Sometimes guitar players can get carried away with their solos – but band managers can make some questionable calls, too. Jefferson Starship’s Craig Chaquico learned that firsthand while tracking a song that, had he succumbed to his manager’s demands, might never have reached such lofty heights.
His guitar solo on their 1979 hit Jane ices the cowbell-laced driving anthem in emphatic fashion. But it was nearly cut to shreds.
“Our manager was really down on it,” he remembers in the new issue Guitar World. “He actually came in with a freaking stopwatch and timed it, and then he said, ‘You've got to cut that solo down. It's just way too long.’ He was saying, ‘It's never going to get played on the radio!’”
Chaquico stood his ground. He loved the solo, and wasn't in the mood for taking the scalpel to it. The stand-off went to a vote. As Chaquico recalls, “The voting took place, the majority ruled.” The solo lived to see another day.
It was the record’s producer, Ron Nevison – who has a reputation for a hard-nosed way of working, as Nancy Wilson can attest – who ultimately swung the argument in his favor.
“Our producer threw his two cents in and said, ‘Keep the solo,’” Chaquico explains. “Now, every time I hear it on the radio, I go, ‘Right on!’ I'm glad we kept that solo.
“I remember the guys in Metallica came up to me at an awards show in the Bay Area,” he continues. “They were like, ‘When we were in high school, we really loved that guitar solo, because at that time nobody was playing long guitar solos.’”
In a new YouTube video with Music Is Win – AKA Tyler Larson – Dweezil Zappa also called the cut “one of the best underrated guitar solos.”
In 2017, Chaquico retrieved his beloved Sunburst 1959 Les Paul after originally fearing it had been destroyed during a riot in Lorelei, Germany, in 1978. The band had angered fans after announcing they wouldn't be performing that day due to singer Grace Slick's illness. A lot of gear was lost in the chaos, but none meant more to him than that Les Paul.
You can read his full interview in the new issue of Guitar World, which also ranks the greatest gear of the 21st century.
Head to Magazines Direct to pick up a copy.
