It's Keith Wallen from Adelitas Way. I just want to start off by saying it's an honor to be featured on GuitarWorld.com!
We've been out on the road supporting our newly released album, Home School Valedictorian, for about five months now. We've been fortunate enough to have our first single off the new album, "Sick," make it to number 1, and we've just started the Carnival of Madness tour!
I've been using the same gear for years, but I like the way it sounds, so as they say if it ain't broke don't fix it! My main guitars I use on tour is a Les Paul Standard and a Les Paul Classic 1960 reissue and I run them through either a Soldano SLO 100 or a Soldano Hot Rod 50. I've never used anything other than the amp's distortion bypassed through a tuner pedal, pretty simple, but it's less chance for something to go wrong. Plus the Soldano amps volume and EQ go to 11!
I first started playing guitar when I was in high school after a couple of my friends started playing. It was tough at first, but I stuck with it and eventually learned how to play along with some of my CDs. Metallica, Stone Temple Pilots and Alice N' Chains were my favorites.
Then after a while I started to write my own riffs and write songs. I found a recording of a couple of those songs not too long ago, they were horrible. Hey, you have to start somewhere, right?
We've shared the stage with a lot of amazing musicians over the years, and I've tried to soak up as much knowledge as I can. The only band from this year's Carnival of Madness that we've toured with before is Theory of a Deadman that was back in early 2010.
They've always been a blast to tour with, so with the addition of Alter Bridge, Black Stone Cherry and Emphatic, this should be a great five weeks. It's pretty surreal sometimes. If someone would've come up to me when I was a kid and told me what I'd be doing now, I'd be like, yeah right!!
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It's been a crazy ride, that's for sure, but there are many more places yet to visit, hopefully we'll see you out on the road sometime soon!
Thanks for reading- we’ll see you out on the road!
-- Keith
Keith Wallen is the guitarist in Adelitas Way, who are part of this year's Carnival of Madness tour. Be sure to check back for more updates from Keith.
