Frank Hannon's songwriting prowess was one of the key ingredients in Tesla's rise to fame during the hair metal boom of the ’80s and, more importantly, for the band's enduring success – no mean feat, considering the fickle nature of rock ’n’ roll.
Love Song, from the band's 1989 album, The Great Radio Controversy, would not only cement Hannon's status as a top-tier songwriter, but the searing solo that defines the power ballad would also establish him as a force to be reckoned with on electric guitar. However, that solo – played on a Gibson EDS-1275 – was far from pre-planned.
As Hannon himself admits in an interview with Guitar World's Paul Riario, “That solo was one take unrehearsed in the studio.
“[Producer] Michael Barbiero was playing it back for me just to practice, and I was kind of pissed off at [producer] Steve Thompson – he was sitting on the chair there, razzing me,” Hannon recalls.
“And so I said, ‘Let me just practice it once.’ And he rolled it, and I was just in his face, you know? [demonstrates the solo] We turned around after it was done, and Michael Barbiero had a big grin on his face. ‘What?’ He goes, ‘I recorded it.’ And so he captured that and recorded that take. It wasn't even supposed to be a take. I could never have captured that again.”
Elsewhere, in another recent Guitar World interview, Hannon spoke about the loss of his father-in-law, Dickey Betts, who passed away last year.
“Coming from the West Coast in the ’80s, I wasn’t really influenced by Dickey until I met him 24 years ago, and we became family,” Hannon reflected. “His influence really wasn’t through the guitar – it was as a person, a survivor, and his stories.
“When we went golfing, we’d be laughing in the truck, talking about scenarios he’d gone through and survived, the integrity that he put into his music, and how he made every note count in his playing.
“Now that I’ve studied it more – even compared to Duane Allman, who always said he was the famous guitar player – Dickey was the great one. Even if he played a lot of notes, you could hear every single one. They all had a purpose.”
In more recent Hannon news, the Tesla guitarist is trying his hand at Western stylings in his new album, Reflections, which arrived last month, and which also serves as an homage to Betts.
