Tracy G

Tracy G
Birth name	Tracy Grijalva
Born	January 3, 1959 Whittier, California
Genres	Heavy metal
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Guitar
Associated acts	Dio Love/Hate Goad-ed Riff Raff
Website	http://www.tracyg.com/

Tracy G (born Tracy Grijalva on January 3, 1959 in Whittier, California) is an American heavy metal guitarist best known for his time with Dio from 1993 to 1999.

His first band was with his father, called the Grijalva Brothers. He had a few guitar instructors when he was little, and was told by one of them that he would have a hard time playing because "his fingers were too small". Grijalva, being the determined musician that he was, would practice until his fingers hurt.

Tracy gives credit to Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen) and Donny Simmons (Yankee Rose, Stormer) for influencing his playing, especially referring to Simmons as 'his idol'.

He would later play in a variety of bands, including with future member of Great White, Jack Russell. He also put together the bands Love/Hate with singer Jizzy Pearl, and Swift Kick. He would play at almost any club he could find to get his publicity out. He also played with vocalist Rudy Torres and drummer Audie Desbrow (Great White) in Riff Raff, a very popular band around southern California in the early days of hard rock and heavy metal.

Tracy then joined Dio. In his six years with the band, Tracy G was featured on two studio albums, (Strange Highways and Angry Machines), and one live album (Inferno: Last in Live). He left the band in 1999 when he was asked to play rhythm guitar while Craig Goldy took lead. Dio decided to bring back Goldy, who had played with him on the Dream Evil album.

...
Wikipedia