Greg Leon
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Gregory Jay Leon (b. May 1958) is a Los Angeles guitarist most famous for having been in bands right before they became famous, including Quiet Riot, Dokken and Rough Cutt. He was also in a pre-Mötley Crüe band named Suite 19, with Tommy Lee.[1]
Despite questionable career moves, he was still considered an influential and important musical personality in the Hollywood hard rock/heavy metal scene of the late 70s and early 80s, playing an integral part in the successive fortunes of the acts he was associated with.
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[edit] Background
Greg Leon was born in 1958 and grew up in Glendale, California, a foothills community of Los Angeles, and immediately made an impact on the blossoming live hard rock scene of Hollywood's Sunset Strip in the late 70s. Primarily playing guitar and handling vocals, the notable acts that he fronted were Suite 19, with future Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, and the Greg Leon Invasion, with bassist Joey Vera (later of Armored Saint, Fate's Warning and Anthrax) and drummer Carl Elizondo (later of Jag Wire, and playing under the stage name Carl James). He later took the place of Randy Rhoads in Quiet Riot, and as the pre-George Lynch guitarist in Dokken (Don Dokken has since made his first album, which Leon played on and co-wrote, available for download to the public). During this time Leon also had a considerable local reputation as a guitar teacher, working at Rhoads' mother's guitar studio in Burbank.
[edit] Subsequent career
Leon had various incarnations of the Invasion and played with various LA acts after his exciting early days, including a brief stint with Greenworld Records' midwestern act Vyper, while at the same time gathering a name for himself as a guitar amp modifying specialist. Eventually Leon opened an amplifier technician facility in Hollywood that he runs today, frequented by international touring guitarists intrigued by his reputation as a guitarist and technician.
In the late 90s, Leon fronted a band called Wishing Well. However, by 2003 Leon was once again playing the LA club scene under the name The Greg Leon Invasion, taking the group for a European festival tour in 2005 on the strength of new recordings, coupled with the myth related to his name.
