Jared James Nichols: “I’ll never forget the moment I first saw Zakk playing in the flesh with Ozzy – it was beyond powerful. I was mesmerized”

Jared James Nichols
(Image credit: Imani Givertz)

If you’ve never witnessed Jared James Nichols onstage, let us say right now: you’re missing out, big time. 

Usually armed with little more than the heavily customized, even-more-heavily-worn Gibson Les Paul he nicknamed “Old Glory” (or, just as likely, one of his single-pickup Epiphone “Old Glory” and “Gold Glory” Les Paul signature guitars), the singer and guitarist practically strangles his instrument into submission (sans pick, of course), unleashing torrents of incendiary riffs and licks and ripping out howling, hotwire solos jam-packed with blazing note bursts, screaming, vocal-like bends and tasty, blues-drenched phrases.

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Richard Bienstock

Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.