andy timmons uk tour

Andy Timmons

As guitarist for pop-metal band Danger Danger, Andy Timmons toured the world opening for Kiss and Alice Cooper, sold over a million records worldwide more...

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Past Events

Here are the most recent UK tour dates we had listed for Andy Timmons. Were you there?

• Apr 24 2021 Online / Streaming Events Andy Timmons Plays Guitar 18
• Mar 27 2021 Online / Streaming Events Andy Timmons Plays Guitar 13
• Mar 20 2021 Online / Streaming Events Andy Timmons Plays Guitar 11
• Feb 13 2021 Online / Streaming Events Andy Timmons: Orange Swirl Encore
• Jan 16 2021 Online / Streaming Events Andy Timmons: AT Plays Guitar Part 5
• Dec 05 2020 Online / Streaming Events Andy Timmons: AT Plays Sgt. Pepper "Side1"
• Nov 28 2020 Online / Streaming Events Andy Timmons: Jimi Hendrix 78th Birthday Celebration Part 1
• Nov 21 2020 Online / Streaming Events Andy Timmons: Theme From A Perfect World Part 1
• Nov 14 2020 Online / Streaming Events Andy Timmons: Resolution Part 1
• Sep 05 2020 Online / Streaming Events AT Returns! Theme From A Perfect World Andy Timmons

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About Andy Timmons

From Hair Metal to a Sgt. Pepper’s Tribute, Andy Timmons Reveals the Five Songs that Have Defined His Career

The guitar great reflects on his time with Danger Danger, tackling the Fab Four's magnum opus, and how some kind words from Steve Vai made him re-think his recording approach.

In a varied career that is now more than three decades old, Andy Timmons has made his mark in genres ranging from glam metal and pop to hard rock and jazz fusion. 

He first came to prominence with the hair-metal band Danger Danger, which scored a handful of hit singles and albums between 1989 and 1992. His guitar solos were always a highlight of the band’s work, combining dazzling technique with hooky riffs, but the musical format was limiting. 

Timmons found much more room to stretch out after he left the band in 1993 and returned to his previous role, playing fusion with the Andy Timmons Band. He released two essential instrumental rock albums, Ear X-Tacy , in 1994 and Ear X-Tacy 2 , in 1997, with the best tracks from each combined for the compilation That Was Then, This Is Now: The Best of X-Tacy , released in 2002 as his debut on Steve Vai’s Favored Nations label. 

Timmons spent almost 15 years in the unlikely role of musical director for Olivia Newton John’s live band and continued to work on a variety of sessions, while also recording with Simon Phillips and delivering one of his strongest albums, Resolution , in 2006. But undoubtedly the greatest demonstration of his ability to wring the maximum expression from his instrument was highlighted on the 2011 release Andy Timmons Band Plays Sgt. Pepper , where he conveyed the essence of the various melodies, harmonies, and bass lines of one of pop music's landmark albums with just one guitar and no overdubs. 

Timmons recently released Electric Truth (Timstone Records), which – with its combination of rock, funk, and fusion sounds – perfectly encapsulates the essence of his style. 

“I think that’s true,” he tells Guitar Player . “My foundation is as a rock player, but my love of jazz informs everything that I do. I studied music for a couple of years at University of Miami, but even before that, my first guitar teacher when I was 16 – and I was already playing rock in bands by that time – was a huge Joe Pass and Barney Kessel fan. 

"He started giving me records to check out. I think that even though I’m playing rock, my note choice and feel comes from a jazz influence, and of course I also love blues. I think that’s the same for any player: What resonates for them and filters through them comes out in their own playing. 

"I had the benefit of an older brother. He was 12 when I was born in 1963, and he exposed me to so much great music: the Kinks, the Beatles, the Yardbirds, and the Dave Clark Five, and then Jeff Beck and Elvis Costello in the ’70s.” 

Timmons adopted a new approach for the recording of Electric Truth , recording quickly with a group of studio musicians pulled together by blues-rock guitarist, singer-songwriter, and producer Josh Smith. 

“It was fun, because it was a little off the beaten path for me,” Timmons says. “I’d really enjoyed seeing a lot of things Josh had done on YouTube. He told me that he’d just finished building a recording studio in L.A. and suggested that I come out to record. I was going out for NAMM 2020, so I went out three days early to cut the tracks at his place. I always love the feel of the bands that he puts together, so I knew it would be great. 

"We did the whole record in two days, then added overdubs on the third day. It was a really fast way of working.” 

The first track to be showcased from the album was “EWF.” “It is pretty funky. It’s very much a tribute to Al McKay and Earth, Wind & Fire,” Timmons explains. “That was all live from start to finish. That’s the only way to really get that feel. The quality of the band that Josh put together made it really easy to find that groove and make the track work.”

Although he’s known for his instrumental work, Timmons is a fan of John Lennon’s and Elvis Costello’s voices and hints that a vocal album may be on the horizon. 

“I do write a lot of songs with lyrics, but I am never tethered to a particular word when I’m composing a melody,” he says. “A lot of songs are inspired by emotions rather than something that could be expressed verbally. Having said that, I’ve got a lot of songs that I’ve written and a lot of unfinished songs that I’m planning to complete, a lot of which could well be in a vocal-and–acoustic guitar style.” 

Timmons took time out to speak with Guitar Player about his extensive catalog and tell the stories behind five essential tracks from his long career.

