Joan Jett’s 1981 anthem I Love Rock ‘n Roll is an electric guitar – and air guitar – classic, and Ricky Byrd says he received some crucial advice from Leslie West before tracking its guitar solo.
The song was originally written by the Arrows' Jake Hooker Alan Merrill in 1975. Jett, who reportedly saw the band perform the track on TV, brought it to the Runaways with the view of covering it. Though the idea was dismissed, she revived it when she went solo at the start of the 1980s.
Speaking in a new interview with Guitar World, Byrd – who served as Joan Jett's guitarist at the time, and helped her track the I Love Rock ‘n Roll record – says he didn’t put much thought into his solos across the album, seeing himself as an “on-the-fly” player. It brings the best out of him.
“I kind of like that panic mode when they hit the record button,” he says, “and you go through things where you do five takes of a solo, and you pick the best one, or maybe you comp it.”
That being said, he confesses to approaching I Love Rock ‘n Roll with a little more pre-planning. For that, blues rock legend Leslie West stepped in to lend a hand.
“At the very beginning of it, I pulled for the version she did on the demo with some of the guys from the Sex Pistols, if I remember correctly,” he explains. “And I do remember asking Leslie West, ‘How should I go about this song?’ He said, ‘Play a melody.’
“I remember that as if it were yesterday. He said, ‘Make sure it’s a melody.’ And if you listen to Mountain’s stuff, it always had a melodic style to it. I think my playing does that, you know?”
Byrd isn’t the only guitarist that West gave some melody-driven advice to. When recording his first solo album, Joe Bonamassa was told he’d be West’s favorite guitar player if he only played fewer notes. Likewise, Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre has also recounted how West influenced his playing on one of the prog legend’s most iconic songs.
The full interview with Ricky Byrd will be published in the coming weeks.
