LESLIE WEST
A legendary guitar god keeps climbing with a blistering new set
When Leslie West finished recording “Dyin’ Since the Day I Was Born,” the leadoff track on his new album Still Climbing, he emailed it to fellow guitar monster Slash. “I really respect the guy and wanted his opinion,” says West. “He wrote back and said, ‘You just can’t get any heavier than that, man.’”
recording “Dyin’ Since the Day I Was Born,” the leadoff track on his new album Still Climbing, he emailed it to fellow guitar monster Slash. “I really respect the guy and wanted his opinion,” says West. “He wrote back and said, ‘You just can’t get any heavier than that, man.’”
Slash’s comments could sum up virtually all of West’s music since he burst onto the scene in 1969 with Mountain, the band he formed with late bassist Felix Pappalardi. West’s massive girth was matched pound for pound by his hefty tone and indelible riffs on now-classics like “Mississippi Queen,” “Never in My Life,” and “Theme for an Imaginary Western.”
While his overpowering guitar work and wailing vocals remain as robust, West presents a different physical image today, at 68. He’s grayer and thinner, but most strikingly he gets around on and plays from a wheelchair. In 2011, West’s lower right leg was amputated due to complications from diabetes. Less than two months later he was back onstage. Still, the adjustment was not easy. “I went to rehab,” he says, “and they told me to bring the guitar. They said, ‘See how long you can stand and play without losing your balance.’ I lasted 40 seconds. So I play sitting down. I can’t move around that much onstage but I can still play.”
Play he does on Still Climbing, whose title pays tribute to Mountain’s 1970 debut, Climbing!. Produced by West and Mike “Metal” Goldberg, the new set features a host of new West originals—several with lyrics by West’s wife, Jennifer. There’s also a steamy cover of the Percy Sledge R&B staple “When a Man Loves a Woman” and a remake of Mountain’s much-sampled “Long Red.” Other guests include Johnny Winter, Jonny Lang and Dee Snider.
Perhaps surprising considering the history he’s lived through—and helped create—West shrugs off nostalgia. “When people say, ‘I remember the good ol’ days,’ if you really think back, maybe there were one or two days that were great and the rest were crap,” he says. “I was just learning to play then—we were making up rules as we went along.”
Today he’s making new rules. “Everybody gets knocked down in their life,” he says. “Yes, things have changed dramatically for me, but the question for me is always, ‘How do you choose to get up?’ When it’s all over, I just want people to say, ‘He had some good songs.’”
–Jeff Tamarkin
