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 a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

. His focus on technical ability with the

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

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 New England town, town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 10,354 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and had the highest median income in the state of Connecticut. The town is part of 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 heavy metal drummer who is a member of Metal Church and a former longtime member of W.A.S.P. Early life Howland graduated in 1978 from Duxbury High School. He started playing drums at age ...

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. 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 Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

strings (guitar strings sent to one amplifier, bass strings to another) to make a unique sound. He uses this invention in

s2n s2n-tls, originally named s2n, is an open-source C99 implementation of the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol developed by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and initially released in 2015. The goal was to make the code—about 6,000 lines long—ea ...

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

Discography

W.A.S.P.

*'' Dominator'' (2007) *''

Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...

'' (2009) *''

Golgotha Calvary ( or ) or Golgotha () was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, Jesus was crucified. Since at least the early medieval period, it has been a destination for pilgrimage. ...

'' (2015) *'' Re-Idolized'' (2018)

Other work

*''

Dreams in the Witch House - A Lovecraftian Rock Opera A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5–20 minutes, althou ...

'' (2013) *"Raven" - Melissa VanFleet (2017)

References

External links

Doug Blair, Interview: "Fighting Mental Illness" February 23, 2013Official Doug Blair Home Page, Doug Blair'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