"Beat the Bullet" – Danger Danger, Screw It! (1991)

“As a career highlight, Screw It! is right up there. It was my first album and such an exciting time. Growing up, I dreamed of making records. By the time we hit with Danger Danger, I’d almost given up on that idea. I was in my mid 20s and already thinking that I wanted to become a great player and be a session guy. 

"Next thing I knew, we were opening shows for Kiss, touring the world and selling a couple of million albums. Danger Danger had bigger hits, but ‘Beat the Bullet’ is a favorite of mine. I really like its feel and my own playing on it. It’s got some interesting flavors with the jazzy, Spanish kind of intro and outro. 

“Even though I was in this kind of pop-metal band or hair band or whatever, I’d already been down the path of playing fusion, jazz, and classical guitar, so coming back full circle to Danger Danger was great. 

"I’d started off as a ’70s rock kid who loved Kiss, Ted Nugent, and Rush. I worked on this solo with my four-track cassette player, playing the section over and over to work out exactly what I was going to play. Those songs provided a very small moment to make a big melodic statement, and at that time you really wanted to inject a bit of flash – some guitar pyrotechnics – into your solos. 

"Ultimately, you want to create something that really serves the song and lifts it a notch. I think I did it with this one.” 

“Cry For You” – Andy Timmons, Ear X-Tacy (1994)

“I had the Andy Timmons Band before I joined Danger Danger and had recorded my first demo, which was an instrumental rock guitar track. Most of those songs ended up on my first solo record, Ear X-Tacy , which featured ‘Cry for You.’ 

"Like every other serious guitarist, I’d take whatever work I could get with a guitar in my hands. I was in cover bands, I was freelancing, and I was completely happy doing that. It was basically what I got back into doing after Danger Danger broke up. I think the live version of this song that I did with Simon Phillips, which is on YouTube, is the significant version of this track. 

"I was working with his fusion band, and he got asked to take part in the 90th anniversary concerts for Hoshino. We played with some of the other guys there, like Paul Gilbert. We did some of Simon’s tunes, and I was asked to pick one of mine, which was ‘Cry for You.’ I remember the gig vividly, because there were so many of my friends and heroes there, like Paul and Steve Vai. Knowing they were watching added an extra edge, and I knew that I had to really step up. 

"Also, the video was professionally recorded, and although it was never officially released, some bootlegs snuck out on to YouTube and that became a way that a lot of people got to know me after Danger Danger. Once that video got out, it really raised my level of exposure.”

“Deliver Us” – Andy Timmons Band, Resolution (2006)

“I picked this because it’s one of my favorite tracks from Resolution , my second album for Steve Vai’s Favored Nations label, and it was a real change in the way that I approached recording. 

"The previous album had been a compilation of things that I’d done earlier [2002’s That Was Then, This Is Now ]. There was one new track that I recorded for that compilation called ‘Falling Down,’ which was just the one guitar all the way through. Steve had said to me that he liked the way that track sounded, where he could hear the one guitar, the fingers on the frets, et cetera. 

“So after finishing the basic sessions for Resolution , I started to think that it was very much like so many other solo guitar albums, with layers of guitars and whatever. I started remembering what Steve had said about just using the one guitar, and I wondered if I could do the whole record like that, with no overdubs. So I scrapped everything that I’d recorded, re-learned solos and ideas that I’d come up with, and then recorded each track with just the one guitar part. 

"I gave myself the permission to compose every note on the album, though. I didn’t worry about the fusion mindset that I had, where I thought you needed to improvise like Steve Lukather or Larry Carlton. The thing then is to focus on the tone. If there’s just one guitar, then that tone had better be pretty strong if it’s going to carry the ball. 

"I took a lot of time on that album. I think I spent a couple of weeks really getting my sound right. Everything was mic placement and hands. I had to reinvent how I was doing things as I’d become inspired to try this new approach. I think the encouragement from Steve really sparked that new direction.”

“Strawberry Fields Forever” – Andy Timmons Band, Andy Timmons Band Plays Sgt. Pepper (2011) 

“In some ways, this track was the next logical step after Resolution , as I carried through what I’d learned from making that album. 

"Initially, it was just a one-off idea to do an arrangement of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever.’ I can’t even remember now what inspired me to do it. I think I just found the chords one day as I was playing. We started doing it live, and I was on a tour in Italy, and the promoter said to me that it was getting such a strong reaction that I should think about doing a whole night of Beatles songs the next time I was there. I thought, Are you kidding? [laughs] It was hard enough to pull off just that one song!

“But the suggestion got lodged in my head and set off a spark. I began to wonder if I could do it the way that I did Resolution , with just the one guitar part. Having done this track, the next song I thought of trying was ‘Lucy in the Sky’, which had that great intro. That led me to thinking, What if I could play the whole Sgt. Pepper’s album on one guitar? 

"Not with any intention of recording it – this was just for my own entertainment and satisfaction. It became almost like a hobby for a couple of years. I was always wondering how I could incorporate in one linear fashion the chords, the melody, the string lines, and the sound effects. I didn’t sit down with the record working things out; it was literally from my memory, reasoning that all the moments that needed to be in place to capture the spirit would be what I could remember. 

"I think that’s what made it interesting, rather than copying the record note for note, which has been done before.”

