The picture on the left has been scanned from the 1986 Jackson Charvel Guitar Catalog. It's an old and rare brochure so it took a lot of time and effort to find one. You can see scans of the whole catalog at www.audiozone.dk. Although Chris was a Jackson endorsee with several famous Custom made guitar he wasn't used much in their advertising - maybe they were afraid of the "Washington Wives" :)
I decided to contact Rick again, this time about the W.A.S.P. photo sessions. Luckily Rick had all the original negatives stored and he sold me a couple of prints that have never before seen the light of day like the one on the right. Rick is a great guy and an amazing photographer.
Frankie Banali
Ex W.A.S.P. drummer Frankie Banali had a section on his website called Write To Frankie where he answered your emails publicly. I wanted to ask Frankie about the 1989 photo sessions with Rick Gould and here's what I got:
J: Hi Frankie!
F: Hi Jani!
J: I'm a guitarist from Finland and I love your drumming on Headless Children which is one of my favorite albums.
F: My favorite W.A.S.P. record as well!!!!
J: Early this year I bought a guitar from Chris Holmes. It's the zebra/lionhead graphic Jackson RR. I've been collecting pics/info about it and I have some pics where you are pictured with that guitar. I got them from Rick Gould and I beleive they are from the Headless Children promo shoot. Anyway, what I'd like to ask is what kind of recollections do you have about that guitar?
F: That photo session was indeed shot by Rick Gould in Santa Monica, California for the Headless Children Tour Book. The shot with me and all the guitars around my neck came out of boredom. Everyone else was running late and I started messsing around with everything in the studio, as usual, and when Rick saw me with all the guitars on he just started clicking away. When the rest of the band showed up they thought I'd lost my mind, which I had!
J: Thanks for your time and all the best!
F: Thanks for writing and good luck and stay warm in Finland this winter!
Best,
Frankie
Above is the photo that Frankie was talking about. I'm always looking for more pics of Chris with RR0849 so if you have any please let me know!
Lita Ford
Lita and Chris first met at LA's famous Rainbow Bar & Grill. They later got married on June 26th 1990. Lita has a lot of songs that are clearly about this ex-husband. On Stiletto she seems almost obsessed about Chris. Then on Dangerous Curves she sums up the marriage rather differently in the song "Bad Love".I don't know much about their marriage, but one can guess that it was a wild one. Two of Chrises guitars were smashed by Lita during their fights. One of those was the legendary Budweiser Star. But what Lita has to do with the zebra RR? Well, when she was still together with Chris she took the guitar to one of her promo shoots. She probably thought it looked cool and wanted to use it although Lita was endorsed by BC Rich. Rick Gould took the photos and some of them ended up in mags and posters. Below is a scan of one A4 sized poster.
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