Douglas Blair Lucek, better known as Doug Blair (born February 11, 1963) is a heavy metal guitarist and member of W.A.S.P. Blair's early development as a musician took place in his home state of

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

. His focus on technical ability with the

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

quickly saw him gaining a reputation locally in the Tri-State area of (NY, NJ, CT).

Music career

His early band, Run 21, played small club dates in the Tri-State area (NY, NJ, CT) and recorded some original material during that time. One of the songs, "Baby It's Your Face" was recorded at Presence Studios in

Weston, Connecticut Weston is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 10,354 at the 2020 census with the highest median household income in Connecticut. The town is served by Route 57 and Route 53, both of which run through the ...

and released on the ''Metalstorm'' compilation produced by Jamie Bircumshaw and Tom Boyd in 1985. This early Doug Blair band, Run 21 also included

Stet Howland Stet Howland (born August 14, 1960) is an American drummer. Early life Howland graduated in 1978 from Duxbury High School. He started playing drums at age seven and has been teaching and playing for a living since age 13. His influences are Bud ...

on drums who would later join W.A.S.P., as would Blair. Run 21 was especially known for its outlandish show (compared to other Connecticut acts) that would see Blair jumping up on the bar and playing while running in between glasses and bottles. The act had an element of comedy with drummer Stet Howland's dialogue with the audience. This early "over the top" style of performance were precursors to what Blair and Howland would be doing with the internationally known W.A.S.P. He initially played in W.A.S.P. for a short time in 1992. During this time Blair authored a guitar column for Mixx Magazine where he gave instruction and advice on the general subject of guitar playing and guitar instruments which he was known to design. He was also a quick replacement during W.A.S.P.'s Unholy Terror Tour in 2001 on two festival gigs when Chris Holmes left the band. In 2006 he was hired by W.A.S.P. for the third time. His other current band is Signal2Noise with percussionist/vocalist John Anthony. Their debut album, ''Fighting Mental Illness'', has seven songs: "Generica", "Contrast", "Hear", "Disown", "Out", "Corner" and a bonus acoustic version of "Wall". From time to time, he also appears as a guest musician at gigs of other artists such as Barbe-Q-Barbies. In May 2016 Blair announced an upcoming collaboration with American

alternative metal Alternative metal (also known as alt-metal) is a genre of heavy metal music that combines heavy metal with influences from alternative rock and other genres not normally associated with metal. Alternative metal bands are often characterized by ...

vocalist and musician

Melissa VanFleet Melissa Ann VanFleet (born 1986) is an American singer-songwriter and musician from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In 2012, her piano covers of American heavy metal band W.A.S.P. (band), W.A.S.P.'s ballad "Sleeping (In the Fire)" and "Dehumanizer, To ...

. In October 2017, VanFleet released "Raven," a single featuring Blair on lead guitar.

Music Instrument Inventions

Blair is known for inventing the innovative instrument "GuitarCross" which blend five guitar strings with three bass strings (guitar strings sent to one amplifier, bass strings to another) to make a unique sound. He uses this invention in

s2n s2n is an open-source C99 implementation of the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol developed by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and released in 2015. It was developed to ensure the code—about 6,000 lines long—would be easier to review than t ...

and also uses a unique 12-string acoustic named "Asia."

Discography

W.A.S.P.

*'' Dominator'' (2007) *'' Babylon'' (2009) *'' Golgotha'' (2015) *'' Re-Idolized'' (2018)

Other work

*'' Dreams in the Witch House - A Lovecraftian Rock Opera'' (2013) *"Raven" -

(2017)

References

External links

Doug Blair, Interview: "Fighting Mental Illness" February 23, 2013Official Doug Blair Home PageBlair's Blade II Guitar Signal2Noise
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blair, Doug 1963 births Living people American heavy metal guitarists American male guitarists 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians