Brad Gillis is best known for his guitar playing in the chart-topping band NIGHT RANGER. Since Night Ranger's first release in 1983, Brad's mastery of the strings and whammy bar have helped lead this rocking AOR band to the top of the charts with multi-platinum records and sales reaching over 17 million around the world. Brad has close to twenty gold and platinum albums to his name. Having appeared in over a dozen MTV and VH1 music videos, TV's AMERICAN BANDSTAND, SOLID GOLD, ROCK & ROLL TONIGHT and thousands of live concerts, Brad is one of the few guitar icons of our time that can undoubtedly be recognized by both his aggressively unique tremolo guitar sound. His first solo album GILROCK RANCH produced the top twenty AOR single, "Honest to God," co-written and sung by the legendary Gregg Allman.
Gillis' guitar history began long before the break-through of NIGHT RANGER. Receiving his first guitar at 8 years old, he started his first band called THE INVADERS at the age of 10. When turning nineteen, Brad joined the San Francisco based funk-rock band RUBICON after auditioning over numerous Bay area guitar veterans. Together they recorded two albums, Rubicon and American Dreams, with 20th Century Fox Records. When Rubicon disbanded, Brad and two other band members, Jack Blades and Kelly Keagy, went on to form a hard rock band with the short-lived name Stereo. When the other half of the guitar duo, Jeff Watson, and keyboardist Alan "Fitz" Fitzgerald joined the ranks, Night Ranger was born.
After the unfortunate death of legendary guitarist Randy Rhoades, heavy metal icon OZZY OSBOURNE recognized the talent in Brad and asked him to supplant Randy on his ongoing tour. For the next year, Brad toured the world with Ozzy supporting the DIARY OF A MADMAN tour and can be heard playing lead guitar on Osbourne's SPEAK OF THE DEVIL live album. When Night Ranger was offered a record deal with Boardwalk records, Gillis had the difficult task of choosing one path over the other. Luckily, for music fans everywhere, Night Ranger was releasing hit after hit and touring the world.
Over the next 2 decades Gillis wrote, recorded and toured with Night Ranger, contributing to such hits as "Don't Tell Me You Love Me," "Sister Christian," "When You Close Your Eyes," and "(You Can Still) Rock in America," just to name a few. After years of being one of the top grossing touring bands of the '80s, the members of Night Ranger are still touring the world with a hefty schedule in 2008. Yearly performances in Japan have spawned many LIVE IN JAPAN CD's. Night Rangers Hit Song "(You Can Still) Rock In America" has been picked up for the hit game GUITAR HERO.
Brad's musical side projects include songs for ESPN, Sports Center, The X Games, Fox Sports, Tiger Woods Sony Playstation Games, EA Sports,The Fuse Channel and many others. Soundtracks by Brad and Night Ranger hits can be heard in dozens of movies and TV shows. Brad's music can currently be heard on Monday Night Football (2008) and other TV Networks.
Brad is an avid vintage guitar collector with over 100 guitars and 40 amplifiers in his collection and is currently featured (2008) in Guitar Player, Vintage Guitar and Guitar World Magazines.....
Brad-- Great to talk to you last week. Talking about the 80s and the great things that went on with real rock and roll is always a treat! See you this Friday in Rockford!
Hey Brad, I read that article you gave me. It was very well written. The show was tremendous and it was great to see you. Looking forward to the next time...
Hey Brad! Got my tix for the Beaumont, Texas show with Journey. This will by my 6th time to see Night Ranger. Back in '94 you guys played at Phase 2 in Beaumont, and drank a few beers with us. Great show!!
hey brad it was great seeing and hearing you at Tili Toms on The 4th Of July! Wish I couldv'e made the Alameda county show the night before. (I had a gig!) Everybody said it was a great show! Peace my brother! SD
Hey Brad - what an AMAZING show last night !! You ROCKED the state of Oregon last night. Phenomenal pyrotechics on the guitar !! You are the best whammy shredder ever! Take care and have lots of fun on the rest of your tour !!!
Hey Brad....Had a BLAST Saturday night at Cache Creek. You guys tore it up and loved watching you shred the hell out of that guitar! Damn brother you were on fire as usual. Looked like all of you were having a great time that night. Brought some chicks I worked with to see show and you wowed them bigtime! Now they want their NR shirts we bought there signed ha!Hey, I just noticed that you don't have Cinny Lou on your top friends list?! (tsk...tsk) J/K. ~Tami~
Hey Brad, There is a great picture of us playing together (on our myspace) at the Old Waldorf back in the 80's. Thought you could use a laugh. Cheers buddy
Thanks for the add, greatly appreciated. It's an honor to be a part of your family of friends here. We too welcome you aboard the FRQZ train with hopes you enjoy the ride! Don't be a stranger, stay in touch, keep us posted to upcoming gigs and adventures, post a performance video, and so on. Stay TUNED !
Hello mr gillis greetings from cinci n thanks for adding me... Your a madman on guitar & your a great inspiration to me always... Keep on tearin it up brother!
Hi Brad - you are the king of the whammy solos !! Your style of playing is so original and awesome !!! Keep up the incredible shredding !! Thanks for all of the great music over the years too !
Thanks for the add and thanks for all the shred over the years! You PROVE that you can STILL rock in America! Keep on rockin' in the free world... Doc @ www. docrocksradio. com
I'm Desiree Douglas, Music Director for B97/B93, the classic rock station on the Big Island of Hawaii. I am also a friend of Dawn's.
Just wanted to let you know we are playing the fuck out of "You're Gonna Hear It From Me" and it is getting heavy phone requests. What a great, rockin' tune! Our listeners LOVE IT!!!
Mahalo nui loa for continuing to crank out the great music!
