Episode 40: Right Song, Wrong Timing | The Guitar Stars Who Almost Took Over the '80s

Some guitarists become legends.

Others seem destined for superstardom... until something gets in the way.

In this episode of Right Song, Wrong Timing, we're revisiting five incredible guitarists who had the talent, the songs, the look, and the momentum to become some of the biggest rock stars of the 1980s.

From Charlie Sexton and Lita Ford to Andy Taylor, Robin George, and Aldo Nova, we'll explore the moments when everything seemed to be falling into place, and the unexpected twists that changed the course of their careers.

Some battled image.
Some battled record labels.
Some were caught in changing musical trends.
And one lost the opportunity of a lifetime almost overnight.

Plus, we'll mix up The Tube Screamer, a cocktail inspired by one of the most iconic guitar pedals ever made.

So pour yourself a drink, turn it up loud, and join me as we ask one simple question...

What happened?

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

There are guitar players from the 80s that everyone remembers. Eddie Van Halen, slash Joe Satriani, Steve Vi, but what about the ones that almost joined that list? The guitar players who had the songs, the talent, the look, and the MTV videos. And for one brief moment, they looked like they were about to become the next great guitar superstar. Some even had hit records. So what happened? Today, we're reopening five stories from the 1980s that deserve another listen. I'm CRISPR and welcome back to Who Ordered the Pie, the podcast where music history, the stories behind the songs, and Little Something Your Glass all come together. You know, the 1980s gave us no shortage of guitar heroes. Every year seemed to introduce another player who looked destined for arena tours, magazine covers, and platinum records. The five musicians we're talking about today all had something else in common. They weren't just incredible guitar players, they were also the lead singers of their own bands. Some of them became household names, but others quietly took a different direction. Today we're talking about five incredible musicians who seemed destined to superstar them, but somehow never quite got there. Let's open our first case. The very first time I heard that song, I honestly thought it was a new David Bowie single. Charlie's voice had that same rich lower register that Bowie used on songs like China Girl. So for a minute or so, I was convinced it was Bowie. Then the DJ comes on and says, that was Charlie Sexton. I had never heard of him. I loved the grit behind the song and I loved the resonance in his voice. So I immediately went out and bought the album because I absolutely loved it. And I wore that thing out front to back. I knew every song. I couldn't believe that someone that young had made a recording that good. I became an instant fan. So when Charlie came through San Francisco on his first tour, I had to be there. He played at a place called Wolfgangs up in the city, and a few of my buddies came with me. I remember they gave me so much crap saying, This kid's only 16 years old, are you serious? But by the end of the show, they weren't laughing anymore. They were absolutely blown away. Even then, you could tell he wasn't just another MTV artist. The kid could absolutely play and sing. Troy Sexton Olsen didn't look like anybody else on MTV. He was this skinny kid, almost like Bowie in his thin white Duke days. And he also looked like Edward Scissorhands before Edward Scissor Hands even existed. And somehow it worked. He wrote his own songs, he had a great voice, and was already an exceptional guitarist. MTV embraced him, and Beat Soul Lonely cracked the top 20. It looked like Charlie Sexton was about to become one of the next big stars of the MTV generation and one of the next great guitar heroes. But almost immediately, Charlie found himself caught between two different versions of who people thought he should be. Back home in Austin, he was known as a genuine guitar prodigy. He had grown up playing blues and roots music and had already performed with musicians far older and more experienced than he was. But his first album introduced him to the rest of the world as something very different: the hair, the makeup, the polish production, a teen idle image. Some people actually thought that the record company had manufactured the whole thing. Charlie always insisted that that was a record he wanted to make, but the image became so powerful that sometimes it overshadowed the musician underneath it. Instead of being recognized as one of the best young guitar players in the country, he was often treated like the latest MTV heartthrob, and that created a problem. The pop audience knew the face and the hit song. The guitar audience didn't always take him seriously. And some of the Austin crowd that had watched him grow up felt that he had moved too far away from his roots. Then Charlie released his second solo album in 1989, and that was self-titled. And by the way, another great album. The record company didn't hear an obvious hit single, barely promoted the album, and it quickly disappeared. So this wasn't simply a case of musical trends changing. Charlie Sexton had been marketed so heavily as a teenage pop star that people never quite knew where to place him once he began growing beyond the image. Charlie Sexton may not have become the superstar that everyone expected. Instead, he became the kind of guitarist the superstars wanted standing alongside of them. He spent more than 10 years as Bob Dylan's guitarist, becoming one of the longest-serving members of Dilling's touring band. He also performed and recorded with artists like David Bowie and Elvis Costello. As a matter of fact, I saw him just last year performing with Elvis Costello. The funny thing is, I recognized him immediately. He's still tall and lanky, he still has that jet black hair, and he still looks like Charlie Sexton, just older. Success doesn't always look the way you expect. Sometimes the biggest careers aren't built on being the name at the top of the marquee. They're built on earning the respect of the people whose names are.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

I wins the final Saturday night. I didn't get late. I got in a fight.

