've got to have him open the show tonight and the rest was history.

He may be the only kid virtuoso I remember that I can now see where he is today. I remember others but I have no idea what happened to them.

 

[saxon68]

No chords?

 

[jchrisf]

Well, he just put out a video on opening for Ozzy at 8. I got a few things wrong. I don't think anyone has the experience this guy has... He probably has a whole different aspect of guitar, music, etc.

 

[jchrisf]

No chords?

This guy is one of the best riffer and players I've ever seen. Those videos probably just don't demonstrate it.

 

[Edgar Frog]

I don't remember him at all.

 

[jchrisf]

I don't remember him at all.

Little Stevie Vai

 

[Edgar Frog]

Little Stevie Vai

Watched MTV religiously from their beginning to the mid-late 90's and never seen that video before that I can remember. Never was a Vai fan outside of his work with David Lee Roth (which I really loved) so that could explain why I never stumbled across it during the YouTube era either. Funny video, seems like that Rocklin kid had it going on.

 

[jchrisf]

Watched MTV religiously from their beginning to the mid-late 90's and never seen that video before that I can remember. Never was a Vai fan outside of his work with David Lee Roth (which I really loved) so that could explain why I never stumbled across it during the YouTube era either. Funny video, seems like that Rocklin kid had it going on.

Yeah, I just thought the kid in the video was an actor back then... I do remember some of his interviews though as he was being discovered, like the one I posted first. He basically grew up in the metal scene with the famous musicians since he was 8 so his perspective would be very different than your typical musician that makes it big in their late teens. One of the few individuals that has really lived that lifestyle.

 

[reneAsologuitar]

Wow, what incredible guitar playing.
Thanks for introducing me to this player!!!
Truly impressive.
Rene