ukeulele shredder |

Tony Gamble and I go way back. He was coming into the Chimneysweep Lounge in Sherman Oaks, CA on my Sunday night open mic nights before the 1994 Northridge quake, so we’ve known each other at least that long. He’d sit in. Play some guitar. Try out his originals. On the other nights of the week, we’d often just hang out at the Chimneysweep and get shit-faced. I have a big box of pictures from those days, so I was able to include a couple of Tony and me on this page.

Tony was diagnosed a few years ago with Prothrombin factor 2, a rare blood clotting disorder. He goes into a little detail about it, and we discuss how shit like that can really slow you up, but we keep playing through it all. You know how it is. Anyway, I included a link to an organization called Stop the Clot in case you’d like to learn more about it or maybe contribute to finding a cure.

Tony first became know for his chops on the guitar. He’s what was known as a “shredder” – a guitarist with impeccable skills and playing speed. He taught guitar, wrote guitar instruction books and toured with rock bands throughout the world. Unfortunately, Tony didn’t really want to talk about the more decadent period of his rock and roll life life, which would have made for great podcast fodder. However, as a friend, I didn’t want to press him to talk about those days. We mostly discussed what Tony has been doing lately, which is writing and recording new material for his latest project… an as yet untitled, but soon to be released album of original acoustic music for Warner Brothers Latin division. This latest project has ignited new passion in Gamble and he is very excited to talk about his latest creation.

But this is Tales of the Road Warriors, so what I can do is give you a link to where you can read about some of Tony’s past experiences for yourself, in his own words. There’s a link below to the RARWRITER site which will take you there. It’s quite an interesting read, which is alluded to briefly in our conversation. L.A. in the 90’s… good times!