Born on 29 July 1959 in Reading, England, John Sykes began playing the guitar at the age of 14 when he was living with an uncle in Ibiza. Returning to the UK in 1976 John's family moved to Blackpool where John started out playing in the group Streetfighter who were quite well-known as a covers band. Growing tired of his day-job working on a construction site, Sykes came across a 'Wanted: Lead Guitarist' ad in a music paper for New Wave of British Heavy Metal outfit Tygers of Pan Tang. After answering the ad and passing an audition - beating over 100 other axe-slingers to the position - Sykes upped sticks to Whitley Bay, on the NE coast of England, where the band was based. Tygers had a recording contract with MCA and Sykes has cited this as his main motivation in seeking to join the band. Sykes contributed to three Tygers studio albums by the Whitley Bay-based outfit: ‘Spellbound’, produced by Thin Lizzy knob-twiddler Chris Tsangarides - a diamond-hard example of British Heavy Metal at its best, and ‘Crazy Nights’, recorded in 3 weeks under pressure from the band's record label, but not short on great Sykes riffs and licks nevertheless. He played lead guitar on two tracks from 'The Cage', released following his departure from the group (Love Potion No.9 and Danger in Paradise). During his time in Whitley Bay John shared a house in Cambridge Avenue with Jess Cox, the Tygers' original vocalist. John quit the band in a moonlight flit sometime in March 1982, ostensibly to play guitar for Ozzy Osbourne's touring band in the States. Although he auditioned for the role (with British rockers Magnum as his backing band), nothing came of this. A shortlived spell in the group Badlands followed, alongside bassist Neil Murray (together with whom he would later record some of the most important music of his career) and singer John Sloman, but a lack of enthusiasm from EMI put paid to their prospects.

In order to fulfil his contract to the MCA label, to whom he had signed upon joining Tygers, Sykes began work on a solo single with producer Chris Tsangarides, who had worked with Thin Lizzy. John asked Tsangarides if he could get Phil Lynott to play on his record. The result, the single ‘Please Don’t Leave Me’, was co-written by Sykes and Lynott, who became firm friends, and also featured Lynott’s Lizzy bandmates Brian Downey and Darren Wharton. Thin Lizzy happened to be in need of a guitarist to replace Snowy White and so Lynott invited Sykes to join Lizzy for the album Thunder and Lightning (for which Sykes wrote the song ‘Cold Sweat’) and subsequent tour, which took in Europe, Japan, the Reading festival, and some final shows in West Germany. The last ever Lizzy gig took place in Nuremberg on 4 September 1983.

In the Autumn of 1983 Phil Lynott decided to dissolve Thin Lizzy. Sykes appears on two Lizzy albums recorded in 1983: ‘Life/Live’ and ‘Radio 1 Live in Concert’ (the recording of Lizzy’s last-ever UK gig with Lynott). While Lynott mused over his next musical move John was being courted by David Coverdale to take the vacant guitar slot in Whitesnake. Although initially hesitant due to his willingness to continue working with Lynott, Sykes eventually agreed to a highly lucrative offer to join Whitesnake and recorded some guitar overdubs for the US release of ‘Slide It In’. Throughout 1984 Sykes toured (Europe, the US) with Whitesnake (which also featured Neil Murray and Cozy Powell) before playing what would prove to be his final gigs with the band at the Rock in Rio festival in January 1985.

Sykes spent that year writing and recording for a new Whitesnake album. In January 1986 John’s mate Phil Lynott passed away and John returned to the UK for some time out. Coverdale, who had himself been struck with a virus which prevented him from recording vocals for the album, somewhat insensitively took exception to what he regarded as a dereliction of duty on Sykes’s part and sacked him later that year. It has often been speculated as to exactly why Coverdale ousted Sykes from Whitesnake. Was it down to jealousy? It cannot have been a coincidence that Whitesnake only became a success in the US once Sykes joined. Or could the two men simply not get on? Whatever, as a songwriting partnership Coverdale and Sykes worked real magic and their songs hit heights that Coverdale could never repeat with other collaborators. Nevertheless, true Whitesnake fans appreciate the electrifying impact of Sykes (his guitar-playing and showmanship) as demonstrated at Rock in Rio in 1985, for example. Shortly after he was fired from the band Sykes decided to return to the studio and complete the lead guitar work on all but one of the Whitesnake ‘1987’ songs. He didn’t want to see a different player get drafted in to finish what he started (which did however happen with the new version of ‘Here I Go Again’). Although Coverdale wished to re-record the album with new personnel, Whitesnake A&R man John Kalodner held out for the Sykes version of the record and so it transpired that ‘1987’ featured musicians (Sykes, Murray, and drummer Aynsley Dunbar) who were firmly part of the band’s history once the record saw the light of day. The album would go on to sell millions of copies on both sides of the Atlantic, although Sykes would be denied the credit and plaudits his efforts warranted.

