Greg Prato for ultimate-guitar.com spoke with iconic guitarist, George Lynch, about how important image is, in the music industry, especially by today’s standards.
Ultimate-guitar.com: How important are looks for modern rock musicians?
George Lynch: “Well, sometimes not having an image is an image. It’s hard to define ‘image,’ I guess. That’s a moving target.
But I see what you’re saying, that looks… Obviously, in our day, androgynous looking with makeup, looks matter with anything in life. So, it affects how people accept you and how they treat you, and how well you succeed.”
So, in that sense, it’s important, I guess. Maybe unfortunately. And since I come from the ’80s era, that’s always going to be a part of my thinking, I guess, a little bit.
But I’d like to think I’ve gotten way past that, to the point where I’m going to be 70 in a couple of weeks, not trying to be the fu-king latest sex symbol or anything. But your values change as you get older.
We all want to look as best we can, and we do that. But having an image is something that’s I think either kind of innate for a person, at least you’re kind of born with that sense of style. I don’t think it’s anything really acquirable.”
4 Responses
I think how you look when performing matters. Not from a sexual standpoint but more from a grooving looking cool viewpoint. Axl had that swagger as a frontman. Paul Stanley, David Lee Roth and countless other front men and women had that it factor. Some of your great guitarists have it like Zakk, EVH, Hendrix, Dime, just to name a few. I’m a very tall person and thus I looked awkward on stage and did not have that cool vibe grooving thing going for me lol. I don’t know I just think the music sounds better if the look goes with it on stage and in music videos.
RPS, I agree with you re: looks for performance. Lemmy Kilmister once said “If you’re gonna be a f-ing rock star, go be one. People don’t want to see the guy next door on stage; they want to see a being from another planet. You want to see somebody you’d never meet in ordinary life”.
IMO, Lemmy hit the nail on the head re: performance.
Rattle – Lemmy certainly was a rock star! Hey if you get a chance check out The Godz. They were fronted by Eric Moore. That dude was a rock star! YouTube has some concerts and stuff.
RPS, check out this band…Asomvel. Kinda a Motorhead clone and the singer/bassist looks so much like Lemmy!
https://youtu.be/vXKfKsNQM8w?si=EISOaZpXE_byrZAw