Former Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake guitarist John Sykes dead at 65
· louderBy Fraser Lewry
( Classic Rock )
published 20 January 2025
The death of John Sykes, whose contributions to Whitesnake spurred them to become one of the biggest-selling bands of the eighties, has been confirmed
John Sykes, the former Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake guitarist, has died at the age of 65. The news was confirmed in a statement on his Facebook page.
The statement read: "It is with great sorrow we share that John Sykes has passed away after a hard-fought battle with cancer. He will be remembered by many as a man with exceptional musical talent but for those who didn’t know him personally, he was a thoughtful, kind, and charismatic man whose presence lit up the room.
"He certainly marched to the beat of his own drum and always pulled for the underdog. In his final days, he spoke of his sincere love and gratitude for his fans who stuck by him through all these years.
"While the impact of his loss is profound and the mood sombre, we hope the light of his memory will extinguish the shadow of his absence."
Sykes was born in Reading, Berkshire in 1959, and took up guitar as a teenager, inspired by the music of Eric Clapton. He joined his first band, Streetfighter, in 1978, with whom he recorded just one track, She's No Angel, which appeared on the early NWOBHM compilation New Electric Warriors in 1980. The same year he joined Tygers Of Pan Tang, and went on to play on their second and third albums, Spellbound and Crazy Nights.
After leaving Tygers in 1982, Sykes recorded a solo single, Please Don't Leave Me, with a band that also included three members of Thin Lizzy: mainman Phil Lynott, keyboardist Darren Wharten and drummer Brian Downey. He was soon asked to join Lizzy as a replacement for the departed Snowy White.
Sykes' only album with the band was their final release.Thunder And Lightning crackled energy as Sykes introduced some of his NWOBHM stylings to create what was Thin Lizzy's heaviest album.
"I feel sorry for John," Scott Gorham told Classic Rock in 2020. "We knew that was going to be our last album. I don’t think we informed John because we couldn’t believe it ourselves, but it was definitely going down. John got short-changed on the whole thing."
When Lizzy broke up Sykes initially planned to continue working with Lynott in his new band Grand Slam, but an invitation to join David Coverdale's Whitesnake in early 1984 was accepted in time for Sykes to add guitar parts to Slide It In, which the band's US record company were refusing to release.
"I wanted Whitesnake to be leaner, meaner and more electrifying,” Coverdale told Metal Hammer in 2009. “I felt that we’d done extra- ordinarily well. We’d made six albums in just a few years. We did fabulously on those albums, but I really felt that we were flogging a dead snake. For me personally, I felt it was time for a change. I didn’t want to stay in the same old traditional blues and pop scenario.
"It was simply my choice as an artist. I wanted to pursue another direction. That was my whole modus operandi. The reason I invited John Sykes into the band was to actually afford that transition, or someone of that style and it happened to be Sykes. And that was it.”
Slide It In eventually sold more than six million copies worldwide and the following album, 1987, was even bigger, selling more than eight million copies in the US alone.
Despite the success, Sykes' relationship with Coverdale was fractious, and he was fired by the time 1987 had been released. He formed Blue Murder, who released three albums: their self-titled (1989), Nothin' but Trouble (1993) and the live album Screaming Blue Murder: Dedicated to Phil Lynott in 1994.
Blue Murder were dropped by their label after the release of the live album and Sykes formed a new touring version of Thin Lizzy, joined by Brian Downey, Scott Gorham and Darren Wharton. The following year he embarked on a solo career, releasing his debut album Out Of My Tree in 1995.
Sykes last solo album was 2000's Nuclear Cowboy, and, after two decades silence, he reemerged in 2021 with two new singles, Dawning Of A Brand New Day and Out Alive, promising that further material was on the way. It never arrived.
Fraser Lewry
Online Editor, Classic Rock
Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 39 years in music industry, online for 26. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.
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