“By the time he finished, Memphis knew they were witnessing the birth of a legend”: That time a 14-year-old Eric Gales won a battle of the bands competition that got him signed – and kickstarted his career

Footage of a 14-year-old Eric Gales winning a battle of the bands contest in 1989 has surfaced online, and it gives a glimpse into the origins of his greatness.

According to the Instagram account Memphis Forgotten, which posted the clip, a teenage Gales had rocked up to the event in leopard print tights, a purple kimono, and “just one guitar in a plastic bag”.

Interesting fashion and gig bag choices aside, the guitarist’s natural gift for the electric guitar is as clear as glass in the clip, even if shots of his performance are frustratingly few and far between early on.

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For the show – which came just two years before Guitar World crowned him as 1991’s best new talent – Gales took on Hendrix’s Spanish Castle Magic in a moment that facilitated his rise from obscurity. Gales gives it both barrels, too, dropping to his knees before soloing behind his head à la his earliest hero.

“By the time he finished, Memphis knew they were witnessing the birth of a legend,” says Memphis Forgotten. “That night sparked it all; he got signed, dropped his first album, and started a journey that’s still shredding stages today.”

The blues stalwart is spotted, as he has been since, playing a right-handed Stratocaster strung upside down. Curiously, however, Gales isn’t wholly left-handed.

Having first inherited a guitar from his older brother, Gales told Guitar World in 2022, “I play left-handed, but I write right-handed. I just picked [the guitar] up and that was what was comfortable.

“I picked the guitar up when I was about four years old, so [I wasn’t even thinking] which way to play it. That’s what felt comfortable to me and, ironically, my brothers play the same way.”

That, if anything, it makes his feat all the more impressive – if not bizarre. By ’93 he’d already released two albums with Elektra Records – The Eric Gales Band (1991), and Picture of a Thousand Faces (1993) – and was well on his way to modern blues immortality.

Now, he’s tapped Buddy Guy to honor the legacy of his late older brother, Manuel (AKA Little Jimmy King), who passed away in 2002.

“We don’t know how much time any of us has, so while you have the opportunity, you should give it a shot,” he says.