Kelly designer passes away.

[THETRIUMPHOFSTEEL]

What a tragic story. Rest in Peace Brad..

[Accept2]

Cant the same be said of the RR? Did Randy just draw a triangle, and the rest was done at the shop, modelling after the VVV which was also being built?..............

[Burger666]

Dear JCF'ers,

In 2001, while I was working for Australian company Central Musical Instruments, I tracked down Bradford Kelly who I had admired as a kid. Brad played full-tilt 80's rock guitar in a band called Heaven. Heaven used to frequent my favourite clubs in Melbourne so I was fortunate enough to see them often. I digress.

CMI were, in 2001, the Australian distributors for Jackson/Charvel. I was their Product Manager and Marketing person. I thought it would be a good exercise to track down Brad and get his story as far as the 'Kelly' design was concerned. I was going to run the story in Australian Guitar Magazine and maybe get the Jackson US folk to formally acknowledge Brad as the mind behind the success that the Kelly had since become - at least!

Thanks to a network of friends and Sydney music luminaries I was able to track down Brad. Brad was blown out when I rang one morning in late 2001. He was an extremely humble guy who never made efforts to stake a claim in his design. Indeed, he had largely left the metal scene behind and appeared to be unaware of what exactly he had helped to create - a legendary and timeless design.

With Brad's blessing I recorded an 11 minute interview with him. It's a very enlightening conversation and goes a long way to explaining the actual circumstances and the subsequent birth of the Kelly. I believe it's the only recorded document of Brad that is in existence, apart from his work with Heaven. I also have a photo of Brad from the same period ('01) taken in a Sydney music store to accompany the article.

I would be happy to give you these files as long as they serve to honour Brad.

Let me know if you're interested, how you intend to launch it etc, and we can come to an arrangement.

Cheers,

BRETT KINGMAN

[Mario8672]

As a KE owner, I have to say it's definately my favourite Jackson shape, (with Rhoads at #2) RIP!

[VitaminG]

wow, that would be very cool to hear and see, Brett

[MEX3]

wow, that would be very cool to hear and see, Brett

+1

[StukaJU87]

+1

+2. I have 2 Kellys. Love the guitars.

[shreddermon]

+3. I just had the cusom shop do a Kelly for me. Have always loved the design, and would like to see the vid. Maybe post it up on YouTube?

[Jackson-Charvel]

I would love to see that!!! Sounds like a great person that never let rock stardom turn him into a jerk! What a great thing to see Brad up in Heaven some day, and reminisce about his awesome design! The Jackson Kelly XLR was my first Jackson and I still have it. This story makes that guitar more special to me now. Rest In Peace Brad.

[Burger666]

This is a transcription of the phone interview I did with Brad in 2001. It's introduced by the preamble that I was going to run with the interview in Australian Guitar Magazine the same year. You'll notice that I call Brad 'Kelly'. This is because he liked to be called that. Brad also refers to a 'Mark'. This is Mark Evans of early ACDC fame, salesman at Sydney's Downtown Music, and mutual friend.
I'm in the middle of putting up a temporary site for myself. When it sees the light of day (hopefully in a week or less) I'll up the audio to it and post the link so you can hear for yourselves this interview. Alternatively, if any of you have respectable sites I can ftp it to you. Let me know.

As these threads only allow 10000 character posts, I'm going to post this in two parts: 1st - what you're reading now plus the preamble, and then 2nd - the interview itself.

