74 Years Ago Today: Johnny Thunders Was Born in Queens, New York

Johnny Thunders was born John Anthony Genzale on July 15, 1952, in Queens, New York, per Wikipedia's account of his life. He played his first gig in the winter of 1967 with a band called the Reign, and by 17 was a familiar face on the New York club scene, once even appearing in the audience at a 1969 Rolling Stones show at Madison Square Garden, captured in the film Gimme Shelter. Future New York Dolls members Sylvain Sylvain and Billy Murcia recruited him into their band in 1970. Per Guitar World's 2022 retrospective, Sylvain initially cared more about Thunders' street-cool image than his playing, and it was Thunders himself who insisted on learning lead guitar once he realized "the lead guitarist gets the girls and the glory." The New York Dolls played their first show under that name in December 1971.

Thunders' guitar of choice, a Gibson Les Paul Junior in TV Yellow, became inseparable from his image: minimal, direct, and built for raw volume rather than versatility. Per Guitar World's 2022 retrospective, the Cult's Billy Duffy has described lusting after that exact guitar as a young player: "I finally picked up my own Les Paul Junior in 1979, though it was a wine red one. I couldn't find a yellow one in England at that time." Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan told the same publication that the Heartbreakers' style "still influences me and plenty of others even now, 40 years later." Musician Steve Conte, who later took Thunders' old spot in a reformed New York Dolls, agreed. He told Guitar World that Chuck Berry and Keith Richards were Thunders' two biggest touchstones. The magazine's own retrospective credits that same raw sound with Thunders' distinctive glissandos.

Per Wikipedia's account of his career, Thunders and Dolls drummer Jerry Nolan left in 1975 to form the Heartbreakers with bassist Richard Hell (soon replaced by Billy Rath) and guitarist Walter Lure, and the new band toured the UK on the notorious 1976 Anarchy Tour alongside the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and the Damned. Per Guitar World's retrospective, the Heartbreakers' reputation and the British public's fondness for the Dolls made them bigger in the UK than they'd ever been at home. Their only studio album, L.A.M.F. (1977), suffered from a muddy mix that frustrated the whole band, contributing to Nolan's departure that November, per Wikipedia's account. Despite the production issues, Guitar World calls the record one of the few albums from the punk era that "sounds as valid now as it did when it was released."

Per Wikipedia's account of his career, Thunders left the Heartbreakers in 1978 for a solo career, opening with the well-reviewed So Alone, whose sessions included guest spots from Chrissie Hynde, Steve Marriott, and Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott per Guitar World's telling. Addiction shadowed him for the rest of his life. He died April 23, 1991, at age 38, in a New Orleans hotel room; the coroner's office recorded an overdose, though conflicting accounts of the circumstances persist to this day, and Thunders' sister later said an autopsy revealed undiagnosed leukemia that explained his declining health in his final year, per Wikipedia's sourced account of his death.

Thunders' own string gauges from the Dolls and Heartbreakers years aren't documented well enough to cite as fact. But if it's that raw, cutting Les Paul Junior crunch you're after today, a standard nickel-wound electric set remains the reliable modern starting point.

D'Addario

EXL110 XL Nickel Wound (.010–.046)

.010 – .046

Price tier: $

Why this one: A general nickel-wound starting point for a raw, cutting Les Paul Junior crunch, not a historical claim about Thunders' own undocumented string gauges.

E StandardRockPunk

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