Shawn Lane: The Complete "Powers of Ten" Interview (Audio)

My 1992 Conversation With "The World's Biggest Cult Underground Guitar Hero"

I first heard about Shawn Lane in 1986, when Eric Johnson told me about him. During the next couple of years, I heard about him again from Vernon Reid, Buckethead, and talent scout Mike Varney, who wrote Guitar Player’s Spotlight column. In 1989, Mike described him as “the biggest underground cult guitar player in the world right now. Even when he was 15, Shawn had the reputation for being the fastest guitarist out on the road. He had a feel and wang bar technique that sounded like a hyper Edward Van Halen. Since then Shawn has devoted a lot of time to piano study. On guitar, he has excellent phrasing and really intense fingers, in terms of the wide intervals he can play. He’s bebop-based, but when he burns and plays fast, there are few people who can keep up with him. He plays a lot of cool sweeps. His style and understanding of music are far beyond his years. The guy is a legend at GIT – all the students there swap his live tapes. He hasn’t recorded much, though.”

At the time these compliments were being said, Shawn, who been the lead guitarist in Black Oak Arkansas before he was old enough to get a driver’s license, was playing in a Memphis-based cover band. He described his lifestyle as “getting up in the morning, running down to a soundcheck in the afternoon, coming back for dinner, running back to play five sets in a club, getting home at 2:00 in the morning, and going to bed.” This was his routine six nights a week while also raising his young family.

In 1992, Shawn, then 29, sent me an advance cassette of his debut album, The Powers of Ten. This Warner Brothers release was a solo album in the truest sense. Working in his home studio, Shawn played all of the instruments, created the arrangements, and did the engineering and producing. He composed every song, except for a Beckian cover of Ray Gomez’s “West Side Boogie.” I thought this was an extraordinarily auspicious debut album, and we agreed to do a phone interview to promote it. The wide-ranging phone conversation you’re about to hear took place on June 22, 1992.

A transcription of this interview appeared in the October 1992 issue of Guitar Player. Shawn went on to record two more solo albums, 1993’s Live! and The Tri-Tone Fascination three years later. He also played many sessions. Suffering from a lung-related illness, Shawn Lane passed away in Memphis on September 26, 2003. He was 40 years old.

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