For more on John's time in Whitesnake, go to this page. While Whitesnake were transformed into a commercial phenomenon for the MTV generation playing many of the hits he had co-written such as ‘Still of the Night’ and ‘Is this Love’, Sykes began putting together a new band, Blue Murder. To begin with Sykes enlisted his former Whitesnake bandmate Cozy Powell on drums and ex-The Firm bassist Tony Franklin although Powell ultimately made way for Carmine Appice. John experimented with a number of vocalists (such as Ray Gillen with whom he wrote the song 'It's Too Late', which appears on the Discoverly fan club release) and Tony Martin, later of Black Sabbath, who co-wrote 'Valley of the Kings') but, following the advice of Kalodner amongst others, John concluded that his own voice was best suited to his own music and sang on the album himself. The eponymous album ‘Blue Murder’ came out in 1989 although it arguably suffered in the shadow of Whitesnake. Blue Murder toured Japan and the US, with the addition of touring member Nik Green on keyboards. A second, slightly more commercial Blue Murder album appeared in 1993, titled ‘Nothin’ But Trouble’. Although the recording process began with Franklin and Appice once more, the majority of the record eventually featured a new rhythm section of drummer Tommy O’Steen and bassist Marco Mendoza who would go on to become a dependable musical ally for Sykes over the years. Vocalist Kelly Keeling had been drafted in to sing on the album, but once again Sykes ultimately decided to perform vocal duties himself (thus setting the pattern for his subsequent career). Keeling is rumoured to have recorded lead vocals for all the tracks only for Sykes to replace these with his own singing later on all tracks except 'I'm on Fire'. A live album – ‘Screaming Blue Murder: Dedicated to Philip Lynott’ – was recorded in late 1993, before John was invited to reform Thin Lizzy, albeit obviously minus Lynott. This angered die-hard fans of the band who could not accept a Lizzy without its legendary and charismatic leader. John regards his time in Lizzy with Philip Lynott as the best part of his career, and it is perhaps for this reason that he feels most comfortable playing the Lizzy songs and spreading the word about Philip's genius. After persuading former Lizzy members Scott Gorham, Brian Downey, and Darren Wharton to regroup, Sykes toured Japan with Lizzy in this new guise with Marco Mendoza on bass and Sykes handling guitar and vocal duties after John and Scott invited Wharton to sing a couple of numbers but he felt uncomfortable singing from behind his keyboards.

After this Sykes put Blue Murder on ice, and began a solo career, simply as ‘Sykes’, alongside regular repeat outings with Thin Lizzy, latterly minus Downey - at first replaced by Tommy Aldridge (of Whitesnake fame) and subsequently Michael Lee (Page & Plant), and without Wharton who returned to making records and touring with his own band, Dare. John has been on the receiving end of much criticism for touring with Scott Gorham as Thin Lizzy, particularly from diehard Philip Lynott fans. It seems hard to justify his use of the Thin Lizzy name, although no-one can doubt John's love and respect for Lynott, the quality of the performances he puts in, and the great work he has done in taking Lizzy's music to audiences around the globe. Certainly, touring without the Thin Lizzy name would yield smaller audiences and thereby prove less profitable. However, a personal goal is to see and hear John play some of his solo material in the UK, and hopefully one day, that dream will come true. In the absence of European distribution and promotion for his own records, the Thin Lizzy tours are the only opportunity for Sykes’s European fans to see the great man play live.

The album ‘Out of My Tree’ appeared in Japan only in 1995. It sounded under-produced and is arguably the weakest of John's solo releases. Nevertheless, this career low was followed by two superb records in 1997 – the heart-wrenching collection of ballads ‘Loveland’ and the heavyweight and punky ‘20th Century’. Following renewed bouts of touring, John released the live Lizzy CD ‘One Night Only’ in 2000, followed in the same year by his own ‘Nuclear Cowboy’. This amazing record saw Sykes experimenting with modern musical influences (drum loops, programming and so on) without detracting too much from his trademark heavy guitar sound. Sykes’s most recent CD is the live album ‘Bad Boy Live!’, recorded on a short 2004 tour of Japan with Mendoza, drummer Tommy Aldridge, and keyboardist Derek Sherinian. It features songs from all eras of his career. Boasting a superb production and top performances from all the musicians, 'Bad Boy Live' demonstrates that John is a guitarist still at the very peak of his powers.