John Sykes, Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake Guitarist, Dies at 65

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Sykes co-wrote "Is This Love," one of Whitesnake's biggest hits on the Billboard Hot 100, and more songs on the band's chart-topping, self-titled 1987 album.

 

John Sykes performs onstage with Whitesnake at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago on Nov. 10, 1984.

 

 

 

John Sykes, the guitarist who performed with Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake in the 1980s — and who co-wrote several tracks on Whitesnake’s highest-charting album, including the hit “Is This Love” — has died.

Sykes passed away following a battle with cancer, a statement posted on his verified Facebook page said on Monday (Jan. 20).
“It is with great sorrow we share that John Sykes has passed away after a hard fought battle with cancer,” the message said. “He will be remembered by many as a man with exceptional musical talent but for those who didn’t know him personally, he was a thoughtful, kind, and charismatic man whose presence lit up the room. He certainly marched to the beat of his own drum and always pulled for the underdog.”

“In his final days, he spoke of his sincere love and gratitude for his fans who stuck by him through all these years. While the impact of his loss is profound and the mood somber, we hope the light of his memory will extinguish the shadow of his absence,” the note read.

“Just heard the shocking news of John’s passing…My sincere condolences to his family, friends & fans,” Whitesnake’s David Coverdale wrote Monday on X, where he posted photos in tribute to his former bandmate.

Born in Reading, England, in 1959, Sykes took up guitar when he was a teenager. He joined the band Streetfighter, and then Tygers of Pan Tang, but left the band in 1982 before recording his first solo single.

Sykes co-wrote and recorded his 1982 single “Please Don’t Leave Me” with Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott. He later joined Thin Lizzy as guitarist and played on the Irish rockers’ final studio album, 1983’s Thunder and Lightning, for which he co-wrote the track “Cold Sweat.” “It was a little heavier and I think that was something that I’d brought to the table,” he recalled of the sound of the album in a 2008 interview.

“I was young and what I lived for was being involved in rock ‘n’ roll,” said Sykes, who’d been a fan of Thin Lizzy before joining. “That was a wonderful time in my life, and I was only about 22 years old at the time.”

He added that Thin Lizzy’s 1983 split, following a tour billed as a farewell run, was “definitely a kick to the guts. I didn’t really think it was going to end and I don’t think Phil really thought it was going to end either.”

Sykes linked with Whitesnake to record new guitar parts for the U.S. version of the group’s 1984 album Slide It In, and for their next studio album, their self-titled set that was released in 1987.

It turned out to be Whitesnake’s biggest chart success. Whitesnake the album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 that year, ultimately spending a total of 76 weeks on the chart.

The single “Is This Love,” co-written by Whitesnake’s Coverdale and Sykes, reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart in 1987. It was the second biggest chart hit off of Whitesnake’s self-titled album, just behind “Here I Go Again” (co-written by Coverdale and Bernie Marsden), which made it to No. 1 on the Hot 100. Both singles were preceded by “Still of the Night” (another Coverdale/Sykes work), a song that only ranked at No. 79 on the Hot 100 but reached the MTV audience with its Marty Callner-directed music video — but Sykes isn’t in the video.

Though Sykes was a co-writer on the majority of the album’s tracks, it would be the last Whitesnake project he contributed to before Coverdale unexpectedly fired him, and his bandmates, ahead of the record’s release.

“As you know, things went squirrely between us, which was unfortunate,” Coverdale said in an interview with Metal Edge in 2023. “But John was and is an incredible talent. Our musical chemistry was great, but it didn’t work personally.”

Sykes shared his version of what happened in a 2017 interview with Rock Candy, saying in part, “David said nothing to any of us about having decided to kick us out of the band,” and that he had found out about it from John Kalodner, then A&R at Geffen Records.

But Sykes continued on his path in music. Following his time with Whitesnake, he formed the band Blue Murder, releasing two studio albums and one live album in the early ’90s. His career later shifted to a focus on solo work, with five albums to come over the timespan of 1995-2004.

2004’s Bad Boy Live! was his last full-length album released before his death.

In 2021, Sykes released two singles, “Dawning of a Brand New Day” and “Out Alive.”