Cheers,

Brett Kingman
[email protected]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kelly Interview 23/03/01

For years I had suspected that the svelte, Explorer-like Jackson Kelly might have and probably was designed by the guitarist of the same name from early 80’s metal band Heaven. I had even taken the liberty of assuming that my suspicions were true and relaying the same information to Jackson dealers in my capacity as Product Manager for CMI, the Australian company that import and distribute Jackson. After stumbling across the Jackson Museum website – www.jacksonmuseum.com - and reading an article that alluded to the same vague history, I had to find out for sure. My travels as PM for CMI took me to Downtown Guitars in Sydney last month where I told the same legendary story (that really, I had made up, based on my own assumptions) to eager ears. Two of these pink receptacles belonged to one Mark Evans whom, I was soon to learn, was bass player in Kelly’s band Heaven! Obviously, my search for the truth was a destiny that had been mapped out for me . Mark, being the ace bloke that he is, agreed to help me find Kelly (legend has his real name as Bradford Kelly) and a couple of weeks later I was presented with a phone number. I must add at this point that I had been a big fan of Kelly’s. I used to go and see Heaven at Melbourne’s Prince of Wales Hotel. They were loud, rockin’, 80’s glam heroes who played tough, not unlike contempories such as Ratt et al. I loved it. I still dig out that stuff every now and then. Big hair, big amps, big poses, big guitars. Heaven were kings of the genre in Australia and I was a major fan. I always thought Kelly deserved far, far more recognition for his part in the design and naming of a metal icon and I was going to deliver the message. Now that I had the phone number I was scared shitless. I didn’t know how Kelly would feel about someone digging into his past, whether he would be pleased or annoyed, flattered or pissed off. What I found was a modest, unsung and genuinely nice bloke. This is the conversation I had with him...

[Burger666]

