“I can’t feel it. It’s bone on bone”: Jake E Lee admits arthritis struggles have caused him to totally “relearn” how to play guitar
The aches and pains of ageing are unavoidable – but that doesn’t mean you have to quit performing. Jake E Lee is the latest musician to admit his arthritis has impacted his chops, but he’s determined to keep playing.
In a new interview with Guitar World, the former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist admits that his arthritis has gotten worse. “The cartilage is basically gone,” he explains. “I can’t feel it; it’s bone on bone… The only operation they had available was to fuse the bones together. My wrist would be pretty much locked in. I didn’t want that.”
However, he’s learning to adapt his playing style to “keep the wrist movement down to a minimum”. His approach has been focusing on the elbow; “I’ve had to adjust my playing style to where I’m using mostly the elbow on the right hand, trying to use as much elbow movement as I can.”
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“It’s made it interesting,” he continues. “In a way, it’s like learning to play guitar again, even though I know how to play it. I’m having fun. Mentally – and as far as theory – I know exactly what to do, but I have to teach my left and right hands to accommodate me.”
To aid his new style, Lee has also switched to slightly lighter plectrums and strings. “I usually use a heavy pick, but I went to a lighter one,” he says. “It forced me to have a lighter touch with my right hand, and that’s been interesting. My left hand is also a little bit weak, so lately I’ve been playing with seven [gauge strings] to force myself to have a lighter touch.”
“And it’s interesting because Billy Gibbons uses sevens, and that’s what Tony Iommi and Brian May use,” he adds. “They don’t have a problem with getting a good tone!”
While Lee is learning to adjust to his arthritis, it has limited him from tackling some of his tougher riffs. At Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning show, he was unable to play guitar on Bark At The Moon, instead allowing Travis Barker, Nuno Bettencourt, Vernon Reid, Rudy Sarzo and Adam Wakeman handle the track with Tobias Forge on vocal duties.
“I know people are expecting Bark at the Moon, but I don’t know,” he told Guitar World in the lead up to the gig. “Right now, with my wrist, the arthritis and everything, that would be very challenging. I have a couple of months to get up to it, so I’ll practice it just in case. But that’s going to be pretty challenging for me physically.”
Right now, however, Lee is just focusing on improving his new approach to guitar. “It’s a lot of strengthening, stretching, and steroid shots,” he says.
He also notes that it’s hardly the worst pain he’s had to deal with in his life – hell, he was shot in the arm three times last year while walking his dog. “I’ve had back issues forever, and wrist pain isn’t anything compared to that,” he insists.
The post “I can’t feel it. It’s bone on bone”: Jake E Lee admits arthritis struggles have caused him to totally “relearn” how to play guitar appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