SPEAKER_05 5:43

Our next guitarist is Lita Ford. This is Kiss Me Deadly, released in 1988. It became her signature solo hit and helped establish her as one of the biggest female rock stars of her time. If anyone on today's list had to fight for every ounce's success, it was Lita Ford. Long before she became an MTV star, she was the lead guitarist of the Runaways. The all-female rock band proved that women could do a lot more than just stand behind a microphone. The runaways had never become a commercial success, many people thought they had deserved, but they changed rock music anyway. They inspired countless women to pick up an electric guitar and showed the industry that women could front a rock and roll band just as convincingly as the guys. Then the band broke up. Lita faced another challenge. The 80s weren't exactly overflowing with female league guitarists. Record companies weren't quite sure what to do with her. Was she a guitarist, a singer, or a rock star? The answer? She was all three. Lita often talked about the resistance that she faced simply because she was a woman with a guitar. People expected women to sing, not play blistering guitar solos. She even recalled being told backstage that girls don't play guitar. Lita spent her entire career proving they did. Then everything changed. Sharon Osborne became her manager. The partnership gave Lita the biggest promotional push of her career, and before long, everything started falling into place. Her first hit had everything you could want from an 80s rock anthem, a killer guitar riff, a huge chorus, and one of those MTV videos that you never forget. For a while, it looked like Lita Ford was about to become one of the biggest rock stars in America. Then things got even better. One night, after what Lita described as a very alcohol-fueled night in the studio, she and Ozzie Osborne stayed up until sunrise writing songs. When they finally walked out, neither of them could have known that they had just written the biggest hit of Lita's career, and Ozzy's highest charting solo single. Close My Eyes Forever went on to become one of the defining rock ballads of the 1980s. More than 35 years later, it's still one of the songs that most people think of when they hear Lita Ford's name. Whenever I think about Lita Ford, I always think back to something I witnessed years ago. Around that same time, a buddy and I were walking towards Tower Records, and there was one of the autograph signings that she was doing about a block away from the tower parking lot. A limousine pulls over to the curb right next to us. Out of the back, steps Lita Ford. Now she is wearing black leather from head to toe. She's also got on a chauffeur's hat. So she looks kind of like a chauffeur driver from hell. Now, she climbs back into the driver's seat and drove the limousine the rest of the way into the Tower Records parking lot. A few moments later, the crowd watches the limo pulls in. The rear door swings open, nobody gets out. So now the crowd is just staring at this empty limousine, wondering what's going on. Then slowly the driver's side door opens and Lita Ford steps out. Now the crowd loves it. They go ballistic, they're applauding at her. And my buddy and I are just looking at each other, going, we saw the whole thing. She didn't drive that in here, but didn't matter, right? It was a publicity stunt. It did what it was supposed to do. And it captured perfectly that MTV era. Image mattered, making an entrance mattered. And Lita knew how exactly how to put on a show. So everything pointed towards an even bigger career. She had MTV, she had hit records, and she had one of the biggest rock ballads of the decades with Ozzie Osborne. But there was never one simple reason that she didn't become an even bigger star. Now, her follow-up album never matched the success of her first solo album. And also, around the same time, Sharon Osborne's attention was increasingly focused on managing Ozzie's career and dealing with challenges at home. Eventually, Sharon and Lita went their separate ways. Then a few years later, rock music itself began to change. Like we've talked about so many times before on this show, grunge and alternative rock pushed Glam Little off the radio playlist and off of MTV. Lita was also breaking barriers in an industry that was still not used to seeing a woman as both a lead singer and a lead guitarist of a hard rock band. There wasn't just one reason her momentum slowed. It was a combination of changing management, changing music, and an industry that was still catching up to what she had already proven. Our next guitarist is Andy Taylor. Most people know him as the guitarist from Duran Duran, but this is Andy Taylor sounding nothing like the band that made him famous. This is I Might Lie, released in 1987. There are many musicians who had willingly walk away from one of the biggest bands in the world. Andy Taylor did. As a guitarist of Duran Duran, he had already sold millions of records, packed arenas around the world, and helped create some of the most defining songs of the 1980s. But underneath all those synthesizers and polyproduction and pop image, Andy Taylor had always wanted to be a rock guitarist. By the middle of the decade, he and bassist John Taylor were feeling pulled in different musical directions. While the rest of Duran Duran wanted to continue exploring more polished, dance-oriented sound, Andy wanted to make music that sounded louder, heavier, and built around the guitar. That's one of the reasons that he and John formed the Power Station. It gave Andy the chance to turn up the volume and show people the kind of guitarists he'd always wanted to be. For Andy, there was no turning back. Leaving Durand Duran wasn't about escaping success. It was about making the kind of music he loved and he was born to play. So in 1987, he released his first solo album, Thunder. From the opening seconds of the song, you can hear exactly what he'd been chasing. The guitars were louder, the riffs were heavier, and for the first time, Andy Taylor wasn't just a lead guitarist, he was also the lead singer. Now that may have surprised a lot of the Durand Duran fans, but Andy had been singing long before he joined the band. This wasn't a guitarist trying to become a frontman, it was a role he had already played. Now I always have been and I always will be a Durand Duran fan. I love them. I even saw them back in the 80s, and my ears are still recovering from the screams from the girls. But anyway, this album loved it. It was hard rock, it was kick-ass, it was big hooks, crunchy guitar, polished production. And Andy's guitar playing was finally front and center. I honestly thought this was going to be huge. Before the album was even released, Andy had already scored a top 25 hit with Take It Easy from the movie American Anthem. Then Thunder reached the Billboard album chart. I Might Lie earned rock radio airplay. And for a while, it looked like Andy Taylor was about to become a major rock star all his own. Andy Taylor already had something that most solo artists spend years trying to earn: recognition. He had been part of one of the biggest bands in the world. He had already proven he could play hard rock with PowerStation. And with Thunder, he proved that he can carry an album as both a lead guitarist and a lead singer. So why didn't it become the solo breakthrough that so many people expected?

