Of all the sessions I've played on over the years, one that I get asked about most frequently is the "Johnny B. Goode" solo I played for the film Back to the Future. It all started as a normal motion picture scoring date for Alan Sylvestri. In typical Sylvestri style, it was a fun and relaxed session.

First we recorded "Night Train", and maybe a few other pieces. You'll have to cut me some slack here because it was a while ago! I do remember Bones Howe, the music supervisor, and Alan saying,

"Now we have to do 'Johnny B. Goode', and Tim, this has to be a journey of rock and roll guitar styles from the 50's to the present."

"OK- what does that mean!?"

I was told we would start in the Chuck Berry style, and progress to Hendrix and Van Halen, all within a few choruses of "Johnny B. Goode".

"OK, let's roll it!"

At that time I was using a Fender Vibrolux amp and a Fender Concert amp circa 1980 or so. I just went mono, but I don't remember which of those amps I used. I don't think I used any processing, getting all the distortion from the amps. I had a selection of guitars on hand, including my Gibson 335 and 345, Fender Telecaster, Gibson Les Paul, and a couple Strats.

While my first thought was to go with the 335 or 345 ALA Chuck Berry, I used my custom made Valley Arts Strat, one of the first ones made by Mike McGuire, who now runs the custom shop at Gibson. It worked great, especially for the "future" part of the Back to the Future sound I needed to get by using the tapping technique and Floyd Rose whammy bar. I think we just did a couple takes; the challenge was to try to fit in as many stylistic nuances as I could in a rather short amount of time. The first "Chuck Berry" part was easy because that style was already well defined.

When I saw the film, I was really impressed with the great job Michael J. Fox did in his performance. He spent some time with a guitar coach (Paul Hansen) who showed him how to make it really look like he was playing! Michael was also very generous in mentioning my name when he appeared on a few talk shows to promote the film. -Thanks Michael!

A funny thing happened shortly after that session. I received a call from a young guitarist who had just moved to town and wanted to watch a recording session. I said, "Sure." [I'll always remember how when I first moved to LA, Tom Tedesco let me come with him to the Warner Brothers studio to watch.] So I looked in my book to find an interesting session for the newly-arrived guitarist to observe. I saw another Back to the Future date coming up, and told him to meet me there. I figured this would be a nice "guitar-heavy" session to see.

In one memorable scene in the film, Michael J. Fox's character turns his huge stack of amps way up and plays a power chord that blows him across the room. This was the scene we were working on when the new guy in town showed up. So here's this guy all excited about watching a "big-time studio date" and the first thing I hear is,

"OK Tim, here's what we need; Turn your amp way up to get some hum and buzz, then pull your guitar chord out, and put your thumb on it to make more noise. Now, turn your reverb way up and pound the amp for that banging sound, and mess around with the guitar and make some string noise."

This went on for a while, and I looked over at this kid who was looking at me like,

"This is a big-time session player? Any idiot can do this stuff!"

I tried to explain to him that more is usually involved in an LA studio recording session, but I don't think he was so impressed! I don't remember his name, but if he should happen to read this, there really is more to being a studio guitarist than cranking up your amp and making strange noises! Really!

Anyway, that's my Back to the Future story, and I'm stickin' to it!

'Till next time,
Tim May