“Grace” – Andy Timmons, Electric Truth (2022) 

“Although I love playing all kinds of music, ballads give me the big emotional release that I like to have in a show or on a record. 

"The title ‘Grace’ and the inspiration for this came after I went to see one of the Experience Hendrix tours and got to hang out with a lot of great players. Billy Cox was on the tour, and I got the chance to spend a lot of time with him. He’s a wonderful, sweet cat, and I really had a vibe with his wife, Brenda. She’s a very sharp, soulful lady. 

"In our conversation, it came up that they’d been married for over 50 years. I asked what the secret was, and she said, ‘Grace.’ I was thinking about them when I wrote this. The Hendrix feel on the guitars is very deliberate. I played this on an old, white ’65 Strat, trying to get that flavor that Jimi would have had when he first went to London. I believe he was playing a white ’65 Strat at that point. 

"When I bought it, it had a really bad red refinish, plus a lot of other issues that made it much more affordable. [laughs] It just happened to sound great, so I had it resprayed. I sent the track to Billy and Brenda, and I was really pleased that they felt the spirit that I intended.”

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Mark is a freelance writer with particular expertise in the fields of ‘70s glam, punk, rockabilly and classic ‘50s rock and roll. He sings and plays guitar in his own musical project, Star Studded Sham, which has been described as sounding like the hits of T. Rex and Slade as played by Johnny Thunders. He had several indie hits with his band, Private Sector and has worked with a host of UK punk luminaries. Mark also presents themed radio shows for Generating Steam Heat. He has just completed his first novel, The Bulletproof Truth, and is currently working on the sequel.

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Interview: Andy Timmons

Andy Timmons: Very good. We had a great start in Krakau, Poland, where we've never been before. It's a very brief, but busy tour, which we like.

Andy Timmons: Yes. It's kind of a new concept. It's like a concert, but we take a couple of breaks and explain our guitar rigs and take questions from the audience. So it's like a concert with the opportunity to communicate with the band a little bit.

Andy Timmons: Musically it's exactly the same, we're trying to put the music across in the best way.

Andy Timmons: I get asked that a lot, when you meet somebody on a plane. "Oh you're a musician, what do you do?" I say, mmmh, it's kinda difficult to answer. Obviously I started as a rock musician, but along the way I studied classical and played a lot of blues and jazz and everything in between. I like to say I'm a musician that enjoys playing any style, but I may be more known for playing a blues or jazz influenced version of rock 'n' roll.

Andy Timmons: Steve Lukather was my biggest influence. I started with Ace Frehley and Ted Nugent, but Steve Lukather was the next guy that I really learned the most from. He had a great energy about the way he played, in a very passionate style, but he also had a little chromatic jazz influence as well. Mike Stern was another guy I learned a lot from. Pat Metheny, when I got into the jazzier side of things.

Andy Timmons: Absolutely. Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, The Beatles. '60s pop is one of my favorite eras of music. The melodic concept of Brian Wilson and his sense of harmony still inspires me.

Andy Timmons: I'm always going back to the earlier guys, whether it's Hendrix or Stevie Ray. Eric Johnson has been a big influence in the last 10 years. When we did the "Resolution" CD, we really looked at him as setting the benchmark for a great guitar tone.

Andy Timmons: I do, but I'm more interested in songs than in players. I love the last Coldplay album, because there's great melody. There's new guys like Derek Trucks and Joe Bonamassa, who really play well and say something emotional. In the whole shred world I'm not really interested, because there's just a lot of technique and not a lot of good music. I'm not saying that I'm making great music at this point, but I'm really trying to emphasize the song and using technique as a color to paint with. You need a variety of things to make it a listenable experience.

Andy Timmons: It's challenging. For the "Resolution" CD, we decided not to do any production, as far as rhythm guitars or doubling parts. I wanted to play every song with one guitar performance, so chords and melody had to be on one guitar track. I've done a lot of records, where I played a rhythm guitar track and the melody. It all started to sound the same to me. In doing it the other way, it's almost like you're a jazz player, but you're playing rock 'n' roll. Creating something with lyrics is a bit easier. You can convey a specific emotion. With a guitar, you have to do it without words and try to paint the picture sonically. There's so much room for growth and expression on the guitar. I think players have just scratched the surface what's possible. More dynamic could be included and more expression.

Andy Timmons: There's always that, but we tend to attract fans of instrumental music anyway. If people come to see us, they pretty much know what they're into. I have done some singing on records in the past and even now I sing one or two songs, depending on the mood. If we wanted to be a commercial success, we might be a little more concerned about that, but know we're just happy to play timeless music.

Andy Timmons: I do it both ways. "Resolution" started being all improvised in the studio. When we did the rhythm tracks, I was playing rhythm guitars and hadn't written all the melodies and solos, so there was a lot of improvisation. When it came time to finish the guitar tracks, I decided to scrap everything I already recorded, but I liked some of the solos I did. So I would learn the bits I liked from the improvised part and compose parts to go along with it to make one really cohesive piece of music. There are many tracks on my early records that are one take improvised and there's a great spirit about that. This is the first record I did this way, and I'm really happy with the result. I gave myself permission at one point.

There's kind of a stigma in some players heads about composing a solo, because if you come from a jazz background, that's completely out of the question. Every song has to be fresh and improvised. I believe that to a certain degree, but when I think this has to last for the rest of our life and hopefully longer and approach it as a composer, I don't have a problem with it.

