Extract from John Mayall's website: ROCKY ATHAS -- Guitar. Texan Rocky Athas started playing guitar at school and performing at neighborhood gigs with good friend Stevie Ray Vaughan. They were schoolmates and friends growing up in the Dallas suburb of Oak Cliff, Texas. By age 23, Rocky was honored as one of the ten best guitarists in Texas, as an inductee to Buddy Magazine's Texas Tornadoes. Stevie Ray Vaughan would receive his induction two years later. Rocky holds this honor with such noted guitarists as Eric Johnson, Bugs Henderson, Johnny Winter, Jimmy Vaughan and ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons who is also a long-time admirer of Rocky's playing. Rocky wasn't only recognized by Texas musicians, the Irish rock band 'Thin Lizzy' wrote the song 'Cocky Rocky' after hearing Rocky play one night at 'Mother Blues', a local Dallas club. 'Queen' guitarist Brian May was also on hand for those performances and was so floored by Rocky's finger tapping style that he incorporated it on the next Queen album. May later revealed that it was the guitarist from Mother Blues who first introduced him to the style, well before Eddie Van Halen became known for this.
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