“I’ll just grab ahold of the G string, pinch it and then bend it way up. You’re doing it to get a laugh out of the guys”: Big Wreck’s Ian Thornley on channeling Eric Johnson and Steve Morse – and why he’s called a guitar the “Jungle Gym”

Big Wreck's Ian Thornley pictured with his trusty Suhr electric guitar.

Since founding Big Wreck in the early ’90s, Ian Thornley has filled his band’s songbook with arena-conquering melodies, Zep-hailing heft and some of the most super-heroically knuckle-busting leads in contemporary hard rock.

In other words, he’s a master auteur, and this only continues with the Toronto-based outfit’s latest album, The Rest of the Story. But behind every great writer is a great editor, which is how the new record’s subtly strummed “Laws of Man” escaped its Seagram’s Seabreeze-schmaltzy origins.