Jimmy Crespo
Encyclopedia
James "Jimmy" Crespo Jr. (born July 5, 1954 in Brooklyn
, New York
) is an American guitarist. He was the lead guitarist for the hard rock
band Aerosmith
from 1979 until 1984. Jimmy co-wrote Rock in a Hard Place with Steven Tyler. Crespo has also performed or recorded with Rod Stewart
, Billy Squier
, Meat Loaf
, Stevie Nicks
, Robert Fleischman
, Rough Cutt
, Renegade
, Flame and others.
parents (Jaime & Carmen) within a musical family and has one brother Juan Crespo. Crespo first took up the guitar at age 14. He joined his first band, The Knomes, shortly afterwards. During his teenage years he became an accomplished guitarist, drawing on the stylings of such artists as The Yardbirds
, Cream
, The Beatles
, and Jimi Hendrix
. Forming the New York club band Anaconda, Crespo drew the attention of industry figures, leading to session work with a number of high profile artists such as Meat Loaf
and Stevie Nicks
before he was recruited as lead guitarist and songwriter by producer Jimmy Iovine
for the major label RCA
-signed band "Flame", who was fronted by the powerful lead vocalist Marge Raymond. Flame released two albums: their debut in 1977 Queen of the Neighborhood and in 1978 their second album entitled "Flame".
from the band in 1979. Invited to audition for the vacant lead guitarist position, Crespo was asked to join Aerosmith in October 1979. Contributing a guitar solo to the song "3 Mile Smile" for the already recorded Night in the Ruts
album, Crespo commenced touring with the band soon after joining. The tour was hampered by the increasingly erratic state of the band's singer, Steven Tyler
, at this stage heavily beset by drug addiction and suffering several on-stage collapses. Drummer Joey Kramer
formed a band called Renegade during this time, and he recruited Marge Raymond to sing lead and front the band. Jimmy Crespo, Tom Hamilton and the late Bob Mayo
completed the line-up. An album was recorded at the Power Station in NYC and was produced by Tony Bongiovi, but it has never been released. Renegade is somewhat of a legend in the music industry and the tapes are much sought after by fans. Tyler, after realizing that Renegade was buzzing the industry and about to take off, came back to fulfill his contractual obligation to CBS. Renegade is referenced in several Aerosmith autobiographies.
Despite the singer's troubles, including an incapacitating motorcycle accident in January 1981, Crespo and Tyler forged a songwriting and touring partnership. Crespo co-wrote six of the songs on Aerosmith's 1982 album Rock in a Hard Place
with Tyler. Crespo performed most guitar duties on the album.
Charting at number 37 on the US Billboard
chart, Rock in a Hard Place reportedly cost over $1 million in production costs, featuring a plethora of production and engineering staff amongst its credits. Xavier Russell said of it in Sounds: "As soon as the needle hit the wax, it melted and the speaker covers blew across the living room floor - Five Stars".
Subsequent tours from 1982 through to early 1984 saw Crespo team up with Rick Dufay
, who filled in for the absent Brad Whitford
. Commercial difficulties during pre-production of the band's next album coupled with singer Tyler's desire to reconvene with guitarist Perry saw Crespo exit the band in mid 1984, as the "classic" 1971-1979 Aerosmith lineup re-formed.
-signed band. His work with Stress is documented in the bonus tracks added to the CD reissue of Killing Me Night & Day
on Deep Shag Records
. Crespo contributed guitar to the Adam Bomb album "Fatal Attraction" (Geffen 1985) before settling in Los Angeles with new wife Cynthia.
Crespo joined bassist Danny Sheridan
and Bonnie Bramlett in their new band Bandaloo Doctors
from 1987 to 1992 and returned to session work as well as touring and recording with Billy Squier
for several years. From 1994-1996, Crespo was part of Rod Stewart's
live band as lead guitarist.
Continuing to play as a studio musician, Crespo has also performed at some of Las Vegas'
biggest casinos, whilst also engineering a rock amplifier simulator ("Rock Amp Legends by Jimmy Crespo") for Nomad Factory. Crespo played with the band Phoenix on the Las Vegas entertainment circuit for a few years.
He is currently working on a new album with his new band The Jimmy Crespo Project. However, ever since starting the Crespo Project, the line-up has been constantly changing - in the most recent shows Crespo has used the current Sin City Sinners
line-up as his backing band. Crespo has been married to Cynthia Sin since 1985 and has three children: Cristina Ann Crespo, Jason Moore and Jarrid Crespo.
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
) is an American guitarist. He was the lead guitarist for the hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
band Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
from 1979 until 1984. Jimmy co-wrote Rock in a Hard Place with Steven Tyler. Crespo has also performed or recorded with Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
, Billy Squier
Billy Squier
William Haislip "Billy" Squier is an American rock musician. Squier had a string of arena rock hits in the 1980s. He is best known for the song "The Stroke" on his 1981 album release Don't Say No...
, Meat Loaf
Meat Loaf
Michael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...
, Stevie Nicks
Stevie Nicks
Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums...