Andy Timmons: Half and half. Some songs have a lot of improvisation like "Cry for You" or " Electric Gipsy", but a lot of time I stick to the composed parts. I need to keep a certain amount of improvisation in the show to keep it fresh and interesting for me.

Andy Timmons: That was interesting about "Resolution", too. When I listened back to the basic tracks we'd done, I wasn't that inspired. It seemed like I was kind of repeating things I'd already done. But by composing and thinking melodically, it forced me into areas I hadn't done things. It helped me finding new lines and licks. I would say I'm not copying as many guitar players these days.

Andy Timmons: It's either a melody in my head, or improvising something and deciding that I need to record and develop it. It can be a chord pattern. There's no set way. Anytime I practice, there's a tape recorder near by. Even from just playing scales. Invariably I get distracted and start playing some kind of melody, or a chord progression will happen and I like to record and document it, otherwise I forget it really quickly.

Andy Timmons: Not necessarily. Sometimes on piano, sometimes driving on the road and hearing something in my head and singing it. Sometimes I call my answering machine to remember a line or a melody.

Andy Timmons: I have a son, who is three.

Andy Timmons: Yeah, that's a very good hobby. So that's been my main pasttime. But there's always been music. Even, when I'm not playing or writing or recording, I collect records. I'm a big sixties music fan. Searching for music. It's my hobby and profession at the same time.

Andy Timmons: Well, life in general. A lot of my instrumental music has been influenced by particular events, or events in other people's lives. Real life is the overall influence. You have to live a real life to be able to be expressive on your instrument.

Andy Timmons: Obviously there are many plusses. For improvisation, they understand, when I might want to stretch, and they support that, or they might inspire me by what they play. I love playing with other players, too, but when it comes to create my music, Mike Dane just knows exactly to support anything that I come up with, song wise. He always plays the perfect thing and is not concerned about what cool bass thing he could do. You need somebody who's interested in music first and his instrument second. That's what it is to work with these guys. I feel very comfortable with these guys.

Andy Timmons: When I was growing up as a kid, I didn't really get Jimi Hendrix. His music sounded real harsh to me. I was into more pleasant, Beatles type of things. I really didn't dive into Jimi's music until the mid-'80s. When I moved to Texas, there was a guy I did some gigs with, who was a real big Jimi fan. He gave me a tape and said, "Learn all these songs." I never heard "Freedom" before or "Angel". So many things I really hadn't checked out. Obviously he was a genius the way he put things together. He took the Curtis Mayfield rhythm guitar playing, the Little Richard showmanship and plugged into a fuzzbox. It was unbelievable what he did. We take it for granted now, because everybody imitates those sounds, but when he came along - he and Clapton and Beck - they were so out of the game, so creative in what they did.

Andy Timmons: I'm very fortunate that I got to experience it when I did at the age I did. I was 24, 25 at that time. So I was wise enough to not to be too stupid on the road (laughs), but young enough to still enjoy and be carefree to a certain extent. The older you get, the more responsibilities you have. I prefer to do things out in the music business, where I know there might be some financial return from as well as enjoyment. It was a great experience, but I'm extremely happy doing the things I'm doing.

Andy Timmons: That was always my goal. I never got into music to be famous - for no other reason in that I loved music. Gene Simmons once was quoted as saying, "Anybody who says he got into music for any other reason than getting laid, is full of shit." And I totally disagree. I think there's people that do it because they love music and that's why I do it. The fame thing was fun and interesting, but I was smart enough to know - that's not real, that's not why I do it.

Andy Timmons: The dream rig, absolutely. The Lone Star came along three years ago. Actually I was endorsing another amplifier company at the time that worked on a signature amplifier for me at the time, but it wasn't 100%. A friend of mine works for Mesa Boogie and he said, "I got this new amp, do you wanna try it out?" I took it to a gig and I flipped out. It was a good night, and I got a lot of compliments on my tone, more than usual. So I knew right then, I had to make a decision between really playing what I wanna play and something that might be beneficial financially. Anytime I made a decision for financial reasons, it's never the right decision. It was the best decision I made, because I've been playing it ever since. And then they came out with the Stiletto. On the "Resolution" record, I was playing some Vintage Marshalls, a '68 Plexi and a '79 JMP. And they tweaked it towards exactly like I recorded with those amps.

Andy Timmons: The dream rig, absolutely. The Lone Star came along three years ago. Actually I was endorsing another amplifier company at the time that worked on a signature amplifier for me at thetime, but it wasn't 100 %. A friend of mine works for Mesa Boogie and he said I got this new amp, do you wanna try it out? I took it to a gig and I flipped out. It was a good night, well responded and I got a lot of compliments on my tone, more than usual. So I knew right then, I had to make a decision between this is really what I wanna play and something that might be financial beneficial. Anytime I made a decision for the financial reason, it's never the right decision. It was the best decision I made, because I've been playing it ever since. And then they came out with the Stiletto. On the Resolution record, I was playing some Vintage Marshalls, a 68 Plexi and a 79 JMP. And they tweaked it towards exactly like I recorded with those amps.

