Elliot Easton (born Steinberg, December 18, 1953) is an American musician who is best known as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for the American new wave band the Cars. His melodic guitar solos are an integral part of the band's music. Easton has also recorded music as a solo artist, and has played in other bands. He is a left-handed guitarist. He has a daughter, Sydney, from his first marriage. He lives in Bell Canyon, California.

Career

thumb|right|Easton in 1984

thumb|right|Easton performing with [[the New Cars at Nokia Live in Grand Prairie, Texas, 2006]]

thumb|right|Easton performing with [[the Cars at Lollapalooza in Chicago, 2011]]

Easton is a founding member of the Cars and was their lead guitarist. The band was formed in 1976. Their debut studio album, The Cars (1978), contained the hit single "Just What I Needed". The band went on to release five more studio albums over the next nine years before breaking up in 1988. Easton was the youngest member of the band. Easton released one solo studio album, Change No Change (1985), featuring songs co-written with Jules Shear. One single, "(Wearing Down) Like a Wheel", was released and became a moderate hit on the rock charts.

In the mid-1990s, Easton produced and played on the first two studio albums by singer-songwriter Amy Rigby: Diary of a Mod Housewife (1996) and Middlescence (1998). He was also the lead guitarist on Jules Shear's solo studio album Healing Bones (1994). Easton was a founding member of Creedence Clearwater Revisited, a spinoff band consisting of Stu Cook and Doug Clifford of Creedence Clearwater Revival. He was in the Clearwater Revisited band from 1995 to 2004.

Easton was a member of the New Cars, along with original Cars' keyboardist Greg Hawkes, singer and songwriter Todd Rundgren, former Utopia bassist and vocalist Kasim Sulton, and Tubes drummer Prairie Prince. Easton was featured and played the solo in the Click Five song "Angel to You (Devil to Me)".

In 2010, Easton reunited with the surviving original members of the Cars to record their first studio album in 24 years, entitled Move Like This. The album was released in May 2011, and the band toured in support of it. In 2014 Easton became a founding member of the supergroup the Empty Hearts. The band also included the Chesterfield Kings' bassist Andy Babiuk, Blondie's drummer Clem Burke, the Romantics' guitarist and vocalist Wally Palmar, and Faces' pianist Ian McLagan.

Legacy

Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash has cited Easton as one of his musical influences, praising Easton's concise and melodic solos. In 2013, the Gibson guitar company launched the Elliot Easton "Tikibird" Firebird guitar, which is a modified version of their Firebird model. In 2018, Easton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Cars.

Discography

Solo

  • Album – Change No Change (1985) – U.S. No. 99
  • Single – "(Wearing Down) Like a Wheel" (1985)
  • Single – "Shayla" (1985)
  • Single – "Tools of Your Labor" (1985)
  • Single – "Monte Carlo Nights" (<small>with Elliot Easton's Tiki Gods)</small> (1995)

With the Cars

With Benjamin Orr

  • The Lace (1986)

With Elliot Easton's Tiki Gods

  • Easton Island (2013)

References

  • Elliott Easton Interview at NAMM Oral History Library (2016)