, Robert Fleischman
Robert Fleischman
Robert Fleischman is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer.Fleischman is perhaps best known as the short-lived lead singer for the rock group Journey in 1977 between the group's albums, Next and Infinity...
, Rough Cutt
Rough Cutt
Rough Cutt was an American heavy metal band from San Diego, California in the 1980s. They were based in Los Angeles after signing a recording contract with Warner Brothers...
, Renegade
Renegade (band)
Renegade is an American rock n' roll band composed of Luis Cardenas, Kenny Marquez and Tony De La Rosa. Although each member hails from the United States, the band is widely recognized as being the first Hispanic or "Chicano rock" band to gain acceptance in the United States. Throughout Latin...
, Flame and others.
Early life & career
Crespo was born in Brooklyn and raised by Puerto Rican-AmericanPuerto Ricans in the United States
Stateside Puerto Ricans are American citizens of Puerto Rican origin, including those who migrated from Puerto Rico to the United States and those who were born outside of Puerto Rico in the United States...
parents (Jaime & Carmen) within a musical family and has one brother Juan Crespo. Crespo first took up the guitar at age 14. He joined his first band, The Knomes, shortly afterwards. During his teenage years he became an accomplished guitarist, drawing on the stylings of such artists as The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds
- Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...
, Cream
Cream (band)
Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...
, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, and Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
. Forming the New York club band Anaconda, Crespo drew the attention of industry figures, leading to session work with a number of high profile artists such as Meat Loaf
Meat Loaf
Michael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...
and Stevie Nicks
Stevie Nicks
Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums...
before he was recruited as lead guitarist and songwriter by producer Jimmy Iovine
Jimmy Iovine
James "Jimmy" Iovine is an American music producer, entrepreneur and chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M.-Biography:...
for the major label RCA
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
-signed band "Flame", who was fronted by the powerful lead vocalist Marge Raymond. Flame released two albums: their debut in 1977 Queen of the Neighborhood and in 1978 their second album entitled "Flame".
Aerosmith years
Returning to session work following the breakup of Flame, Crespo attracted the attention of Aerosmith's management following the departure of Joe PerryJoe Perry (musician)
Anthony Joseph "Joe" Perry is the lead guitarist, backing and occasional lead vocalist, and contributing songwriter for the rock band Aerosmith. He is influenced by many rock artists especially The Rolling Stones and The Beatles...
from the band in 1979. Invited to audition for the vacant lead guitarist position, Crespo was asked to join Aerosmith in October 1979. Contributing a guitar solo to the song "3 Mile Smile" for the already recorded Night in the Ruts
Night in the Ruts
-Side two:-Personnel:*Steven Tyler - lead vocals*Joe Perry - guitar, backing vocals*Brad Whitford - guitar*Tom Hamilton - bass*Joey Kramer - drums-Additional personnel:*Jimmy Crespo - additional guitars*Richie Supa - additional guitars - "Mia"...
album, Crespo commenced touring with the band soon after joining. The tour was hampered by the increasingly erratic state of the band's singer, Steven Tyler
Steven Tyler
Steven Tyler is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the frontman and lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, and occasional piano and percussion. He is known as the "Demon of Screamin'", due to his high screams...
, at this stage heavily beset by drug addiction and suffering several on-stage collapses. Drummer Joey Kramer
Joey Kramer
Joseph Michael "Joey" Kramer is the drummer for the American hard rock band Aerosmith....
formed a band called Renegade during this time, and he recruited Marge Raymond to sing lead and front the band. Jimmy Crespo, Tom Hamilton and the late Bob Mayo
Bob Mayo
Bob "Bobby" Mayo was a session keyboardist and guitarist, perhaps best known for his work with Peter Frampton....
completed the line-up. An album was recorded at the Power Station in NYC and was produced by Tony Bongiovi, but it has never been released. Renegade is somewhat of a legend in the music industry and the tapes are much sought after by fans. Tyler, after realizing that Renegade was buzzing the industry and about to take off, came back to fulfill his contractual obligation to CBS. Renegade is referenced in several Aerosmith autobiographies.
Despite the singer's troubles, including an incapacitating motorcycle accident in January 1981, Crespo and Tyler forged a songwriting and touring partnership. Crespo co-wrote six of the songs on Aerosmith's 1982 album Rock in a Hard Place
Rock in a Hard Place
-Notes:The track "Cry Me a River" is a cover written by Arthur Hamilton.The last track of the album, "Push Comes to Shove" is about Tyler's then girlfriend and future wife Teresa Barrick and her twin sister Lisa.-Band:...
with Tyler. Crespo performed most guitar duties on the album.
Charting at number 37 on the US Billboard
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart, Rock in a Hard Place reportedly cost over $1 million in production costs, featuring a plethora of production and engineering staff amongst its credits. Xavier Russell said of it in Sounds: "As soon as the needle hit the wax, it melted and the speaker covers blew across the living room floor - Five Stars".
