You see opportunity... Opportunity is like a window: every once in a while, it opens, if you're ready for that opportunity. So be prepared, work hard, and follow your dreams.
I was definitely not one of those kids prodigy guitar players.
The first wrestling event I ever went to was PCW Ultra in L.A., and it was insane. They had RVD wrestling, Shane Strickland, Penta, and all these incredible indie wrestlers.
So, really, I just try to be the best guitar player I can be - not the best female guitar player, not the best 'X amount of years' guitar player, or whatever - just the best guitar player.
I'm a total tomboy at heart. If I don't have to be on stage or doing anything that day, I'm always in band t-shirt and yoga pants and sneakers.
I really hope that with my album, because I have a bit more of a mainstream crossover following, I really hope that I can introduce some new listeners to this world of instrumental music.
You can be in the band, you can go buy your own guitar strings at Guitar Center, you can go and do everything the boys can do and you're not the oddity anymore.
When it's your own name that is the business, the business never stops.
I record everything myself, I engineer everything myself.
The biggest challenge was the whole learning curve of being solo artist. I've been in bands for so long that being a solo artist was completely new thing.
And I would say that the main thing that I faced as a female in this industry was being underestimated. But being underestimated isn't always a bad thing. It's nice to get out there and blow people's minds when they think you're not gonna be any good.
Me personally, I've had really great experiences. I'd be lying if I said it was all roses and perfect, but, by and large, the metal community is so incredibly supportive.
It never really occurred to me to seek out a female influence, a female musician.
There were always people in the audience that judged me on the way I looked. They just assumed, because I was a girl, that I wasn't going to be any good, and it motivated me to improve and nail it every night.
The solo album is really my way of branching out and doing my own thing. I'm mostly known for playing other people's music, so this is a way to just do something that is purely from my heart and my creativity. So it's really exciting.
I will champion this forever - that the rock and metal scene is absolutely the most inclusive, amazing, supportive community that I've ever been a part of.
Yes, of course, I've been dreaming about it since I was a kid. Even now, I'm 31 years-old now and I've never been on a cover of a magazine. It makes you feel in such a way to do it with my signature guitar and to have it be Guitar Player magazine, it was really just an amazing experience.
I might come across like kind of a show-off onstage and stuff, but I like collaborating with people.
Yeah, of course, there's always gonna be people with their own opinions about a female in rock music and men in rock music, but at the end of the day, it's just about being a good musician.
I do remember being a kid and hearing Van Halen. My dad was always playing Van Halen in the car.
