THE UNDERRATED KEITH

Keith Scott, late 1980s(photo credit:AP)

A lot of great rock singers were known through their one of a kind style of singing and songwriting but what makes a solo rock artist stand above the rest are the sidemen particularly the lead guitarist who makes those trademark guitar solos along with the cool riffs he is making with the artist. These so-called sidemen usually turns out to be guitar heroes to both rock n'roll fans and budding guitar players alike though some would be marked as underrated-overshadowed perhaps by the extreme popularity of the artist they usually play with.Some examples include Randy Rhoads who played a short stint with Ozzy Osbourne before prematurely leaving our world at the tender age of only twenty five and David Bowie's awesome lead guitarist Mick Ronson who played mostly on both the Ziggy Stardust album and concert tour.

One of the most underrated guitar players of our time would be Keith Scott,who has been playing with Bryan Adams since the late 1970s. Scott played lead guitar on all of Adams' twelve albums and has been touring with him since.Having seen them last May 23 I,too,am a witness on how [and still] awesome a guitarist Keith is.

Scott was born in Vancouver over a family of musicians with his dad being a jazz pianist and his mom being an occasional singer so his musical genes came out naturally.He revealed in a later interview that his first guitar was a 1967 Fender Stratocaster.He used it mostly on his concert tours particularly in the late 1980s during Adams' career peak.

Keith's gear: a 1967 Fender Stratocaster

Citing his influences in the likes of Eric Clapton,Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix,Scott moved far ahead and also mentioned the fact that he often wing his solos everytime he goes out on tour with the full blessing of Adams who often referred to him as his "best friend".

Scott's other gears would be a telecaster and the vintage Gretsch electric guitar which he famously used on the classic rock ballad "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You"

Keith's other gear: a Gretsch G5420T

A lot of these supporting musicians weren't really interested in the limelight and most of them just prefer to crouch on their respective instruments perhaps just for the love of music. Most of them just want to show their craft then go aloof from the attention of the press.I guess they just leave it all to the hands of the band's leader.Marking more than thirty years of his career as a touring musician supporting Bryan Adams,we'll definitely see more of Keith Scott!!

Trading solos:Keith(right) with Bryan Adams[photo credit:Hiwatt UK]

(c) Keith Vernon Adagio


RELATED ARTICLES:

Jimmy McCulloch:The Unsung Guitar Hero

Bryan Adams Saves Rock Music With Reckless 30th Anniversary Tour