I’ve been playing guitar for the last several years in GAMMA Featuring Davey Pattison. GAMMA was originally formed in 1979 by Davey Pattison and the incredible guitarist Ronnie Montrose. Ronnie had different lineups during his incredible career, but GAMMA was one of the most memorable for me.

I grew up listening to GAMMA, and to say that I was blown-away when I got the call to play with them is a huge understatement. I still can recall the first time I played Razor King with the band, and near the end of the song I looked over to see Davey Pattison singing his signature, “Nah Nah Nah Nah” parts, well, my eyes literally welled-up with tears and I wasn’t afraid to let the band see that. You can see more on the present lineup of GAMMA at DaveyPattison.com.

After Ronnie Montrose passed away in 2012, there was an incredible tribute concert in his honor, with Sammy Hagar, Neil Schon, Joe Satriani (and too many to mention) in attendance. One of the tributes was a set of GAMMA songs featuring Davey Pattison on vocals. Soon after the concert, his agent Jim Douglas (from Prime Time Entertainment) suggested reforming GAMMA with the original frontman Davey Pattison at the helm. Not long after I got a call to sit-in with the band (Davey Pattison/Vocals, Dan Busch/Drums, Van Spragins/Bass and Brad Barth/Keys), and as they say, the rest is history.

 

Many people say to me, “Wow, you got some BIG SHOES to fill.” But I really don’t… Nobody could even take the place of the incredible Ronnie Montrose, so I don’t even try. I just do my own thing – while being faithful to Ronnie’s original guitar-vision for the band.

 

That being said, I would like to give a big warm THANK YOU to Leighsa Montrose (Ronnie’s widow), who is a kind soul who has always been a big supporter of me playing with the reformed GAMMA, and who knows I do my best to keep Ronnie’s dream alive. 🙂