Andy Timmons: Now it's strictly A/B. It's like two sets of tones. I use the clean channel of the stiletto like a loud plexi, with a tube driver in front of it and the lead channel for a mid gain crunch, which gaves a tremendous bluesy, Stevie Ray tone. On the Lone Star the clean channel is for clean only, for a great 6L6 spongy clean tone, and the lead channel has that fat Texas kind of tone.

Andy Timmons: I use my first signature guitar from Ibanez. They made it 1994 as a prototype. There's another guitar on stage, a AT 300, which is a mahagony body/rosewood neck guitar. That's the guitar I used on "Resolution" primarily. But I gravitated back to the feel of unfinished maple.

Andy Timmons: Absolutely. I'm a big Stratocaster fan. I got a '65 strat that I love quite a bit.

Andy Timmons: The body shape and headstock is from a RG, but the neck is completely different. I had an old neck that I really liked and they copied it. So it was really just choosing the pickups and the hardware and the neck shape.

Andy Timmons: In the studio, anything goes for me. Live, I based so much of my music on this one and the AT 300, I couldn't play a whole night on a Strat.

Andy Timmons: I'm much more of a pedal guy lately. I'm using a Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man. It's analog and you can dial in chorus. It's the closest thing to tape echo I found. The digital sound is good and it's convenient and every song can have it's specific delay time, but I can never get the right sound out of it. I also use some things from a company called Exotic. I'm using a RC Booster, which is basically a clean boost. It just hits the front end and makes it sparkle a little bit The other one is the BB preamp. You can get a lot of gain out of that. I use it on the clean channel for a tube screamer breakup and I boost the lead channel. The Lone Star is not a heavy saturated amp, it's a good mid size gain.

Andy Timmons: I'm using a controller by GCX called "The Ground Control System". It's basically a patch bay that you can configure any number of ways, but I got it to where I can hit one MIDI switch and can change channels on the amps, go to two different amps, or turn effects on and off. So all my sounds are pretty much ready with one button.

Martin Schmidt caught up with Andy Timmons during his recent swing through Poland (and other European countries) to talk shop.

• International
• Central Florida

Interview (Part 2) – Guitarist Andy Timmons Talks Danger Danger, Guitar Lessons, and Touring For His New Release “Electric Truth”

• April 1, 2022
• International Interviews
• by Elliott Gordon Photographer/Writer

Available NOW, Andy’s much anticipated new album ELECTRIC TRUTH produced by Josh Smith. It’s earthy, funky and bluesy.  CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE to read Part 1 of All Music Magazine’s interview with Andy

While well-known for his early career work with Danger Danger, guitarist Andy Timmons has been a prolific and accomplished musician in the decades since, having released seven solo albums prior to latest release, Electric Truth .

In Part 2 of this intimate conversation, Timmons sat down with myself and my 17-year-old guitarist son, Zach, to discuss the differences between instrumental and lyrical music creation, his experiences giving online lessons, the music business education gleaned from his tenure in Danger Danger , what’s in his record collection, and his potential touring plans for Electric Truth .

Zach Gordon (All Music Magazine): What are the different challenges you face when writing instrumental songs versus lyrical songs?

Andy Timmons: I’ve gotten to the point where it is pretty much interchangeable, but only in that lyrically I am more challenged to really craft intelligent phrases and things that make sense and convey the emotion I want to convey. The reason that is more difficult is because language, the spoken and written language, is fairly finite. What becomes easier for me as an instrumental guitar player is I am not so concerned about the lyrical content. I am more concerned with the emotional and messaged transference, meaning I can convey whatever my inspiration for a song might be.

Sometimes music is just music and a cool riff, and an “OK, let’s go with that,” but there is a lot of music that I have written that was specifically inspired by a world event or things going on in life, whether happy, sad, or whatever it might be. I might be trying to reflect emotion that in the music. I really think that music can go deeper than the lyric, especially in the right hands with the right musician that is able to express it on a high level.

I think the guitar is capable of so much and we are just scratching the surface. Look a Jeff Beck , who is a hero to so many of us. He keeps growing and evolving and getting to a higher level of expression. That is how I see myself evolving, with time and getting better at the instrument and getting better at saying something musically that I might not be able to convey verbally. Music was always that way for me anyway, as I was kind of a shy kid. I am a little less-so now in some ways, but music was my safe place and solace. That is where I went when I was spending a lot of time alone growing up. Not a sad story, but just the way it was, and boy that was my safe place, and music is still that for me.

The real challenge in the difference is purely just the lyrical content and how can I craft a phrase that hasn’t been done or heard a thousand times, and still sounds cool and has a message. I like to speak on the instrument a lot, but I do also love writing lyrics.

Elliott Gordon (All Music Magazine):   Going back to guitar lessons, you have been very active online through StageIt and GuitarXperience , long before the pandemic froze out live touring for a period of time. As you have spent time on these platforms, what has inspired you or surprised you when engaging with fans this way?

Andy: There are multiple things for sure! There was a core of like 50-75 StageIt attendees that would come to every show, and mind you I was doing two shows every Saturday at 2pm and 8pm Central. That was over 140 shows, and some of them came to every single one of them! I tried really hard throughout that entire StageIt process to always make every show different. The 2pm and 8pm shows would always be different, but I kept trying to vary them as much as I could, just going through all my records over the years. I even did a couple of Danger Danger shows, or I would do just singing and playing acoustic guitar for a night of Beatles.

