“Zal is really nobody’s guitar hero. Fans say he’s the most underrated player ever; many guitarists rate him amongst the best... but I’ve never heard anyone call him their ‘guitar hero’”: Billy Rankin on lessons learned from the legendary Zal Cleminson

Billy Rankin.

As a young phenom, Scottish guitarist Billy Rankin found himself playing alongside Zal Cleminson in the Sensational Alex Harvey Band offshoot group the Zal Band. Cleminson went on to join Nazareth, but when he left in 1980, the fellow Scots called Rankin up.

Lined up with Manny Charlton, the ES-335-loving Rankin played on three Nazareth albums – Snaz (1981), 2XS (1982), and Sound Elixir (1983) – the latter two loaded with a ton of his hard-rocking output. In 1983 he released his solo record, Growin’ Up Too Fast.