Alice Cooper may have hit the road with a new guitarist this month as Nita Strauss sits out the latest tour, but one of his most trusted players remains a key part of the group.
Speaking to Kylie Olsson ahead of the tour, Tommy Henriksen revealed that his go-to electric guitar was saved from the trash at the Gibson Custom Shop.
Henriksen is more than just one prong in Cooper’s triple-guitar attack, which currently includes Ryan Roxie and young Brit Anna Cara, who was handpicked by Strauss to cover her maternity leave.
Article continues belowAs a songwriter, producer, and mixer, Henriksen has worked with Lady Gaga, Kesha and Meat Loaf, among others. It was this line of work that led him to Alice Cooper’s 2011 record Welcome 2 My Nightmare, where he co-wrote the track “Caffeine” with Cooper, producer Bob Ezrin and Keith Nelson, then of Buckcherry.
He must have made an impression, because he was soon elevated to lead guitarist and given his first touring opportunities as an electric guitarist with the band. Before that, he had only ever played bass onstage.
“Nobody knows that,” Henriksen says after Olsson asks about his electric-guitar origins. “That’s why I’m sitting there going, ‘Why do you want me on Life in Six Strings?’
“I don’t ever consider myself a guitarist,” he continues. “I consider myself a musician because I can pretty much get my way around everything, but I’m really a bass player. When Coop asked me if I wanted to be in the band, I said, ‘What do you want me to do?’
“I thought he wanted me to play bass. He’s like, ‘No — can you play guitar?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I could do that.’ Never say no to anything — just figure it out.”
As he explains, there was some figuring out to do, so he turned to the internet.
“I went on YouTube and I was like, ‘You know what? Let me go watch Ace Frehley, Angus Young, Chuck Berry, Link Wray and all that stuff,’” he says. “And that’s how I really learned how to solo.”
These days, he’s a sucker for a Gibson SG, preferring its lighter weight to the often back- and shoulder-breaking heft of a Les Paul. His main squeeze — a single-humbucker white SG — was born in the Gibson Custom Shop, though it almost never existed at all.
“This was made for me by Robert Schultz at the Gibson Custom Shop,” he explains. “And it was made after I got my other favorite guitar — a red SG that was given to me by [businessman and collector] Ernie Boch. I loved it so much.
“So I called up Robert and said, ‘I need a guitar.’ We were walking through the Custom Shop, and this body was actually in the garbage. I was like, ‘What is that?’ He’s like, ‘Let me find out.’ So I sent him the bridge and the pickup, and he made this really beautiful guitar for me.”
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