I would keep getting these emails just thanking me for giving people something to look forward to. Remember, and it seems like forever ago, but it was a couple years there where no one was going anywhere, and we were stuck at home and very isolated. What ended up happening is a nice community of people started getting together on a regular basis, and I was the catalyst in a way. I was coming to play some music, but there was a message board and they were all chatting and friendships were being forged. It was this thing people were looking forward to, so as tragic of an era for the planet and the people dying and the lives that were forever changed, there were at least those moments of light with something positive here.

With the teaching, I’ve grown into someone who really enjoys teaching. When I was younger, it was a bit of a chore because I wasn’t really sure sometimes how to articulate and explain some of these techniques I might have come across just out of years of naturally playing. Now I am in a position where I know how I did that or why I did that and what does it mean. I have plenty of education to know how to explain things in music theory terms, but also just the physicality and what I call the oralect – what drives that melodic instinct and where does it come from.

The fun thing for me is that, and I always tell students along the way that might feel overwhelmed, that I have to learn every scale and every mode with all the information available, but what is really important is just to make small little bits of improvement as frequently as you can. Like today, just go learn one little phrase or one little lick.

What I started noticing when I am teaching my own songs – and every month I put up a new song of the month – is that while it is important for me to be able to replicate what’s on the record, I also explain what I am doing. In doing so there could be a little phrase that might be something I’ve never done anything like before or since, but in re-learning it and going “Oh man, I wish I would have taken that idea and extrapolated it into as many different permutations as I could,” that little nugget could lead to all these other things.

That is the beauty of teaching, and a good teacher will not just say “Here’s the lick, here’s what’s going on, have fun,” but “Here is what it can also do if you take the time to see what else you can get from that.” I like to leave a student with a sense of “I’ve learned something, but now I can teach myself something.”

When I studied at the University of Miami, during my third and fourth years of college, I learned so much, but I knew I wouldn’t get through that much material in a lifetime. It is impossible, and it is somewhat infinite the world of music. That can be daunting to some, but hopefully for my students that check my lessons out, it is inspiring because you just need a little bit every day to feel like, OK, I am growing. That is the important thing to try and keep from getting stagnant or in a rut is open up those little doorways and make those differences. Those are the things I really enjoy about the teaching and the StageIt gigs.

Elliott (All Music Magazine):   You made a comment in an interview I read where you considered the Danger Danger days “to be your music business education and you really discovered a lot about yourself from those experiences.” Would you be willing to elaborate a bit on that thought? What did you learn?

Andy:  The music business part was the good, the bad, and the ugly, and mostly ugly. We got to be medium-level rock stars through the tours opening for KISS and Alice Cooper . We had some experiences that were irreplaceable, which of course I would have done for no money! The music business as it existed at that time, going into it as a naïve, early 20s-something young guy, I had nothing in mind except for I am going to try and play the best guitar I can play. After a while you start to take note that the musician and the music is kind of the lowest thing on the totem pole as it was a big corporate business. The more that I witnessed that I realized this isn’t really why I do what I do. I really didn’t start off playing guitar with aspirations of being the rock star, I just loved it.

Prior to Danger Danger, I’d approached my career geared towards studio work, even though I was in bands “trying to make it.” We all thought that was the holy grail, to get in a major label deal with a band like that. Part of the self-realization thing with Danger Danger was well, this was fun, and I love this rock and roll, but I love a lot of other things, too.

I was very much kind of a side man in Danger Danger . It was Bruno (Ravel) and Steve’s (West) band, and they were a really good songwriting team, and really smart guys. They were good leaders and writers, and they are the ones that got the record deal. I am just very good at being a team player. I love being able to know what is expected of me so I can come in and do the best I can. At the same time, I also needed to figure out what was my music and what I really wanted to do at the end of the day.

Before Danger Danger, I was already recording instrumental music like (Joe) Satriani and (Steve) Vai , and I had just started doing the Andy Timmons Band. That first recording from the Andy Timmons Band is the demo that got in the hands of Danger Danger, which is how I got recommended for that gig. I recognized that it was a great opportunity to be in a band on a major label and to be on a record.

That was a career goal being achieved, but the longer I did it, even if I loved the guys and had a great time, at a certain point I needed to do my own music. I stuck it out and we stayed together until the ship was just sinking as far as the music business with the hair bands, because we had Seattle, and rap, and MTV was changing course quite a bit, so it was kind of a losing prospect. At the end of the day, it was an incredible experience, where I got some music business awareness.

After that, there was a third record for Epic that we (Danger Danger) made called Cockroach, which eventually came out a decade or so later. At the time, when the band fell apart, there were lawsuits between the singer (Ted Poley) and Bruno and Steve. We wanted to release the record anyway, but they wanted a quarter of a million dollars to get the record, and well, I didn’t have that on me! (laughs) Why would you work so hard and put your heart and soul into something that doesn’t belong to you? That was the deal for many, and still to this day with the major label terms, they own that record.

From that point onward, I was going to record the music I wanted to record and I’m going to own it, even if I am just handing it out on the street corner. I am never going to be in a position again where someone is going to own my work. That just made no sense to me.

The first label I entertained working with was Steve Vai ’s label Favored Nations . When he started that label in 1999, his was the first label to come along and say, OK, this is a 50/50 split between artist and label once we recoup whatever expenses we have. It was a licensing deal, so I still owned the record and they are just the label partner. That made sense, and of course Steve Vai would be the guy to come up with that because he had been one of the guys screwed all these years ago with whatever projects he might have had, or at least was so aware of it that now he could benefit the players that he liked.

