Uli Jon Roth (Scorpions)

Name: Ulrich Roth
Born: 18th December, 1954 (Düsseldorf, West Germany)

Profile: He is a German guitarist and one of the earliest contributors to the neo-classical metal genre. He is also the founder of Sky Academy and inventor of the Sky Guitar.

History: Started to play guitar in his teens where in the early 70's, Roth formed a band called "Dawn Road". After Michael Schenker left the "Scorpions" the two remaining members, Rudolf Schenker and Klaus Meine merged with Uli Jon Roth, as Scorpions new lineup.

In 1979, Roth formed his own band named "Electric Sun" which released three albums. The first, Earthquake (1979), was dedicated to Jimi Hendrix. A second album released two years later, Fire Wind (1981), was dedicated to Anwar el-Sadat (the assassinated President of Egypt who had tried to make peace in the Middle East), and featured a song called "Enola Gay" about the atomic bombing of Japan. In 1985, Roth released his third and final album, Beyond the Astral Skies, dedicated to Martin Luther King and to his fans.

After Electric Sun, Roth entered a new phase of creative work, composing four symphonies and two concertos, and sometimes performing with symphony orchestras throughout Europe (these were around the 90's and early 2000's)

In 2007, Roth had begun working on a new full-length studio album. The title of the album would be "Under A Dark Sky" and was going to be the first official release in the long-awaited series of Symphonic Legends - a cycle of music written by Roth for his all-encompassing Sky of Avalon project.

Going back in the 80's, there have been companies who sold Sky Guitars, either without Uli’s knowledge or without his consent. Many private individuals have also had copies built for themselves, because of the unique and appealing design and the features. But these were all just copied from photographs and no one had access to the precise dimensions of the originals; hence most of those copies resulted in poor limitations, which didn’t stand a chance to live up to the extremely high standard of the handful of originals. The new Dean Custom line will be the first genuine, fully authentic Sky Guitars for 20 years.

Influences: Vivaldi

Axology: Sky guitars; 'Mighty Wing' and 'Destiny' have 7 strings guitars and Marshall amplifiers

Link(s):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQWuKv4HCWc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmDTO3XUGZ4