Warren DeMartini
Encyclopedia : W : WA : WAR : Warren DeMartini
Warren DeMartini (born April 10 1963 in Chicago, Illinois) is the lead guitarist for Ratt, a band most popular in the mid-to-late 1980s glam metal scene and was credited for writing and recording the band's main guitar solos and riffs that eventually made them popular, despite his career success many of his fans regard him as one of the most underrated guitarists of all time and feel he does not get the credit he deserves.
Biography
Early life
Warren was born on April 10, 1963 in Chicago, IL, as the youngest brother of five.Because James, the 3rd eldest brother, was playing in a band, and there was always music in their house, it was inevitable that Warren became interested in rock music.
When he was around seven years of age, his mother bought him a guitar, but he didn't know how to play it, and he smashed it just like Pete Townshend of The Who did on stage.
For many years after the incident, he never got a chance to have another guitar, but when he turned 15, he managed to buy one for himself with the money he got at Christmas, and he took some lessons to learn basic guitar techniques, and formed a band called Plague.
In 1979, he played his first gig in front of a small crowd at La Jolla High School. As he played with other local bands, his name started to become known as a young talented guitar player in San Diego.
Ratt
Some years later, Warren who at that time was playing in Enforcer joined Mickey Ratt, which later became Ratt, to replace his friend, Jake E. Lee. Warren was at one point the roommate of Jake E. Lee, Ozzy Osbourne's second lead guitarist during his interminable solo career. Warren was rumored to have been approached by Ratt vocalist and longtime friend Stephen Pearcy, following Lee's invitation from Ozzy Osbourne to fill the lead guitar position after the tragic and untimely death of Randy Rhoads. One of the biggest influences on DeMartini's style was Eddie Van Halen. His ambient lead guitar tone and style was influenced by the first four Van Halen albums. With Ratt, DeMartini's technical style blended well with co-lead guitarist Robbin Crosby's more Hendrix-influenced playing. Ratt sold five straight platinum albums in the 80's until the band's demise in 1992.After Ratt broke up, Warren was briefly a touring guitarist for hard rock band Whitesnake, and has released two solo albums titled Crazy Enough To Sing To You and Surf's Up!. Ratt re-united in 1997 and released their self-titled album in 1999 which then became a commercial failure. In 2003 Warren was hired to replace guitarist Doug Aldrich in the heavy metal band Dio but never made it past rehearsals. Also in 2003 former White Lion frontman Mike Tramp attempted to re-unite his former band and was considering adding Warren to the new line-up of the "New White Lion". Unfortunately that never happened due to former White Lion guitatist Vito Bratta filing a lawsuit, claiming partial ownership of the name and DeMartini resumed touring with Ratt.
Warren's hobbies include surfing and computer programming.
Warren also took lessons from Roger Nemour in San Diego, Ca.
External Links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.