I was very honored that I was one of the first guys to be added to that label. They had Larry Carlton and Steve Lukather , and Steve had the first record Favored Nations put out and it was the live album of the year (2002). That’s pretty good! I was with some really good company. Having Steve Vai supporting you and giving you his seal of approval, so to speak, was not a bad thing for my career, with just establishing myself as that type of artist. I am not saying negative things about Danger Danger, because that was a great period of my life, but I had other things in mind as well.

Elliott (All Music Magazine):   I also read that you are an avid record collector. What was the first album you fell in love with, and is it part of your collection?

Andy:  Yes, of course! This is tricky because a lot of my early record collection was hand-me-down Beatles records. My first real Beatles LP love was Something New , which is one of the Capital American repackages from the English records. I got my first job around early 8th grade at 12 and I took my first pay from that week and went straight to Karma Records in Evansville, Indiana, and bought the Raspberries’ Greatest Hits and KISS Alive! . That was a good bookend, because the Raspberries were the next level, kind of carrying on what the Beatles had been doing in the early and mid-60s, but they also had a Beach Boys and Who-vibe to it. And KISS Alive! , man … you see that album cover, you hear that music, and I was off to the races! That is how I learned how to play guitar was with KISS Alive! and Ace Frehley , listening to all his solos and his great tunes.

Elliott (All Music Magazine): Final question. Should fans expect you out on the road supporting the release of ELECTRIC TRUTH, and if so, can I please put in a request for an Atlanta date?

Andy:  I have been hesitant to commit to any touring yet, but it feels like things are opening up, so hopefully later this year we will get out to the East Coast, maybe down to Atlanta! I would love that very much. In fact, that last time I played there might have been with Uli John Roth back in 2017. We had a tour back then with Uli John Roth, Jennifer Batten and myself. That was a blast and a great tour. Uli is quite a character and an amazing player, and Jennifer is brilliant. I am overdue for Atlanta!

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Elliott is a music photographer covering shows in Atlanta, Georgia, and the surrounding area. The highlight of his photography career was back in the early ’90s, when he sold Neil Diamond the rights to his negatives from a show and then purchased a set of tires for his 1979 280ZX during college with the money.

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GUITAR X PERIENCE

More than a lesson site.

Much more than a guitar lesson site, Andy shares details about every aspect of his musical past, present and future. This site will appeal to the most ardent student as well as the casual fan. Insightful and entertaining, this is a unique opportunity to “hang out” with Andy and hear lots of music, personal stories, and see rare videos and photos. Learn where Andy comes from and where he’s going!

Cover photo by Moti/Hoshino.

SONG OF THE MONTH

Andy will video an entire song performance and will also break down each section to thoroughly explain the techniques, harmonic structure, difficult or challenging phrases. Tabs and notation will accompany.

LICK BUILDER

Includes practice tips, ideas for broadening your knowledge of the fretboard and increasing your vocabulary. Going beyond just showing licks, these ideas will help you create your own ideas for soloing and melodic lines.

Each month, Andy will post a video answering questions sent in by GuitarXperience members. This is a great opportunity to interact with Andy!

CLASSIC ANDY

Members will have access to a wide variety of rare and unseen videos of Andy in action. Also, private photos with back stories including pics with Ringo, the Rolling Stones, Kiss, etc.

CURRENT SONG LIST

Songs are listed in chronological order with newest song at the top.

The Boy From Beckenham • Our Requiem • Lift Us Up • Beauty in Stillness • Cry For You • Valse Morrendo • Here Lies The Heart • Beautiful Strange Redux • Apocryphal • One Last Time • Grace • Take Me With You • When Words Fail • EWF • There Are No Words • Theme From A Perfect World • The Princess • Hiroshima • Ave Maria • That Day Came • Move On • Beat the Bullet • Sanctuary • Beware Dark Days • Redemption • September • All Is Forgiven • Lydia • Resolution • Welcome Home • Falling Down • Headed for the Ditch • Helipad • Firenze • On Your Way Sweet Soul • The Spoken and The Unspoken • Winterland • Carpe Diem • Beautiful Strange • Gone • Super 70’s • Turn Away • A Night To Remember • Pink Champagne Sparkle • The Next Voice You Hear • Groove or Die • The Prayer / The Answer • Electric Gypsy • Ghost Of You • Ascension • Puppet Show • Deliver Us • Farmer Sez

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“Absurd amount of talent”: Andy Timmons is in the studio with Joe Bonamassa – and the two melody masters are cooking up a virtuosic solo storm

Producer Josh Smith has shared a clip of the blues legends trading licks in the studio, with a follow-up to 2022’s Electric Truth well underway

Andy Timmons' new solo album is set to feature a mouth-watering collaboration with Joe Bonamassa, whose contributions to the upcoming effort have been teased in a new clip posted to Instagram by the record's producer, Josh Smith.

Former Danger Danger guitarist and Ibanez signature artist Timmons is currently tracking the follow-up to 2022 solo album, Electric Truth . The recently published behind-the-scenes clip shows the two revered blues guitarists trade lightning licks atop a Hammond organ-spiced track.

