Once great players that gone off the deep end and never really recovered

[Racerx2k]

You'd have to include Ace Frehley himself in that category, also.

I would also nominate Jake E. Lee and Tommy Bolin.

Absolutely. We had the chance to open for Ace, on his recent tour, but they wanted us to sell 50 tickets at $35 a pop! I'm thinking WTF is gonna piss away $35 on Ace?!
Opened up for him, back in 93', I think. Man, was THAT a dissapointment! I think they had a broomstick under his shirt to prop him up!

[Bert]

peter green?

Sad but true... I saw him at the Fillmore ~2000 for his "comeback". It was the first concert I've ever walked out of before it finished. On the bright side, John Mayall opened & put on a pretty decent show.

[Rupe]

Sad but true... I saw him at the Fillmore ~2000 for his "comeback". It was the first concert I've ever walked out of before it finished. On the bright side, John Mayall opened & put on a pretty decent show.

That's where I was going as well. I haven't heard any of his comeback material but I have yet to hear anything good about it.

How about Guy Mann-Dude

[Frigo89]

VINNIE FUCKIN' VINCENT AT HIS BEST!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0jTRq5rwX4

Derek Frigo was one bad mother fucker on the guitar, but his habits got the best of him

also, Why the hell hasnt Vito Bratta came back yet?!

[Axewielder]

Why the hell hasnt Vito Bratta came back yet?!

+1...Where is that guy? I remember something about a hand injury.

[Robert Burns]

Lick It Up is a kickass tune? I was about 7 years old & listening to my dad's Cream, Meatloaf & Sabbath albums when the kid next door first introduced me to Kiss. I couldn't work out what all the fuss was about. The stuff I was already listening to was cooler by far, and they didn't resort to wearing goofy makeup and playing out "personaes". Plus their tunes were more interesting, had better guitar playing and seemed to me (even that age) to have more substance.

** Boy you nailed that! Exactly how i feel..i never spent a dime on any
kiss album. Too basic and uninteresting. During their heyday, i was listening to Johnny Winter, Al Di Meola, and Hendrix

[LastInLine]

How about Vivian Campbell? I know he's been with Def Lep all these years now, but as far as I'm concerned he fell off the face of the earth after Dio.

Steve Lynch?
Gary Richrath?
Adrian Vandenberg?
Bruce Bouillet?

[psychlops]

It seems Rowan Robertson kinda fell by the wayside, too..

[El Chiguete]

Sorry, but Vivian Campbell has to be here. He rule when he was in Dio, and still in the Adrenalize era of Def Leppard if youve seen the concert in Don Valley you can see him go at it vs. Phil and I have to say that he does some very cool stuf there.

[horns666]

I heard Akira Takasaki isn't doing that great these days. He was a truly incredible player.

You guys can't forget when I walked out on George Lynch. That was horrible! I heard he has his moments..I guess that was a very bad one. He looked "happy" and alert and into it..but man. I'ves seen him several times before in the 80's..he was one of my fuggin' heroes along with Ed. Some people here saw that same tour and thought the same thing.

Warren D is still kickin' ass tho!

[Rupe]

I'm one of them, but he didn't even look into it when I saw him. I too walked out halfway through the show (it didn't help that his singer sucked balls too). I've seen some youtube clips of him recently and he seems to playing better these days, but still nowhere near where he was on Beast From the East and the first Lynch Mob album. He seems to have really "dumbed it down" for some reason.

[chrisolson]

I heard Akira Takasaki isn't doing that great these days. He was a truly incredible player.

I have to respectfully diagree - look at some of Roudness's more recent vids on youtube - you'll see what I mean. He still shreds!

Now on with the show...

How about...
Kane Roberts - Alice Cooper
Guy Mann Dude - Alice Cooper
Zakk (still a monster, but will never get back his Ozzy prowess)
Nuno Bettencourt - Extreme
Nick Bowcott - Grim Reaper
Slash (I mean really...Vlevet Revolver?!? Ish...)
Amir Derakh - Rough Cutt (Orgy...meh)
Marc Ferrari & Bryan Jay - Keel
Any guitar player for Lizzy Borden
Kirk Hammett (I hope the next one REALLY doesn't suck...)
Chris DeGarmo - 'Ryche
Paul Gilbert (say what you will - he ROCKS - but Racer X will never be equalled) I guess you have to put Bruce Bouillet in there too...
Tommy Skeoch from Tesla
EVH - sad really... If he could put out something new that was good, I'd change this IN A SECOND!!
Vito Bratta - White Lion
John Sykes & Adrian Vandenberg - Whitesnake

Just a few "where are they now" types. Some didn't "go off the deep end", but they did totally fade into obscurity.

[toejam]

Nick Bowcott - Grim Reaper

Nick was great! He's been working for Marshall's U.S. amp division for awhile, as well as writing for various guitar and music mags over the years. He still plays guitar, too.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=688735

[Downfall]

How about...
Zakk (still a monster, but will never get back his Ozzy prowess)
Nuno Bettencourt - Extreme
Slash (I mean really...Vlevet Revolver?!? Ish...)
Kirk Hammett (I hope the next one REALLY doesn't suck...)
Paul Gilbert (say what you will - he ROCKS - but Racer X will never be equalled) I guess you have to put Bruce Bouillet in there too...
EVH - sad really... If he could put out something new that was good, I'd change this IN A SECOND!!
Vito Bratta - White Lion

Just a few "where are they now" types. Some didn't "go off the deep end", but they did totally fade into obscurity.

Well, I can tell you where these guys are and what they are doing, I think your just trying to say these guys weren't as good as what they used to be, which you can say that about any guitarist.

Plus you are SO wrong on Paul Gilbert, Mr.Big wipes the floor with Racer X.

[pro-fusion]

If I understand Blazer's question, I think he's talking about guys who rose to fame and then sank into obscurity. If that's the case, I wouldn't include Tommy Bolin in that group. Tommy hit big with Deep Purple, the James Gang (he replaced Joe Walsh) and Billy Cobham, among others, before OD'ing. So he didn't really have a chance to drift into years and years of obscurity. In fact, the night before he died, he opened for Jeff Beck.

I was taking it a little bit differently. Guys whose lifestyle negatively impacted their playing, regardless of whether they remained popular or not. And Tommy's lifestyle *definitely* harmed his playing. Compared his work on Spectrum or the Alphonse Mouzon album "Mind Transplant" to the mediocre playing on Tommy's final album "Private Eyes". If all you heard of Tommy was "Private Eyes" or "Come Taste The Band", you'd definitely wonder what all the fuss was about.

A lot of the jam stuff the Bolin Archives released from the early '70s blows away anything else Tommy did.