Tyler Bryant reveals he got the AC/DC & Guns N’ Roses gigs after playing for Jimmy Page
Following his sensational set at Planet Rockstock on Sunday, Tyler Bryant caught up with Darren Redick for a chat backstage.
After discussing his on-stage theatrics at Rockstock including jumping 10ft from the drum kit, the conversation naturally moved on to Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown's whirlwind past two years that has seen them open for rock n’ roll giants like AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, ZZ Top, Aerosmith and, erm, Smash Mouth.
Divulging how those coveted support slots came about, 26-year-old Tyler said: “The last two years have been just insane; we’ve gotten to play with so many of our heroes.
“We started out the year before this year, 2016, by getting a call from Chris Cornell’s camp, it’s crazy how that happened… he saw me at the Smash Mouth gig (laughs)… Graham (Whitford) and I went to play for Jimmy Page.
“Get this, we were sitting at a table and it’s Jimmy Page, Ringo Starr, Chris Cornell, Billy Gibbons, Joe Perry, like everyone and their mum and we were playing – it was a night honouring (Jimmy Page), like a private dinner or whatever and we were supposed to play Yardbirds / Zep medley and I went to play and my hands were like this shakes hands, I couldn’t play! I was like oh no I’m forgetting how to play in front of Jimmy Page.
“But we got a call from Chris Cornell saying ‘come be my band at this gig in Dallas’. Next week it was the Billy Gibbons tour, halfway through that it was AC/DC tour.
“Then when Brian Johnson went down (he was ordered by doctors to quit touring or risk going deaf) and Axl (Rose) stepped in and saved our summer - I still think he’s one of the gutsiest dudes in rock and roll for taking that on (fronting AC/DC). He met us and said it’s great to have an opening band I don’t have to ignore and we ended up on the Guns (N’ Roses) tour.”
Tyler also discussed how Elvis Presley has a profound effect on his when he was a kid: “I saw a video of Elvis and I was like that points. I was just a crazed Elvis fan, I died my hair black, I got a gold jacket, I got a leather jacket, I wrote ‘Elvis’ on my school papers until the teachers told my mom I was having an identity crisis and I got a guitar and it was downhill from there!
“The school I attended in Honey Grove, Texas had a music programme. It was a class where they talked about music and you played a recorder mimics sound and they showed a video of Elvis and it changed my life.
When Darren mentioned how Elvis’s music still reaches into today, Tyler responded: “A lot of classic music does. You can look at a lot of the bands on this festival there’s still who are really moved by it, young and old and that’s the thing about rock and roll.
“This is the 19th day on this tour and every show I look out and it’s older people, it’s younger people and they’re all getting together and I just love that.”
You can watch the full chat with Tyler Byrant below where he also talks about returning to the UK in 2018: