Tracy G

About

Tracy Grijalva (born January 3, 1959), known as Tracy G, is an American heavy metal guitarist best known for his time with Dio from 1993 to 1999.

Tracy’s first band experience was in band called the Grijalva Brothers with his father as a member. Growing up he had a few guitar instructors, one of them told him that he would have a hard time playing because “his fingers were too small”. Grijalva, being the determined musician that he was, would practice until his fingers hurt.

Tracy gives credit to Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen) and Donny Simmons (Yankee Rose, Stormer) for influencing his playing, especially referring to Simmons as ‘his idol’.

He would later play in a variety of bands, including with future member of Great White, Jack Russell. He also put together the bands Love/Hate with singer Jizzy Pearl, and Swift Kick with whom he released an EP “Long Live Rock” in 1984. He would play at almost any club he could find to get his publicity out. He also played with vocalist Rudy Torres and drummer Audie Desbrow (Great White) in Riff Raff, a very popular band around southern California in the early days of hard rock and heavy metal.
Tracy then…