Eric Gales arrived on the blues scene as a child prodigy, but the guitarist says he'd been keeping his talents under wraps until Carlos Santana blew his cover.
As this video footage of the southpawed virtuoso blowing the roof off a battle of the bands, aged just 14, shows, Gales has always had serious chops. Originally, however, he never intended to make himself known in guitar-playing circles.
Speaking to Rick Beato, Gales reveals he was first known as a drummer, playing in marching, symphonic, and jazz bands in school, all while hiding his secret six-string powers.
“I didn't want any of my high school friends to know that I played guitar at all,” he notes. “So I kept it as quiet as I could, until Carlos Santana was asked who the next young gun guitar player to look out for was [on Arsenio in 1992]. And Carlos said, 'This guy in Memphis, Tennessee. He’s absolutely incredible.’
“I went back to school the next day, and everybody was like ‘Dude, why you ain't saying nothing man? All this time…’
“It's because I didn’t want to hold on to new fake friends. I didn’t want everybody wanting to be my friend because of… I wanted to keep things quiet, but at that time, the lid was off the top.”
Santana is actually Gales’ godfather, and tapped the youngster to play in his band at Woodstock ‘94. There, he shared the lineup with the likes of Jimmy Cliff, Green Day, and a Paul Rodgers supergroup featuring Slash and Neal Schon.
“I was 17, and there were a million people out there, man,” he remembers of the gig. “It was one of the most exciting times in my life. We still communicate a couple of times a week. Through his gifts, I've been afforded relationships with people I admire and am influenced by. It's crazy.”
Elsewhere, Gales recently launched a surprise new signature guitar with Kiesel, and the hotly anticipated Stat-style axe looks to be a serious player. His latest album is a tribute to his late brother Little Jimmy King, the man who started him on guitar, and had a promising career before his passing.
