Doug Aldrich

Aldrich began playing guitar at age 11, inspired by his older sister's Jeff Beck albums. Aldrich's first guitar was a cheap Les Paul-copy purchased from a Sears catalog. Fresh out of high school, Aldrich met the girlfriend of Kiss drummer Eric Carr, who told him that he was the type of guitarist Kiss was looking for to replace Ace Frehley. He subsequently auditioned for Kiss in 1982 but the spot ultimately went to Vinnie Vincent.^[2] Aldrich said that although the members of Kiss treated him very well during the audition process, Gene Simmons told him to "lose this number" when Aldrich attempted to talk with him again months later.^[3]

Aldrich joined the L.A. glam band Lion in 1983, recording two albums and one EP before the band broke up in 1989.

When Aldrich was in Lion recording their first album at Scotti Brothers' Recording Studio, he was invited to join the Slaughter, but turned down the invite since the Lion project was just taking off. Nevertheless, Aldrich did play some guitar for Slaughter during those early days.

Aldrich was briefly a member of Hurricane, replacing founding guitarist Robert Sarzo in 1989. He participated in the writing and recording of Slave to the Thrill (1990) before leaving the band.

In early 2014, Aldrich joined the critically acclaimed production show Raiding the Rock Vault at the Tropicana Las Vegas, where he performed six shows a week with other rock 'n' roll artists including Robin McAuley (formerly Survivor, MSG), John Payne (Asia), Howard Leese (Bad Company, Heart), Paul Shortino (Quiet Riot) and Andrew Freeman (The Offspring, Last in Line), among others. As of late 2015, this collaboration was still on ongoing project.^[4]

During 2015, Aldrich joined the Glenn Hughes solo European tour as guitarist, along with drummer Pontus Engborg, to complete the power trio with Hughes on bass and vocals.^[5]

In late January 2016, it was announced that Aldrich was replacing Richard Fortus as guitarist in The Dead Daisies, as Fortus would be participating in the Guns N' Roses reunion.^[6] As of late January 2016 Aldrich was in Nashville with The Dead Daisies, working on a follow-up album to Revolución (2015). Aldrich joined bassist Marco Mendoza in the band; the two previously performed together in Whitesnake. In November 2016, The Dead Daisies performed on the Kiss Kruise VI event.

Aldrich was previously endorsed by Jackson Guitars. He used their Dinky and Soloist Superstrats as well as his own signature model which has bridge and neck position humbucking pickups were "Full-shred" pickups which Seymour Duncan specially wired. California-based Suhr Guitars currently offers Aldrich signature humbucking pickups.^[7]

He plays various Gibson Les Pauls, Fender Stratocasters through Suhr/ Cameron hot-rodded Marshall JMPs and Vintage Modern amps. In 2016, Aldrich became an official endorsee of ESP Guitars.

Aldrich sums up his philosophy of playing this way: "I'm not one of those guys that follows whatever is trendy. I'd rather do what I do best and do it to the best of my ability."^[8]