Brett K - You there mate? (checking mic levels on tape recorder)
Kelly – Yeah mate..(clears throat)..yeah mate, sorry.
BK – Righto, we’re rockin.
Kelly – Ok, I heard they were going to reissue it, Mark said.
BK – What’s that?
Kelly – The ahh..the Kelly guitar or whatev..whatever it’s called.
BK – Reissue it!?
Kelly – Yeah..
BK – It’s a mainstay, it’s an absolute rock icon!
Kelly – Is it?
BK – Has been for about ..15 years!
Kelly – Yeah? Unbelievable.
BK – So that’s why I reckon you know, you deserve a bit more attention than you might have gotten. Has anybody actually acknowledged your status as designer of the guitar?
Kelly – No mate, none at all.
BK – None at all??
Kelly – Only Jackson by naming it after me..
BK – Gosh..
Kelly - ...but after that it was like ..dead in the water mate, as far as anyone talking to me or um..I mean people who play it and that, if you know what I’m saying?
BK – Yeah.
Kelly – Sometimes..I’ve been to LA a few times and lived there and ahh, talking to cats in the bars and that and they go, “Oh, you’re that cat who designed that guitar are ya?” So, they know but, d’ya know what I mean?
BK – Now they’re going to know a lot more..
Kelly – (laughs) ..but you’re right, so they should, so they should!
BK – Do you remember when you got together with..who was it, Grover that you dealt with then?
Kelly – Yeah well, when we were over there in about ’85 or something, he used to come to our gigs and ah, I used to talk to him and stuff and we were getting a deal with um, Hammond in Chicago...
BK – er, Hammond?
Kelly – Yeah, in Chicago..
BK – Ok..
Kelly – right? And the thing with Hammond is they wouldn’t do a design, they’d only do a paint job..
BK - ..right
Kelly – ..right? So I had just had this, this idea for something but ah, I was talking to Grover and he said he’d cut it up for me, like do what I wanted. And that’s how we basically got together and of course we were in California living there; he’s in California and it all just came together. Type of thing.
BK – How did you meet him?
Kelly – Ahh like I’m saying, he just came to gigs and um..
BK - ...so he was a Heaven fan?
Kelly – Oh, he was like, ..his idea was like to hang out with bands and give them his guitars because he wasn’t really happening then as a company...they were still up and coming..
BK – Ok. So, was he working out of a little workshop with Wayne Charvel? Was he (Wayne) involved then do you remember?
Kelly – Yeah, Charvel was still there, yeah. Yeah, because they were both together. Charvel Jackson they were called.
BK – And you had used his guitars before, is that right?
Kelly – No um, just talking to him and knowing other bands in Los Angeles like Ratt and all them..
BK – Warren DeMartini and all those guys?..
Kelly – Yeah, all those guys..well he’d give them his guitars type of thing so they’d be seen playing them and um, and of course those guys used to come ‘round to our house and stuff and they’d be raving their heads off...
BK – (quiet chuckle – knowingly)
Kelly – ...yeah, like “Oh, you should see this guitar I got man!” and all this stuff, you know? Um, that’s how it kinda came together. And I just talked to Grover at a gig once, he came and saw us playing like after it and stuff..and I told him I had an idea, and two days later we went out to the factory, we cut it up, and then they started mass producing them! (laughs..dissapointingly)
BK – Far out.
Kelly – Yeah, they didn’t even say anything..to me or anything...
BK – Some guy in LA actually owns that original black one now.
Kelly – Does he?
BK – Yeah ...J00029 or something, you probably don’t remember the number, do you?
Kelly – No, I wouldn’t remember the number mate.. when I bought it back to Australia the neck warped.
BK – Oh god.
Kelly – Yeah, like it went south do you know what I mean? And um, I couldn’t use it. And I think I swapped it for an amp over here..and I told the guy the neck was fucked but he still wanted it because of what it looked like and stuff. And, I don’t know where it went to after that.
BK - ..I think it ended up in Adelaide and last I heard it was sold to a guy in LA who’s held on to it cos there’s actually a picture of it on a website.
Kelly – Oh yeah, well maybe the neck went...cos I thought if you took it back to California maybe the neck would settle down again.
BK – Cos it’s back in the usual climate?
Kelly – well yeah, you know, I thought it might have been the altitude or something..you know what I mean? (both have a laugh..)
BK - ..heheh, you never know..
Kelly – you, heheh, you never know mate!
BK – Did you put the Yamaha Floyd on it?
Kelly – No the one I got was without a Floyd..
BK - ..right..
Kelly - ... and of course, like I’m saying, we just did a prototype, real quick, and ah to tell you the truth, I don’t know whether you want to put this in the interview but they never really made it right.
BK – Grover never made it right?
Kelly – Nah, there’s a design that I got that’s like.. the same kind of thing but just a bit different.
BK – OK, in the shape profile or?...
Kelly - ..the shape’s the same but it’s hard to describe the idea I had. They kind of made a short version of it, my one’s a bit longer, more body to it. Like, where you put the guitar strap on, that’s in a different position too, it’s on the back of the guitar instead of down the end. Cos the thing is, when you put it down the end, cos there’s so much body there it pushes the headstock and the neck over to your left?..
BK - ..right, yep..
Kelly – well the idea I had, if you’ve got it hooked on the back, it’s more of a snug fit and the guitar sits more down to your right, know what I mean?
BK – Ok, so the centre of balance is better?..
Kelly - ....the centre of balance is better, heaps better.
BK – Have you got that design still on paper?
Kelly – No I haven’t...the whole thing was in my head and I just, when I was talking to Grover, like when I was over there that time, I just went home and drew it up you know?
BK - ..yep..
Kelly - ...and just took the pictures to him and had a discussion with all the guys who cut ‘em up and stuff and told ‘em what I want.
BK – Do you remember any of the guys names that were working on it with you?
Kelly – No mate, I couldn’t tell you. There was about five guys.
BK - ..because there’s a website called Jacksonmuseum.com...
Kelly – Oh yeah..
BK - ...I don’t know whether you’re net connected or not, you might want to have a look at it and a bit of a chuckle...
Kelly - ..uh huh...
BK - ..but whoever the luthier was that you worked with over there, he called you Kelly Haese I think...
Kelly – What did he call me?
BK - Kelly Haese...it was one of the other guys in Heaven that had the surname Haese wasn’t it?....
Kelly – Haese (haze?)..
BK – Haese was it?
Kelly - Yeah that was um, geez, he wasn’t even in the band then..
BK – Wasn’t he??
Kelly – No..heheh.. he’d ah..got booted! Cos he couldn’t play you know? Heheh..
BK – Well, heheh, that’ll do it!
Kelly – That’ll do it every time man!
BK – Did you specify which pickups you wanted?
Kelly – Yeah...
BK – What were they?
Kelly – I think I wanted some Duncan PAF’s I remember..
BK – Ok..
Kelly - ..I was big on them. But like I’m saying, with all these other designs I got in my head for it, I would ...single coils on it and stuff like that I was looking at with a Strat switch and ..just some different things, you know what I mean?
BK- Yeah...
Kelly – That was the ideas I had...
BK – Have you designed any guitars since?
Kelly – Not really, no. When I was over there when Mark was in the band I designed a Tele for him ..all I did was just make it a bit futuristic you know?
BK – He’s probably still got that Tele, has he?
Kelly – Ahh..don’t know what he did with it mate. I think the neck warped again...(laughs from both) I swear to god mate, they went south! I mean they were alright in California, like over in America even when we played up in Detroit and in the snow and all that shit you know? Bought it back here and the neck just went..
BK – Could’ve gone in the plane, they often do.
Kelly – Dunno, but geez they went south! Both of ‘em.
BK – Wow! Very interesting...
Kelly – And like you couldn’t tighten the truss rod or anything, you know what I mean? Just wouldn’t work.
BK – So who are you playing now, you were working with Gin House for a while weren’t you?
Kelly – Yeah that was good but, ran its course. Not doing too much these days mate, there’s not fucking that much around to tell you the truth..
BK – No, I know, that’s why I’m ....(trails off into conversation about me and my work with James Reyne, lets have beers etc, etc.)
BK – Do you still listen to any of the old Heaven records?
Kelly – Oh no, I’ve never really listened to anything I’ve recorded, like after you’ve recorded it’s like oh well, that’s it!
BK - ...been there done that?...
Kelly – That’s it you know, what you give is what you get. Don’t get me wrong. You listened to them in the studio, made sure they were pretty happening..