Subsequent tours from 1982 through to early 1984 saw Crespo team up with Rick Dufay
Rick Dufay
Richard Marc "Rick" Dufay is a guitarist who played in Aerosmith in the period after Brad Whitford left the band in 1980 up to his return in 1984....
, who filled in for the absent Brad Whitford
Brad Whitford
Bradford Ernest Whitford is the rhythm guitarist for the hard rock band Aerosmith. He graduated Reading Memorial High School in 1970.-Career:...
. Commercial difficulties during pre-production of the band's next album coupled with singer Tyler's desire to reconvene with guitarist Perry saw Crespo exit the band in mid 1984, as the "classic" 1971-1979 Aerosmith lineup re-formed.
Post-Aerosmith
Following his time in Aerosmith, Crespo played on releases by Stress and spent several years with Adam Bomb, a Geffen RecordsGeffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-Beginnings:...
-signed band. His work with Stress is documented in the bonus tracks added to the CD reissue of Killing Me Night & Day
Killing Me Night & Day
Debut album from San Diego melodic rock band, Stress. It was originally released on LP in 1984 by Bernett Records and reissued on CD in 2001 by Deep Shag Records...
on Deep Shag Records
Deep Shag Records
Deep Shag Records is an American record company started in 2000 by Michael Reed. They are best known for the On The Road With Ellison series of releases by Harlan Ellison and for re-issuing rare 1980's modern rock, New Wave, comedy, and spoken word albums which were previously unavailable on...
. Crespo contributed guitar to the Adam Bomb album "Fatal Attraction" (Geffen 1985) before settling in Los Angeles with new wife Cynthia.
Crespo joined bassist Danny Sheridan
Danny Sheridan
----Danny Sheridan is a musician, songwriter, producer, , and entertainment manager. In 2006 he also became a radio personality on 97.1 KLSX Free FM . He is credited as an influential electric bass player, and as the founder of the , pioneers of the so-called “outlaw country” music genre...
and Bonnie Bramlett in their new band Bandaloo Doctors
Bandaloo Doctors
Bandaloo Doctors was a Los Angeles “super group”, playing their own "revolutionary hard-rockin' blues" - From 1988 until 1996 they became darlings of the media and a number of Hollywood celebrities....
from 1987 to 1992 and returned to session work as well as touring and recording with Billy Squier
Billy Squier
William Haislip "Billy" Squier is an American rock musician. Squier had a string of arena rock hits in the 1980s. He is best known for the song "The Stroke" on his 1981 album release Don't Say No...
for several years. From 1994-1996, Crespo was part of Rod Stewart's
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
live band as lead guitarist.
Continuing to play as a studio musician, Crespo has also performed at some of Las Vegas'
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
biggest casinos, whilst also engineering a rock amplifier simulator ("Rock Amp Legends by Jimmy Crespo") for Nomad Factory. Crespo played with the band Phoenix on the Las Vegas entertainment circuit for a few years.
He is currently working on a new album with his new band The Jimmy Crespo Project. However, ever since starting the Crespo Project, the line-up has been constantly changing - in the most recent shows Crespo has used the current Sin City Sinners
Sin City Sinners
Sin City Sinners is a group of prominent musicians who perform self-penned originals and rock and roll covers at key venues throughout Las Vegas, Nevada...
line-up as his backing band. Crespo has been married to Cynthia Sin since 1985 and has three children: Cristina Ann Crespo, Jason Moore and Jarrid Crespo.
with Aerosmith
- Night in the RutsNight in the Ruts-Side two:-Personnel:*Steven Tyler - lead vocals*Joe Perry - guitar, backing vocals*Brad Whitford - guitar*Tom Hamilton - bass*Joey Kramer - drums-Additional personnel:*Jimmy Crespo - additional guitars*Richie Supa - additional guitars - "Mia"...
(1979) - Rock in a Hard PlaceRock in a Hard Place-Notes:The track "Cry Me a River" is a cover written by Arthur Hamilton.The last track of the album, "Push Comes to Shove" is about Tyler's then girlfriend and future wife Teresa Barrick and her twin sister Lisa.-Band:...
(1982) - Classics Live IClassics Live I and IIClassics Live and Classics Live II are a set of albums by the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, released in 1986 and 1987, respectively. Together, they constitute the band's second live offering, after Live! Bootleg...
(1986) - GemsGems (album)-Personnel:*Steven Tyler - lead vocals, harmonica, piano, producer*Brad Whitford - rhythm guitar*Joe Perry - lead guitar, backing vocals*Tom Hamilton - bass*Joey Kramer - drums, percussionAdditional musicians*Jimmy Crespo - lead guitar on "Jailbait"...
(1988) - Pandora's BoxPandora's Box (album)-Disc two:-Disc three:-Recording locations:*Back in the Saddle- Recorded at the Wherehouse, Waltham, Mass. & Record Plant Studios, NYC, Feb-March 1976*Cheese Cake- Recorded at Media Sound and Record Plant Studios, NYC, May-Aug., 1979...
(1991) - Greatest Hits 1973–1988 (1997)