Rusty Anderson
(born January 20, 1959 in La Habra, California) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and music producer. He is best known as lead guitarist with Paul McCartney, though he has worked with an extensive list of artists in addition to his own solo career.
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RUSTY ANDERSON TICKETS
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Early life
Rusty Anderson grew up in
La Habra,
California. At age 8, his father gave him his first
electric guitar.
Anderson's mother convinced him to take music lessons, however after a few weeks he decided to stop formal lessons, and fueled by his passion for the likes of
The Beatles,
Peter Gabriel's
Genesis,
The Mothers of Invention,
David Bowie and
The Who, Rusty soon formed a hard rock band named Eulogy at the age of 13.
[1]
The hand-picked members of Eulogy included Dirk Van Tatenhove, Myles Crawley, Ross Holly, Mike Jones (who currently records as Zallen) and a list of drummers, who were together in various forms for six years. Keyboardist Jim Hargis joined a later incarnation. Eulogy won a sizable local following, playing with bands such as
The Police,
Van Halen,
Quiet Riot and
The Motels. Eulogy also lent their talent to singer/songwiter/actress
Ronee Blakley for the
Wim Wenders film
I Played It For You
.
The band's look changed after the departure of drummer Jimmy Volpe, who was replaced by Chuck Billings (formerly of Virgin). Eulogy earned an audition with
Arista Records head
Clive Davis, but the band was never signed and broke up without releasing an album.
Career
After Eulogy broke up, Anderson pursued his passion for playing live shows and recording in the studio by forming "The Living Daylights" with Gregory Markel and John "Gogo" Kallas, a
psychedelic and
progressive rock band and Anderson's first as primary songwriter. The Living Daylights put out a record on the Greenworld Label, but subsequently disbanded when Anderson signed a solo development deal at
Columbia Records. Through Eulogy and Living Daylights' manager Mike Jacobs, Anderson was then introduced to
producer and
A&R man
David Kahne, who invited Anderson to play on the
Bangles' 1986 sophomore album,
Different Light. This opened the door to a host of freelance recording sessions for Anderson, including
Fishbone,
Matthew Sweet,
Neil Diamond,
Animal Logic (with
Stewart Copeland &
Stanley Clarke),
Little Richard,
Parthenon Huxley and
Carole King.
[2] [3]
Ednaswap/Back In the Studio
In 1993, Anderson was invited by songwriters
Scott Cutler and
Anne Preven to join a new band -
Ednaswap - along with
Paul Bushnel and
Carla Azar. The band released four major label records on
East West/
Elektra Records, and penned the worldwide Number One hit song "
Torn", performed by
Natalie Imbruglia. After extensive recording and touring for five years, Ednaswap disbanded in the spring of 1999, following their final LP,
Wonderland Park
.
[4]
Refocusing his attention on recording, he went back into the studio to work with a host of other artists in a fruitful stint, including
Elton John,
The New Radicals,
Willie Nelson,
Sinead O'Connor,
The Wallflowers,
Jewel,
Santana,
Stevie Nicks,
Ronan Keating and
Joe Cocker. During this period, Anderson kept his creativity in balance by continuing to write his own songs, the bulk of which materialized on his first solo record.
Paul McCartney
In 2001, Anderson, along with drummer
Abe Laboriel Jr., got a call from producer David Kahne to play and sing on Sir
Paul McCartney's record
Driving Rain
;
[5] [6] this became the birth of the Paul McCartney Band. After finishing the record and performing at
The Concert for New York City, the band went on the road for a critically acclaimed tour, playing well over 100 shows in the US, Japan, Mexico and Europe, including those at the
Roman Colosseum,
Live 8 UK and
Red Square in
Moscow. Following the success of this tour 4 DVDs were released, all featuring Anderson on guitar:
Back in the U.S.
,
Back in the World
,
Paul McCartney in Red Square
and
The Space Within US
. In addition to the studio album
Driving Rain
, Anderson would go on to play guitar on McCartney's
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
and, in addition to guitar work, would also contribute vocals to the 2007 release,
Memory Almost Full
.
Solo release
With most of the songs written and recorded for his debut solo album
Undressing Underwater
, Rusty Anderson invited Paul to join him and the rest of the McCartney band to play bass and sing backup vocals on the lead track, "Hurt Myself". Friend and former band mate Stewart Copeland also came in to play drums on the song "Catbox Beach". The album was self-produced by Anderson, along with
David Kahne,
Mudrock and
Parthenon Huxley.
Undressing Underwater
was originally released in late 2003 by his own Oxide Records, and re-released in September 2005 on
Surfdog Records,
iTunes and
Amazon.
[7]Other Artists
In addition to playing live shows to promote his own record, Rusty Anderson continued to play guitar with a host of other artists, including
Gwen Stefani,
Steven Tyler,
Regina Spektor,
Dido,
Cat Stevens,
Miley Cyrus,
Eros Ramazzotti,
Nelly Furtado,
Meatloaf,
Robi Draco Rosa and
Lisa Marie Presley. In addition to Anderson's solo songwriting career, he has written with and produced acts such as
Chris Shaffer of
The Why Store,
Jordan Lawhead and
Emma Burgess, resulting in song uses in TV shows
Cold Case,
Men In Trees,
Kyle XY and
Wildfire. It should also be noted that Anderson wrote the guitars for and played on the #1 international hit song "
Livin' la Vida Loca".
References
- Rusty Anderson on GTR-B-Q - Musicians Radio
- Artist Direct - Bangles: Different Light
- Rusty Anderson Biography
- Artist Direct - Ednaswap
- An Interview with Rusty Anderson
- Exclusive Interview Outtakes from Paul McCartney and his Crew
- Rusty Anderson - Undressing Underwater