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Take my hand, don't test why I can't wait forever.

SPEAKER_05 13:24

Ironically, part of the answer may have been Duran Duran itself. The band's fans knew exactly who Andy Taylor was, but many of them weren't looking for a hard rock album built around heavy guitars. At the same time, rock fans often saw him as the guitarist from Duran Duran. Andy had made the album he wanted to make, but it landed between two audiences. The people who already knew him weren't expecting that sound, and many of the people who had already loved that sound never gave him a chance because they knew where it came from. Thunder never became the blockbuster I thought it deserved to be, but Andy Taylor never stopped making great music. His guitar turned up on Belinda Carlisle's breakthrough hit, Mad About You. He played guitar in Robert Palmer's number one hit, Addicted to Love, and then he went on to co-write and help produce Rod Stewart's hits like Forever Young, Lost in You, and My Heart Can't Tell You No.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

And in my heart shall always be forever. I'm lost in you or look in your blue eyes, and suddenly my heart can tell you no.

SPEAKER_05 15:12

Chances are you've heard Andy Taylor far more than you realize. His solo career may have never reached the heights that I expected, but his guitar work, his songwriting, and his production work helped shape some of the biggest records of the late 80s. Sometimes great musicians don't disappear. They simply keep making great music, even when their name isn't on the front of the album. You know the stories I've been talking about about wearing out cassettes, playing albums until they skipped, and buying the CD the day it came out? This, this is the artist I've been talking about all along. Ladies and gentlemen, Robin George. This is Heartline, released in 1985. Although it wasn't a major chart hit, it became the song that convinced me that Robin George should have been one of the next great guitar heroes of the decade. Robin George may be the least familiar name in today's episode, but not to me. I absolutely loved this guy. When the album Dangerous Music came out, I bought the cassette and I played it constantly. I mean constantly. If he drove with me that year, it was playing. I love the songs, I love Robin George's guitar playing, and I loved his voice. But also what grabbed me was the production. This album sounded huge. The guitars were massive, the keyboards added this polished atmospheric layer, everything just sounded expensive. Years later, I found out that wasn't an accident. Robin wasn't just a guitarist, he was also a songwriter, arranger, and producer. Before launching his solo career, he had already played with David Byron from Uriah Heap's Byron Band. Later, he'd go on to produce other artists as well. Suddenly, it all made sense. Robin knew exactly what he wanted to hear in the studio and knew how to get it. I absolutely cranked the song every chance I got. I still do. And when I say cranked, I mean this is the kind of song that deserves to shake the walls. To me, it had everything: a soaring melody, a huge chorus, fantastic guitar playing, and production that still sounds great today. I honestly thought that Robin George was going to become one of the next big rock and roll stars. Music magazines thought so too. In fact, Kerrang magazine called him the Axe of Tomorrow. For a while, it looked like they were absolutely right. Robin George seemed to have everything: the songs, the guitar chops, the production skills. He made a record that sounded like it belonged alongside the biggest rock albums of the mid-1980s. Then, almost everything that could go wrong did.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

All you ever gave me was a hour of time. It's much too late to change your words, it's no world and rhyme.

SPEAKER_05 17:59

Just as Heartlane was beginning to break around the world, his record label, Bronze Records, went bankrupt. Robin later said the money simply disappeared. The promotion stopped, and with it, the momentum behind the album. As if that wasn't enough, one of Robin's biggest supporters was Phil Lynot, the legendary frontman of Thin Lizzie. The two began working together, and Phil even asked Robin to become the lead guitarist in the reform Thin Lizzie. Robin said yes, and they shook hands on it. He went home for Christmas, expecting an exciting new chapter in his career. Instead, he got a phone call asking for his reaction to Phil Lynott's death. But that's how Robin learned his friend was gone. The project ended before he even had a chance to begin.