The tragic story of Jason Becker, guitar virtuoso

SIGN UP for 10 of the Craziest Stories in Rock N' Roll [Secret Playlist]: [ Ссылка ]

Check out our Top 25 Favourite Albums Here
[ Ссылка ]

Have a video request or a topic you'd like to see us cover? Fill out our google form!
[ Ссылка ]

-----CONNECT ON SOCIAL-----
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Blog: www.rockandrolltruestories.com

#jasonbecker

I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos.

Hailed by guitar magazine as the best new guitarist in 1989, Jason was said to be the next guitar virtuoso following in the footsteps of Steve Vai, Eddie Van Halen and Eric Clapton but within a few short years he wouldn’t be able to play guitar after being diagnosed with a debilitating disease. Today let’s take a look at the story of Jason Becker.
Jason Eli Becker was born in California to a musical family as his father and uncle were guitar players. The budding musician picked up guitar at the age of 5 and from a young age was extremely driven to master the instrument spending upwards of 10 hours a day practicing. Despite growing up in a predominantly black neighbourhood, he didn’t gravitate towards hip hop being heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Eric Capton, Eddie Van Halen and by the time he was a teenager he soon learned their songs note for note. By the time he was 13 he was able to give lessons to his own music teacher and playing his first gigs some of which incorporated some pretty impressive theatrics including playing guitar with one hand and playing with a yo yo in the other.
It would Shrapnel records head Mike Varney who heard a demo tape of Becker and was blown away. Varney suggested that Becker hook up with an older musician Marty Friedman on label’s band Cacophany. They would record a record and despite not being popular in America they toured Japan and sold out all of their performances in Europe. By 1990 Friedman would depart Cacophany and join Megadeth, I’ve done a whole video on Friedman’s time in Megadeth the link is down below. There was no bad blood between the pair and Becker would end up joining David Lee ROth’s band in 1990 in time for his record a little aint enough replacing Steve Vai who had gone off to Whitesnake
The foreshadowing of what was to happen to Becker happened during his cacophony days He would suffer from constant pain in one of his legs, that initially he thought was maybe a pinched nerve from carrying his musical equipment around.At the time he was 19 and like alot of young people thought he was indestructible and didn’t see a doctor at the time.
His health issues didn’t impact his audition as he got the job on the first try. Daid Lee Roth would write in his book Crazy From the Heat His parents had been Haight-Ashbury hippies. So instead of growing up listening to Eddie Van Halen and duplicating that, he had grown up listening to all the old classics I had – Hendrix, Dylan, Crosby, Stills And Nash.”
Roth’s label Warner according to Loudersound would give Becker a cheque for $75,000, a Christmas bonus of $500 and oryalties from Roth’s upcoming album. His career couldn’t have gotten off to a better start. The band would head to Vancouver to record with Metallica and Motley Crue producer Bob Rock, but that limp of Jason’s had gotten worse and he was struggling to make chord shapes on his guitar, let alone play the track he wrote on the album Drop in the bucket. It was one day in the studio after being frustrated with his playing he locked himself in the bathroom and noticed his hands looked different. He soon visited a doctor and was diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gerrig’s Disease a neuromuscular condition that took Jason’s ability to control his body. The doctor’s gave Jason 3 to 5 years to live, but the guitarist refused to believe it. His boss David Lee ROth would be heartbroken by the news telling Loudersound “Man, I cried when that verdict came in,”. “Trying to hire genius is damn near impossible, but I came close with Jason. You could feel the heat coming off him.
“That kid could move air. He had such a full, substantial sound, played through the simplest equipment. And the kindest, gentlest, absorbing, want-to-learn spirit I’ve ever worked with. The world was waiting to paint his picture, man. And he got struck down way too fucking early.”
Within a few years of him leaving David Lee Roth’s band his health deteriorated rapdily. He went from walking with a cane to being in a wheel chair, to being no longer able to speak, let alone play guitar. While ALS may have robbed his physical abilities his mind is still sharp. His father would devise an alphabet board that allowed him to speak Not only that b

свернуть