Jason Becker's Legendary Guitars at Guernsey's Auctions July 15, 2021 - Jason Becker Fundraiser

[Music] the paralyzing condition als amyotrophic lateral sclerosis also known as lou gehrig's disease cut short the rise of a young guitarist living in richmond but it didn't end his love of music or the inspiration he gives to others kpix 5's john ramos has the story lying in a living room in richmond you might think a man who can't lift a hand or even speak is helpless but you don't know jason becker there was nobody better than that dude he was on another level when people would hear him they'd turn their head and go what the heck was that that was jason 30 years ago a teenage guitar prodigy who burst onto the scene redefining a furious style of music known as fast metal he helped create a gold album for david lee roth but before he could tour with the band the crippling cruelty of als took that dream away that would tend to just have you be frustrated and just lay there and just wait to die but jason had other ideas his father gary invented a way for his son to communicate using just his eyes and his friend and music producer mike bemisdurfer coupled that with technology to create a way for jason to compose music one painstaking note at a time [Music] the result is a new album called triumphant hearts which is being considered for a grammy award in five different categories and features the work of 30 guitarists from some of the biggest bands in the world that says to anyone out there you know if you're if you're inspired you have something you want to say you want to express ultimately you can get it done and get it done really really well if you've got the talent the inspiration and the people around you to make it happen i w o would be with his father translating his eye movements jason says i would be happy if some people's lives were better with my influence als may have taken the guitar from his hands but he can deliver the music still inside him with just a sideways glance oh and there's this when famed physicist stephen hawking died last year jason became the longest living survivor of als in the world what he means to the world may be bigger than all of the little things that go on in life and maybe that's the reason that this happened to him he cannot move but he's moved others and they say their lives are richer for it in richmond john ramis kpix 5. and jason becker is now 50 years old he attributes his survival to music and the people around him who help him create it my name is steve i'm guitar player i was in the david lee roth band that was back in the early 80s and when i had left dave's band jason took over for me and i knew that anybody that was going to jump in the spot was going to need to have some chops i knew of jason before that because he was in the band cacophony [Music] jason was a part of like subcultural movement that there wasn't many people involved because it required this intense virtuosity this intensity of playing that not many people could do i couldn't one day i got a call from mike varney and he was like you got to check out this 16 year old kid who plays guitar he's really good and i'm like oh yeah right he was famous for playing guys over the phone to other guitar players and getting their opinion he'd like how's this guy this guy's awesome and um but this time jason he didn't want to play him over the phone he wanted to send him over to my apartment in san francisco and i'm like really mike varney was the guy who's going to put it out so i didn't want to make any waves i didn't want to like you know become like a diva or anything so i'm like okay send the guy over to my house i'll just listen to him and get rid of him the second he came in the door i i fell in love with the guy what i was really impressed with it was just such a cool dude i mean it was just a regular guy he didn't have the ego that most of the guitar players who i knew that were like decent players but jason had none of that he just had the goods he could play and he was so just nice about it and i just like i fell in love with him because of his playing his personality and that blew my mind and i said well if i'm going to form a band i want this guy in it and i just want to hang out with this guy relentless wicked kind of attack on the instrument that was just an eye-opener [Music] [Applause] jason was so unique in that he was so technical he was playing at light speed doing these incredible runs and techniques like no one was doing but in some way he made it all look effortless and more importantly he made it look fun he made young guitar players like myself look up to him and go man i want to do that [Music] when you hear jason becker playing you have that aha moment like that's jason becker his stage presence and the chops and he looked like you know he was having fun even though it was a very serious level of skill so that effortless sort of flare just really was like this infectious sort of the sense of this person just kind of having a great time while doing something that was like superhuman you know i mean there are a lot of things that make jason becker unique his age when he came on the scene was that level of virtuosity in a teenage body was just like staggering i remember hearing songs like mabel's fatal fable and it just kept going it's like never running out of gears but there was also a mature musicality you know there was this sort of neoclassical influence but also an extreme playfulness i think that combination just just made him stand out to everybody i had the opportunity to go up to jason's house while these guitars were still there and get to hold and play them myself and i can speak firsthand to the amount of magic that lives in these legendary guitars jason didn't really have a lot of guitars didn't play too many guitars throughout his career so these guitars are really an incredibly special piece of history i'm so honored that i got to play them once and i'm so excited for whoever gets to play them next when i first heard jason becker i couldn't believe that it was made in the 80s [Music] you know his like his original music i just thought this is insane guitar playing it sounds modern so jason was definitely one of the og's that started the kind of super technical guitar playing in the 80s and without him and his influence there would not be a revival of that that includes myself and all of my peers so he's really special for that through the years as jason was his abilities were dissolving due to the disease his mind remained sharp and creative and the human spirit is always about expanding and figuring out how