- Stephen Egerton (guitarist)
Stephen Patrick O'Reilly (born
September 2 ,1964 ), better known as Stephen Egerton, is an American guitarist, best known for his work playing withThe Descendents and All.Egerton was raised in
Utah and played drums and guitar in the seminalSalt Lake City punk rock /death rock band Massacre Guys from 1980 to 1985 alongside bassistKarl Alvarez . In 1985, Egerton moved toVirginia , where he studied classical guitar and played in the band Auto Da Fe with former Iron Cross vocalistSab Grey , prolific DC area drummer Eric Wallgren, and formerBlack Market Baby bass playerPaul Cleary , until joining Alvarez in the Descendents in late 1986.The appearance of Egerton and Alvarez marked a turning point for the Descendents and their allied band All; for the first time, drummer
Bill Stevenson found himself alongside players with the same manic, obsessively-correct technical virtuosity as he. Egerton's guitar playing is marked by a dexterity, precision and inventiveness rarely equaled in the pop-punk genre. This virtuosity was immediately evident on songs like "Iceman", "Schizophrenia" and "Van" from the Descendents' 1987 album "All". Egerton has continued to refine and develop his style in each subsequent release by consciously adopting lashings of retro-rock riffage and slurred soloing to balance the near-scientific quality of his playing.In 2006, Egerton began recording for a new project named 40Engine, featuring former All vocalist
Scott Reynolds . To date, the new band has released one song, "Sunny Disposition". They performed live in Tulsa, Oklahoma in August 2006 and in Colorado, January 2008.Egerton plays guitar in an instrumental side-project called Slorder, and he plays drums and bass in a collaboration with guitarist Jason Crowley called Crowley/Egerton.
The character "Stevo" in the movie "
SLC Punk! " is named after him. Egerton also appeared briefly in the 1984 movie "The Philadelphia Experiment ".
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