| Brian Haner Sr. | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Brian Elwin Haner, Sr. |
| Also known as | Guitar Guy, Papa Gates |
| Born | April 7, 1958 California, United States |
| Genres | Comedy, rock, country |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter, guitarist, stand-up, singer |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Labels | Polydor, Indie |
| Associated acts | Jeff Dunham, Frank Zappa, Rose Royce, Tower of Power, Avenged Sevenfold, The Brian West Band, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs |
Brian Elwin Haner, Sr. (born April 7, 1958), also known as Guitar Guy or Papa Gates is an American musician. He is a guitarist, songwriter, singer and a stand-up comedian. He married in 1980, and his first son, Brian Haner Jr, better known by his stage name, Synyster Gates, is the lead guitarist for the metal band Avenged Sevenfold.[1]
Haner is known for touring with fellow stand-up comedian/ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, as in the 2008 holiday program, Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special.
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Haner got his first guitar when he was 5 years old, after seeing The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show. He joined his first band, "The Plastic Mind", when he was ten years old.[2]
A year before finishing high school, Haner got a summer job touring with Sam the Sham and Pharaohs, best known for their hit songs Woolly Bully and Little Red Riding Hood. During the school year, Haner played in night clubs in the LA area. The following year, he applied for a job on tour with Frank Zappa; although Haner didn't make it past the audition, Zappa later called on him for session work.
After working for several years as a session musician, especially with Motown star Norman Whitfield, Haner signed his first record deal with Polydor under the name of Brian West. They produced his first album "Don't Stop Now". Throughout the 1980s, Haner recorded and toured mainly in Europe. In the early 90s, his composition work extended to scoring television shows and films. From 1998 to 2003, Haner produced his second wife's hypnosis show as well as performing in night clubs; in 2003, he signed with a Nashville music publisher and released two CDs called "My Old Guitar" and "Carney Man". He also developed up a busy program of stand-up comedy and performing his own mainly comic songs.
In 2005, Haner's first novel "Carney Man" was published. After a year spent mostly in Vegas opening for Bobby Slayton, Haner started touring and television specials as "Guitar Guy" with Jeff Dunham. While on tour with Jeff Duhnam, Haner released two solo CDs, "Cougar Bait" and "Fistfight At The Wafflehouse." His most recent mainstream CD is "Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas", featuring Dunham's puppets singing Haner's original songs.[3]
In 2010, Haner Sr. recorded guitar tracks for Avenged Sevenfold's new album entitled Nightmare. Among his contributions were guitar solos for the tracks "Tonight the World Dies,[4] and "So Far Away", which was written by his son, Synyster Gates, in memory of the band's late drummer and Gates' best friend James Sullivan.[5]