Dave Martone: guitar messenger interview

DM: Totally! And I step on as many as I can, and screw up as many as I can. I think I’ve gone through probably around eight, because I beat the crap out of them. And then after that I did a show for Parker Guitars. And then after that I did another show for Vox amplifiers. That was cool, because at the Vox amplifier one, that was a bigger stage they had for Vox, Marshall, Korg. And it was cool. On the sign, where they have everybody playing, it said: Billy Sheehan – 1 o’ clock, Carl Verheyen 2 o’ clock, Yngwie Malmsteen – 3 ‘o clock, Dave Martone – 5:30. I’m like: ‘Whoa!’

IC: You’re in good company.

DM: I was in good company, and seeing that, I actually took a picture of the sign and fingered my name like this, [points] and I’m like: ‘There it is.’ It was cool.

So, a standard day is: I like to sleep in a bit, and pretty much get up. I practice just a little bit to keep the fingers warm, but then it’s just pretty much playing all day at the shows. And it’s kind of difficult, because you don’t have a lot of time to get shit set up.

IC: Plug and go.

DM: It’s not like: ‘Oh, the luxury of soundcheck.’ It’s just plug and go and hope for the best. It’s in-the-trenches type playing, but it’s cool, it’s a lot of fun, and it’s a cool thing, because you get to see a lot of your buddies. It’s a cool thing to see my buddies that are out there, and vice versa, me watching them play. And then evening times – unfortunately I’m not playing any evening shows at this point, but I’m gonna check out Paul Gilbert tonight, and that’s gonna be cool.

full interview