Phil X has looked back on a disastrous gig that left him without any effects after all his pedals died before taking the stage.
An overdrive dying mid-show is bad enough. Having your entire pedalboard fail before the show has even begun? Well, that’s just pure nightmare fuel.
Unfortunately, Phil X has experienced that exact nightmare. In a new interview with Guitar World, the Bon Jovi guitarist recalled the time he opened for Steel Panther, and had to play the entire gig with a clean tone because the batteries in his pedals all died.
“Everybody goes through a battery phase,” he says. “Then you have a guy that says, ‘Hey, I loaded all your stuff but I didn’t unplug the pedals,’ so the batteries are dead.
“You have an overdrive and a tuner, and you’re opening up for Steel Panther, and you’re like, ‘I have one battery. What’s more important, the tuner or the overdrive? Let’s be in tune.’
“Then [you say], ‘Guys, we don’t have an overdrive tonight.’ But it worked. The drummer was like, ‘Dude, you could park a truck between every note tonight.’”
Though speaking largely hypothetically, it’s likely Phil X was trying to shield himself from the memory of the event. But it’s not the first time he’s told this story.
“My guy who was putting my stuff away didn’t unplug the pedals,” he told Sweetwater. “I showed up at the show – we had 15 minutes to set up, opening for Steel Panther – and I’m like, ‘Everything’s dead!’
“As I put the tuner down, I looked at my hands and went, ‘It’s all about you guys today. You are the show.’”
Whatever the case, it was a learning curve for Phil X. Not only did he (probably) look at more reliable ways to power his pedalboard, it also reminded him of the need to stay cool under pressure.
“When you’re prepared, you’re good,” he tells Guitar World. “There was no panic. There was the discussion between mind and heart and hands, and I nailed it.”
Let this be a lesson to us all: if you do decide to use batteries, make sure you unplug your pedals. If you want something a bit more reliable, check out out guide to the best pedalboard power supplies.
Visit the Guitar World YouTube channel to watch the full interview with Phil X.
