What is the Guitar Club?

It's funny how someone's life can change after listening to another person play guitar; it can inspire someone to take a whole other direction in life. That's what happened to me in 1986 at the age of 17.

At that time I was a huge fan of Kiss, Alice Cooper and some top 40 groups. I had never dreamed of playing any musical instrument before. It wasn't until a friend brought over some records to my house that I was awakened to the possibility. I wasn't paying too much attention until the first song started to play. All of a sudden the drums kicked in and an incredible rhythm guitar started to play and I was hooked. I just listened attentively. Then finally the guitar solo started and all I could do was smile. It was the most amazing thing I ever heard and the most original. It captured me. At that moment my life changed. I had to know who was playing and I ran over to my stereo to grab the album cover. It was Ozzy Osbourne! Diary of a Madman. The song was Over the mountain and the guitarist was Randy Rhoads. From then on I knew the guitar was my life.

A few months later my grandfather found this beat-up, awful looking guitar. It looked old; had no name and sounded terrible, but I liked it. So I started to teach myself how to play. I picked the brains of some local guitar players who then instructed me that the best way to learn was to buy some guitar "mags" and books, practice and then just play with as many people as possible.

But as soon as my quest had started, I got my first jolt of reality. A few months after starting to play, I was informed that Randy Rhoads, Ozzy's guitarist had died in a plane crash. It was March 19, 1982. I was devasted and soon sank into a depression. It took me a while, but after I got my head together, I started to get serious about playing guitar again. I started playing up to 10 hours a day.

It seemed like the tragic death of Randy focused me on playing guitar even more. The guitar was now the main focus in my life. When I look back today I can see that Randy's influences rubbed off on me.

The next styles to come into the picture for me were classical and acoustic guitar. These veins opened me up to the folk rock of the 60's and 70's, the blues, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and many other historic bands. And I can honestly say that it was Randy Rhoads who started it all.

So what is Willi James doing today?

Today I have a lot of different influences such as Jazz, Slide guitar, Bluegrass and fingerstyle guitar. I was born in 1967 (the summer of love generation) my only claim to fame from the 60's. I was born and raised in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. Both of my parents came from Macedonia. My First love is Guitar, second love is film - I hope to release my blues and jazz CDs soon and hopefully get a few movies made (one dream at a time).

This site and Guitar Club have been a dream of mine for a while and I hope you enjoy this site and it furthers your career as a guitar player.

Thanks Willi James