"The crowd went crazy. Somebody threw a 9-volt battery, and it hit me right above my eye": Ricky Byrd on charged encounters onstage with Joan Jett and how Jeff Beck turned him onto smaller amps

"I was around nine when I saw the Rolling Stones and the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. I was instantly attracted to George Harrison and Keith Richards' guitar playing, so I asked my mom if I could get a guitar. She was working at a handbag company, and her boss gave her a gift - for me - on my birthday, a no-name acoustic. That little acoustic was how I first learned to play guitar."

"The Turtles' Happy Together, because it had a riff I could learn. I wound up doing a show-and-tell at my public school in the Bronx where I grew up, and I played Happy Together. I noticed the girls were all smiling at me, and being 10, I was like, 'Well, now - that is interesting!'"

"I was in a band called Ruff Stuff, and we started playing in our local neighborhood place that was like a coffee, wine and cheese place. It had a stage in the front, and the gig was for a dance. We played all kinds of British stuff. I don't think we even got paid."

Ricky Byrd released a new album titled NYC Made and expresses enthusiasm about guitar playing while admitting he should practice more and learn to read music. He was inspired by seeing the Rolling Stones and the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, which led to receiving a no-name acoustic and later a cheap Lafayette Electronics electric resembling an ES-335. The first song he learned was The Turtles' Happy Together, which earned smiles during a show-and-tell at his Bronx school. His first gig was with Ruff Stuff at a neighborhood coffee-wine-and-cheese venue for a dance, likely unpaid. A dramatic incident occurred while supporting the Scorpions.

Read at Guitar World