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John Sykes, guitarist and hair-metal hitmaker with Whitesnake, dies at 65

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65-year-old guitarist John Sykes, known for his work with rock bands Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy, has passed away. He played a significant role in creating one of the iconic power ballads from the late-1980s hair-metal era, “Is This Love,” which boosted the sales of Whitesnake’s self-titled 1987 album to over 8 million copies in the U.S.

It was revealed through an online announcement that he had passed away following a tough struggle against cancer. The exact details regarding the time and location of his death remain undisclosed.

1984 saw John Sykes join Whitesnake, a move prompted by David Coverdale, then lead vocalist of Deep Purple, inviting him to fill in for founding guitarist Micky Moody during their tour promoting the album “Slide It In.” This album, Whitesnake’s sixth studio release, catapulted them into U.S. fame. Sykes worked closely with Coverdale on the band’s following album, “Whitesnake,” co-writing most of its songs. The album reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 (second only to Michael Jackson’s “Bad”), and produced MTV hits like “Here I Go Again” featuring Tawny Kitaen in the music video, writhing on two parked Jaguars, as well as “Still of the Night” and “Is This Love,” which peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100.

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However, it’s important to note that while the legendary music videos don’t include Sykes, it was actually before the release of the “Whitesnake” album that Coverdale let go of Sykes as the guitarist – a decision that Sykes claims he only learned about from the band’s A&R representative.

In an interview with Rock Candy magazine in 2017, Sykes stated that David never communicated about his decision to expel us from the band. This made me extremely angry, and I wasn’t going to stand for it. So I marched down to the studio where David was still recording, determined to talk things out with him. To my surprise, when he saw me, he panicked, jumped in his car, and disappeared!

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Hudson’s keyboard played a crucial role in shaping the Band’s distinctive sound on timeless roots-rock hits like ‘The Weight’ and ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.’

In 2023, Coverdale shared with Metal Edge that things became strained between him and Sykes, and despite creating a fantastic album together, they found it challenging to connect on a personal level.

Sykes hails from Reading, England, born in 1959. As a youngster, he took up the guitar. He was part of the bands Streetfighter and Tygers of Pan Tang prior to joining a revamped Thin Lizzy, which had achieved a top-20 pop hit in 1976 with “The Boys Are Back in Town.” Sykes contributed to their last studio album released in 1983, titled “Thunder and Lightning,” before the band’s founder, Phil Lynott, passed away in 1986.

Following Whitesnake, Sykes established Blue Murder in collaboration with drummer Carmine Appice from Vanilla Fudge. Later, he embarked on a solo venture and even performed with an adaptation of Thin Lizzy that no longer featured Lynott.

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Information on survivors wasn’t immediately available.

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2025-01-22 02:01

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