Trivia

Has 3 sons with his ex-wife Jennifer.

After leaving the group Tygers of Pan Tang, Sykes auditioned for Ozzy Osbourne's band and was briefly a member of John Sloman's Badlands.

Sykes mainly used EVH 5150 III amplifiers and cabinets. He previously used modified Marshall JCM800s for live performances. For Whitesnake's 1987 album and the first Blue Murder record, Sykes used two Mesa Boogie Coliseum heads with Mark III preamp sections and six 6L6 power tubes. For live performances, Sykes used rackmounted chorus and delay effects. During his first stint with Thin Lizzy, he used a Boss chorus pedal, which was retired after Whitesnake bassist Neil Murray complained it was too noisy.

At age 14, Sykes took an interest in the guitar when his uncle showed him how to play some of Eric Clapton's licks. For the next two years, he practised playing blues songs on an old nylon-string guitar.

John Sykes was an English guitarist, best known as a member of Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy and Tygers of Pan Tang. He also fronted the hard rock group Blue Murder and released several solo albums.

Sykes made his recording debut on the Streetfighter track "She's No Angel", which appeared on the New wave of British heavy metal compilation New Electric Warriors in 1980. Afterwards, he left Streetfighter to join Tygers of Pan Tang.

Following a stint in the heavy metal band Tygers of Pan Tang in the early 1980s, Sykes joined Irish hard rock group Thin Lizzy for their 1983 album Thunder and Lightning. He then joined Whitesnake with whom he recorded the multi-platinum-selling self-titled 1987 album.

In 2004, he was included on Guitar World's list of "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists of All Time".

Influenced by the likes of Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore and Gary Moore, Sykes was known for his distinctive playing style, characterised by his fast alternate picking, use of pinch harmonics and sense of melody.

In 2006, Gibson released a limited line of John Sykes Signature Les Pauls, which were modelled after his 1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom.