Hard rock guitar virtuoso Howie Simon issues first ever solo single.

Guitar virtuoso Howie Simon issues first ever solo single.

Facebook — Who is Howie Simon? That’s what we said, but then we pressed google and after a minute of browsing we remembered he’s a ripping guitarist who shreds faces and melts minds with his riffs.

Simon recently released his first ever solo single “Never see me cry”. This is kind of a big deal for him as he’s been backing up everyone else for decades. A Buffalo native Simon started his guitar career on the East Coast playing with regional groups like Ice Water Mansion. But after a decade of weekly gigs, and winning the 1989 Buffalo Music Awards Best Hard Rock Guitarist category he headed west. Simon has been living in southern California since the mid 90’s and has now toured the world with a potpourri of artists including Alcatrazz (featuring Graham Bonnet), Nelson, the Jeff Scott Soto band, Talisman and Ken Tamplin.

Simon has been around for a bit with his guitar, and according to his official facebook, it appears he’s been slaying the 6-strings for 40 years. We grabbed this picture to the right of him way back in 1974 when he played left handed. But regardless of being a lefty or a righty, Howie definitely rips.

In addition to the above, Simon has played lead guitar for the music tribute Scrap Metal. The all-star hard rock project features a laundry list of who’s-who rock singers from the 80’s, including Mark Slaughter (Slaughter), the Nelson twins, Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow), Steve Plunket (Autograph), Janet Gardner (Vixen) and John Corabi (Ex Motley Crue).

Also a studio guy, we researched and found Simon appears on roughly 40 releases to date. And on top of that, he is a prolific teacher of the guitar. According to his bio, Simon started giving lessons when he was 17 and still teaches 20 students per week in the greater Los Angeles area today. Simon has a FPE-TV guitar lesson on youtube with nearly 2 million hits.

For the old skool Sludgeaholics, you may recall that we did a 20 Questions with Howie way back in October 2005.

With that said, we salute a life long ripper and so should you. Check out Howie‘s first solo release below.

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OK HERE IT IS!!! My 1st ever solo single NEVER SEE ME CRY is now available for digital download! The track is a cover of a song I have always loved originally by the cult Buffalo, N.Y. hard rock band Talas, which featured bass legend Billy Sheehan. All vocals/ instruments/ production by yours truly. Please download, support and share – and soon I will have some original music out as well! Thank you.

PLAY THIS LOUD!!!!

Howie Simon @ WebSite – Facebook – CD Baby – iTunes – Amazon – Google Play