Steel Notes Magazine
January 2017
sure , maybe I ’ m being naive but it ’ s the only industry where you can be world-famous and be struggling at the same time you know what I mean . And it ’ s the only industry that you don ’ t necessarily go for the best of the best because it ’ s based on style and what the media is shoving down your throat you know what I mean . People don ’ t know to look elsewhere , how do they find out you know . And it ’ s just like non-musician types don ’ t really look beyond the radio . A lot of people just get in their car and turn on the radio and whatever it is , it ’ s like background noise . I mean if you watch the NBA or NFL you don ’ t just root for the guy on the bench you want to see the best of the best get up there because the excel and they ’ re great at what they do . But when it comes to musicians their art is not necessarily about how good they are or how good their choreograph is or what their stage show looks like it ’ s not even about its performance it ’ s about the music sometimes well most of the times it ’ s not even about the music and stuff the show you know , so the musician just gets lost in it . It ’ s a matter of taste I suppose because music is in the ear of the beholder so to speak and lack of education can also be a problem too That ’ s true ! Your kind of getting ahead of my questions here . ( laughter )
Sorry man ! No , that ’ s Ok ! Do you still have the Peavey Decade Amp and the Peavey T27 your first guitar ? No man , I don ’ t . That first Peavey guitar I think I sold to one of my school teachers for their kid and I don ’ t know what happened to the guitar maybe the guitar went with it . My best friend who always says I quit playing because Rusty kept getting better than me but he had a Peavey also and I ended up with that . First , we turned it into an Eddie Van Halen guitar and took it out in the garage and spray painted it , put all the pinstripes all over it and later I turned it into my Steve Vai meets Yngwie guitar which we painted fluorescent green and scalloped the frets and that one again , I don ’ t know where that one vanished to . It just funny looking back and seeing how things come full circle that I started with Peavey guitars and amps and ended up going on to endorse their amps you know it ’ s cool . But yeah , I have no idea where that guitar is at OK . You ’ ve gone through Ibanez you ’ re with Dean Guitars now . How did you get involved with Elliot and Dean Guitars ? Well that ’ s an interesting story . I got involved with Dean with a good friend of mine Mark Tremonti was at the Dean factory cause Mark ’ s a PRS guy so he was there with a friend of his Bill Beck who is a Dean artist also they just live by one another and they ’ re friends so Mark was tagging along and Elliot was talking to Mark and Elliot said hey many we ’ re trying to corner the shred market do you know anybody and Mark says well yes of course ! You need to call my friend Rusty and that ’ s where it all started . This was like , I think it was around December 2005 I think , if I remember correctly , I guess it ’ s been a while now and he asked me if I was going to NAMM in January and luck of the draw again I had been endorsing Intellitouch Tuners and one of the guys said hey man why don ’ t we get you out to NAMM this year ? I said OK so it was all a last-minute thing . So , I told Elliot yes , you know , I am going to be there this year . So , he said well stop by the booth and let ’ s talk . I said OK . So , I get out there and I sat by the booth and we ’ re talking and sheepishly we ’ re talking and I say well I don ’ t really play the crazy shaped guitars I play more like super Strat guitars you know what I mean . Because I wanted to hear more of what he had to say but I knew I ’ m not really like the ML type player you know like Dime plays or V ’ s but I went by and I talked to him anyway and he offered me a signature deal and he offered to build me whatever guitar I wanted to build and along the way on the conversation I brought up the fact that I play 8 string guitar and I played two different versions . I played an 8 sting that was high string A lowish B and I played an 8 string that was high E to low up sharp and I mentioned you know it ’ s like I don ’ t want to be playing a Dean Guitar and endorsing a Dean Guitar on this song and playing this brand of guitar on another song and this brand of guitar on another song which he completely agreed which I really didn ’ t think about that but why would he want me playing anything else but Dean Guitars and the Fan Frets is not an easy guitar to make and they never made one before and he looks over to one of his guitar builders and says , hey man can we do that ? And the guy looks over and says , yes , we can do that ! And that was it . February , they had me fly into Tampa they picked me up and took me to the Dean Factory and signed the RC 7 . So , that ’ s pretty much how that happened . It ’ s cool . Just like that you know and its funny I had also been with another guitar company before for Ibanez I
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