Tracy Grijalva (born January 3, 1959), known as Tracy G, is an American heavy metal guitarist best known for his time with Dio from 1993 to 1999.

Early life

Tracy's first band experience was in band called the Grijalva Brothers with his father as member. Growing up he had a few guitar instructors, one of them told him that he would have a hard time playing because "his fingers were too small". Grijalva, being the determined musician that he was, would practice until his fingers hurt.

Influences

Tracy gives credit to

Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he co-founded along ...

(

Van Halen Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. Credited with "restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene", Van Halen was known for its energetic live shows and for the virtuosity of its lead gu ...

) and Donny Simmons ( Yankee Rose, Stormer) for influencing his playing, especially referring to Simmons as 'his idol'.

Career

He would later play in a variety of bands, including with future member of

Great White Great White is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1977. The band peaked with several albums during the mid-to-late 1980s, including the platinum-selling records '' Once Bitten'' (1987) and '' ...Twice Shy'' (1989), and those albums ...

, Jack Russell. He also put together the bands Love/Hate with singer

Jizzy Pearl Jizzy Pearl (born James Wilkinson) is an American vocalist who was born on March 17, 1958, in Chicago, Illinois. He has had notable performances in several heavy metal and hard rock groups. He first fronted the band Data Clan, which eventually b ...

, and Swift Kick with whom he released an EP "Long Live Rock" in 1984. He would play at almost any club he could find to get his publicity out. He also played with vocalist Rudy Torres and drummer Audie Desbrow (Great White) in Riff Raff, a very popular band around southern California in the early days of hard rock and heavy metal. Tracy then joined Dio. In his six years with the band, Tracy G was featured on two studio albums, (''

Strange Highways ''Strange Highways'' is the sixth studio album by American heavy metal band Dio. It's also their first album since Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice's reunion tour with Black Sabbath. The European release was on Vertigo, in October 1993; t ...

'' and ''

Angry Machines ''Angry Machines'' is the seventh studio album by American Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Dio (band), Dio. It was released first in Japan on September 23, 1996, by Mercury Records with 11 tracks and in the US on October 15, 1996 on Mayhem R ...

''), and one live album ('' Inferno: Last in Live''). He left the band in 1999 when he was asked to play

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

while

Craig Goldy Thomas "Craig" Goldy (born November 6, 1961) is an American musician, best known as the guitarist of the rock bands Dio and Giuffria. Early musical life Goldy was born in San Diego, California. Before Dio, he played in the bands Vengeance, R ...

took

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

. Dio decided to bring back Goldy, who had played with him on the ''

Dream Evil Dream Evil is a Swedish heavy metal band, assembled by producer Fredrik Nordström in 1999. History Producer Fredrik Nordström had the ambition of creating a power metal band of his own for a long time, but had difficulty finding anyone ...

'' album. Tracy G formed The Tracy G Group, which included Jeremy Masana on bass guitar, Donnie Rodriguez on drums and, respectively, Tracy G on guitar. Further, Tracy G is in the band Goad-ed. They have released two albums and Tracy has released numerous solo albums as well. Tracey G. is working with members of Barren Cross in a new project called Gale Force. The album is called subhuman and was released in 2021.

Discography

Dio

* ''

'' (1993) * ''

'' (1996) * '' Inferno: Last in Live'' (1998) * ''

Live in London, Hammersmith Apollo 1993 ''Live in London, Hammersmith Apollo 1993'' is a concert film by the then newly reformed Dio band on the last night of their European tour in support of the '' Strange Highways'' album. The concert was recorded at Hammersmith Apollo in London, E ...

Swift Kick

* ''Long Live Rock'' (1984)

Rags

* ''Tear 'Em Up'' (1988; re-released in 2003)

WWIII

* ''WWIII'' (1990)

Eightball Cholos

* ''Satan's Whore'' (1996)

Tracy G

* ''The G Factory'' (1997) * ''Compilation Volume I'' (1999) * ''Baron Von Troglenstein'' (1999) * ''A Spooky G X-Mas'' (2001) * ''Katt Gutt'' (2001) * ''Deviating From the Set List'' (2002) * ''Grijalva'' (2007) * ''A Frosty G Christmas'' (2009)

Tracy G & The B.M.B.

* ''Watch Out for The Cucui'' (1999)

Tracy G & Michael Beatty

* ''Me, Myself, and The Rain'' (1999)

Tracy G & The Starr Track Vatos

* ''Stripper Bootleg Live'' (2002)

The Tracy G Group

* ''The Tracy G Group'' (2003) * ''Erector Pili'' (2006) * ''Controlled Chaos'' (2011) * ''Tramp'' (2017)

Curly Fester and The Blues Quartet

* ''...Live Sessions'' (2003)

Driven

* ''Work in Progress'' (1999) * ''Citizen X'' (1999) * ''Driven'' (2000) * ''Self Inflicted'' (2001)

The Mark Bramlett Band

* ''Fast Women and Slow Horses'' (2000)

Goad-ed

* ''Goad-ed'' (2005) * ''To Die is Gain'' (2008)

Epic

* ''Metaphor'' (2006)

Vessyl

* ''Freakz Unite'' (2007)

Ranfa

* ''Little hard blues'' (2007) Special guest in the song "I learned my lesson well"

Robot Lords of Tokyo

* ''Virtue & Vice'' (2012)

Pain Savior

* ''Dead Weight on a Dying Planet'' (2013)

Barking Spider

* ''Warrior by Night (single)'' (2014)

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Living people 1959 births American heavy metal guitarists Musicians from Whittier, California Dio (band) members People from the San Gabriel Valley Guitarists from California 20th-century American guitarists