to work around them even using limitations to your advantage somehow four letters in each square that's 24 two letters left over his compositional skills improved tremendously and the thing that i think he'll be really remembered for the great contribution is that in the face of insurmountable challenges he figured out how to create exciting interesting inspired music with orchestras you know and uh and guitar players we became his paint brush so to speak [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and it's incredible when you consider all he can do basically is blink his eyes this is so far removed from any victim mentality that a person can have it's the antithesis it's the opposite and that's what's needed because that is inspiring that's what moves us all is to see others rise to the occasion and achieve and not only did he do that but he did it with a smile he's a funny guy he's got a great sense of humor and he's he's got this amazing smile that's his legacy is the fact that for a very short period of time he could play he was so young and they had this we had this very short window to capture this amazing talent and then tragically you know his ability to actually play the instrument went away but his story is super inspiring that he continued to compose and you know even his battle with the disease is you know he lived a lot longer than the projections and so there's there's inspiration even within the tragedy [Music] jason wanted to say to your grace it's not me it just comes through [Music] jason was just a really good guy he was a sweetheart and he was able to contribute so much in such a short little period of time and then differently so much after that i think edward edwards saw this i think that that was probably part of the you know the friendship there yeah he was one of the best up-and-coming guitarists in the world in rock and roll around 1989 he started getting a strange feeling in his left leg he had no idea tragedy that was about to come seeing jason's stage presence actually in some ways reminds me of eddie they both had a playful effortless way about them on stage all the while they're doing things that most guitar players would just labor to pull off and these guys are smiling and i actually see a similar energy when i look when i look at footage of both of them so it's not surprising that they had an affinity for each other hey this is herman lee here guitars of the band dragonforce [Music] [Applause] and i'm going to tell you a little bit about this jason becker guitars here it's such an incredible feeling to be holding with me one of these legendary guitars of jason becker and this one is a numbers guitar it is really special because so many of us aspiring guitar players growing up have seen this in a magazine held by jason becker different front cover of the magazines it sounds great i know this guitar been sitting on jason becker's wall for over 30 years not being played and now you know we brought it back to life during the fundraiser this guitar of jason's i think is my personal favorite just because i really love the playful nature of this you know wood block i just really appreciate that that playful spirit being infused into a guitar i think this one in particular really communicates that sort of child's play element to how how easy it was for him to just blow everyone away it's insane to hold it in my hand and to you know i've seen this everywhere [Music] so this blue hurricane guitar this is another guitar that has a lot of wear on and if you look at the back of the neck i mean i don't know how many notes it takes to make a guitar neck like this this looked like a roasted maple neck but it's not he was just shredding it up playing so much on it that looked like he basically make a burn mark on this yeah this got a lot of miles some real estate on this puppy well any instrument that a historical artist owns you know has an intrinsic value because of what they did on it so this guitar definitely retains the mojo and the mystique not only of uh you know just being a cool guitar for the period but uh the stuff that was played on it you can see this guitar on the front cover of the perpetual burn album this hurricane guitar what was used to record the perpetual burn album in which jason beckham was actually 17 to be playing you know with so much maturity and the incredible technique the composition that he did was just out of this world this was also on the front cover of the speed metal symphony album by cacophony there's a big hill here they're not the easiest guitar to play they sound great that's what makes jason beckham more special and for him this wasn't a problem at all it's it's crazy you know hurricane guitar is not around anymore this is my first time interacting with one i'm struck by you know there's a bit of fight in this thing and my respect for him has just gone through the roof because this is definitely like you really have to be on it to make this thing speak so accurately at the speed he was playing it's really heartwarming it's like guitars are very personal and when you can pick someone else's guitar up and connect with the amount of hours that they they spent likely alone developing their sound it's just a really amazing record that's kind of encoded into this into this object it's really special to be holding this hey paul stanley here i will say what inspired me about jason is his courage his strength his determination to fight against all odds here he is 30 years later doing the impossible that's an inspiration to me jason becker living with aos for more than 30 years have shown incredible strength to really inspire other people out there and if you get this guitar you're also helping jason becker to carry on his fight with als after stephen hawking passed away jason becker is the longest living person with als so thank you for donating to jason becker and thank you for getting one of these legendary guitars ah [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: DragonForce

Views: 227,849

Keywords: jason becker, jason becker: not dead yet, cacophony, david lee roth, guitar auctions, guernsey auction, guernsey, eddie van halen, van halen, evh, eddie van halen guitar solo, paul stanley, kiss, steve vai, marty friedman, nita strauss, alice cooper, tosin abasi, animals as leaders, herman li, dragonforce, through the fire and flames, tim henson, polyphia, guitar, guitar solo, frankenstrat, vintage guitar, legendary guitar, legendary guitars, ibanez, prs guitar, fender, gibson

Id: 1yQITwSnRh4

Length: 17min 29sec (1049 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 30 2021