[Burger666]

BK – Great live shows mate..
Kelly – Oh yeah, thanks mate.
BK - ..I used to dig ‘em at the Prince of Wales in Melbourne..
Kelly – They were good gigs then. There were so many fucking gigs back then it was unbelievable..
BK – Yeah, Melbourne’s still pretty good. There must be 70 or 80 venues.
Kelly – Yeah? What’s the jazz scene, I’ve been getting into the jazz scene lately?
BK – Ahh.. right, the plot thickens...
Kelly – I’m a jazz buff, you know?
BK – So you’re playing jazz guitar? What actually are you playing at the moment?
Kelly – I’m just using a Les Paul right now cos I’m financially er..
BK – Financially strapped?
Kelly - (laughs) Yeah, well this life I picked mate, playing guitar just didn’t pay off you know?
BK – Mate, tell me about it. I hear ya.
Kelly – It’s a fuckin trip isn’t it?
(Kelly expresses interest in meeting the Megadeth guitarists next week..seeing as they’re using his model..)
BK – You’re not working with a specific band at the moment?
Kelly – No, I’m just backing up a couple of acoustic guys, like I just back them up with leads and stuff. But, you know, it’s all freelance really. You know, that’s about it. Anything you can get these days!
(conversation trails off again cussing the state of the music industry in Australia)
BK – OK, thanks Kelly!
Kelly – Alright well have a good day and nice talking to you mate!
BK – You too mate!
Kelly – See ya!
copyright © Brett Kingman 2001.

[MEX3]

Thank you much sir.

[CharvelRocker]

Thank you much sir.

That about summed it up for me.

[Jackson-Charvel]

That was very nice. No mention of Mike Shannon though. I guess that rules him out. Just curious how old was Mike Shannon in 1983? Was he working in the custom shop back then? Seems he would have been a teenager...


EDIT:

My bad, I was confoosed

I got Mike Shannon confused with Mike Learn.