Gilby Clarke

Gilby Clarke is a guitarist, born in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 17, 1962. He spent his childhood playing with musical instruments and neglecting school. In the early 1980's, he was part of a pop band called Candy, which released one album before he moved on to a mainstream metal band called Kill For Thrills.

He is best known for a 3-year tenure as the rhythm guitarist of Guns N' Roses. He joined Guns N' Roses in November of 1991, replacing Izzy Stradlin, who quit the band in the middle of a 28-month world tour.

In 1994 he released his debut solo album Pawn Shop Guitars, which also featured several of his friends (including some members of Guns N' Roses). That same year, he was fired from Guns N' Roses. Since then, he has released another solo album and is currently in a band called The Starf*ckers.

In addition, Clarke made a guest appearance on the L.A. Guns album Shrinking Violet, which he also produced.
Clarke started in Guns during the Use Your Illusion Tour. He did not have any parts on Use Your Illusion II, since it was recorded before he joined the group. This is not the only oddity on the album. The first song of the album, "Civil War", does not include Izzy Stradlin or Gilby, but instead has Slash playing all the guitar parts. Also, Stradlin left when Matt Sorum joined the band. His style made the band sound heavier in contrast to the last drummer, Steven Adler, but the only song recorded with Adler cuts out Izzy completely.

Officially, Gilby appeared on "The Spaghetti Incident?" which the band followed by recording a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" for the film Interview with the Vampire, His career with the group did not end there, as he soon enlisted the original Guns N'Roses guitarist Tracii Guns to make an album of the roots of the group known as Hollywood Rose, recording guitar parts with Tracii Guns over the original parts.