While Bonamassa sets to work on the freboard of his Gibson Les Paul , Timmons, armed with his Ibanez ATZ10P-STM, can be seen bounding about the studio full of energy. 

It’s a collaboration that has already got blues guitar fans hot under the collar, with one commenter simply stating: “Absurd amount of talent”.

“40 seconds is all you get,” reads Smith’s caption to the video, we imagine in reference to the solo JoBo gets to unleash on the upcoming record. “Such a joy working with my friend, the legend Andy Timmons again this week. If you'd have told 13 year old me I'd be producing my second album for someone who is such an influence and hero, he'd have never believed you.

“Can't wait for you all to hear the material Andy brought to the table on this one, killer stuff,” he adds. “Special thanks to my brother Joe Bonamassa for making the hang and having some fun with us on a tune.”

The other clip posted by Smith shows Timmons and his assembled band running through another song. During the clip, Timmons wields what appears to be his '65 Fender Stratocaster , in a not-too-common step away from his trusty Ibanez models. He uses the guitar to unfurl a lightly driven and highly soulful solo.

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Timmons is back in the studio following the NAMM 2024 launch of his new Keeley Electronics overdrive pedal , the Muse Driver.

“I don't have anything in my sonic world that's anything like it," he exclaimed of the pedal, which features germanium diodes for “all-out” fuzz tones as well as offering transparent clean boosts. 

“Holy shit, that's insane!" he beamed in a demo vid. “When we crank that drive up with the germanium engaged it's a super smooth, singing lead tone. I don't have anything in my sonic world that's anything like it.”

The launch of the pedal capped a busy NAMM for Timmons, with a new signature Ibanez ATZ300 prototype on display. He also rubbed shoulders with Tim Henson of Polyphia, stating the Texas-based pair will get together for a “tone quest” in the near future.  

In a surprise to absolutely no one, Joe Bonamassa has been rather busy himself. He's continued to collaborate with Epiphone, with the partnership's latest creation coming in the form of a signature 1963 SG Custom . Last month, Guitarist hailed it as “a stunning-looking guitar that covers pretty much any musical base”.

The hardworking bluesman also took Guitar World readers to Nerdville last month during a video in which he divulged the details on a very special "bronchitis" Stratocaster . In his GW column, he explains the back story of the 1969 "maple cap" Strat and why he’s named it after a not-very-sexy inflammation of the airways.

There is no more information about the forthcoming Timmons record as things stand, with production still in the works. Expect to hear more news from Guitar World as soon as we have it.

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A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog , Guitar World , and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis , in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He's also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.

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“When my dad passed, I didn’t know what happened to his ’55 Tele. I got a call: ‘I need you to check something out.’ When I walked in, there’s a guitar case on the floor…” Nashville session master Rob McNelley on Lady A, Buddy Guy and an emotional reunion

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Andy Timmons

ANDY TIMMONS

As guitarist for pop-metal band Danger Danger, he toured the world opening for Kiss and Alice Cooper, sold over a million records worldwide, and had two #1 videos on MTV, plus amassing a discography that includes 7 solo releases that range from blazing guitar instrumentals, to blues, and even a Beatles/Elvis Costello-inspired collection of pop tunes.

As a session player, he’s been highly featured on CDs by drumming legend Simon Phillips, a live CD with Olivia Newton-John (Andy has been her music director/guitarist for several U.S. tours), two internationally acclaimed CDs by Kip Winger, recording sessions for Paula Abdul, Paul Stanley, and countless radio and television jingles. He has also played alongside many of his heroes such as Steve Vai and Joe Satriani (as a regular guest on their G3 tours in Dallas), Eric Johnson, Steve Morse, Mike Stern, Ace Frehley, Ted Nugent, and Pierre Bensusan, as well as some of his fave ’60’s singing stars such as the Beach Boys, Lesley Gore, and Gordon Waller (of Peter and Gordon fame!)

Andy’s musical career began in his hometown of Evansville, Indiana at the age of 13 with his first band, Taylor Bay. “Early on, I realized that making it in a rock band was such a long-shot, that I better figure out other ways of making a living playing guitar. I began reading about players like Steve Lukather and Larry Carlton who made their living as session musicians. This really appealed to me, since I really loved a wide variety of musical styles.”

The decision to pursue the studio scene led him to more serious music studies. He studied classical guitar for two years before moving to Miami to study jazz guitar at the University of Miami (largely because the Dixie Dregs, Pat Metheny, and Jaco Pastorius had all gone there). He eventually ended up in Dallas where he was very fortunate to get a foot in the door of a very good studio scene. In 1988, the Andy Timmons band was formed and he quickly gained a following in Texas. Around that time, Epic recording artists Danger Danger recruited him to finish their debut record, film several videos, and begin touring.

After 4 years in New York with Danger Danger, Andy returned to Dallas in 1993 to resume his studio career and the Andy Timmons Band. His first solo release, ear X-tacy, was released in 1994 to critical acclaim followed 1997’s ear X-tacy 2. He then released Pawn Kings (1997), Orange Swirl (1998), The Spoken and the Unspoken (1999), and And-thology 1 & 2 (2000). In 2001 Andy signed with Favored Nations and released his first international record, That Was Then, This is Now, a compliation of the first two ear X-tacy records and and five new tracks. Resolution (2006) marks Andy’s first full-length new release for Favored Nations.