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“I remember asking Leslie West, ‘How should I go about this song?’ I remember that as if it were yesterday”: When Ricky Byrd needed to record a solo for this Joan Jett hit, he asked the Mountain legend for advice – this is what he said
Joan Jett’s 1981 anthem I Love Rock ‘n Roll is an electric guitar – and air guitar – classic, and Ricky Byrd says he received some crucial advice from Leslie West before tracking its guitar solo.
The song was originally written by the Arrows' Jake Hooker Alan Merrill in 1975. Jett, who reportedly saw the band perform the track on TV, brought it to the Runaways with the view of covering it. Though the idea was dismissed, she revived it when she went solo at the start of the 1980s.
Speaking in a new interview with Guitar World, Byrd – who served as Joan Jett's guitarist at the time, and helped her track the I Love Rock ‘n Roll record – says he didn’t put much thought into his solos across the album, seeing himself as an “on-the-fly” player. It brings the best out of him.
“I kind of like that panic mode when they hit the record button,” he says, “and you go through things where you do five takes of a solo, and you pick the best one, or maybe you comp it.”
That being said, he confesses to approaching I Love Rock ‘n Roll with a little more pre-planning. For that, blues rock legend Leslie West stepped in to lend a hand.
“At the very beginning of it, I pulled for the version she did on the demo with some of the guys from the Sex Pistols, if I remember correctly,” he explains. “And I do remember asking Leslie West, ‘How should I go about this song?’ He said, ‘Play a melody.’
“I remember that as if it were yesterday. He said, ‘Make sure it’s a melody.’ And if you listen to Mountain’s stuff, it always had a melodic style to it. I think my playing does that, you know?”
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"I Love Rock 'n' Roll" - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts (Official Video) - YouTube
A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He's also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.
