Few session guitarists have as many notches in their belt as Tim Pierce. The artist has lent his talents to records by , Phil Collins, , , Celine Dion, the Goo Goo Dolls and a dizzyingly diverse array beyond them. He's been hard at it since featuring on Bertín Osborne's 1974 LP, , and during that time, he's seen the music industry change exponentially.
One of the most notable changes came in the wake of Nirvana’s success in the early ‘90s. And he’s incredibly grateful for it. By its very nature, session work is incredibly cutthroat.
As musical styles and trends fall in and out of fashion — often in the blink of an eye — players can find their calling card no longer desired as producers scramble for their next hit record. Pierce was nearly two decades deep when the '90s rolled around. He'd already proved an indispensable name in the phone books of producers and record label execs.
Still, he felt the shifting landscape at the hands of Cobain’s against-the-grain success. Thankfully, it fell in his favor. “I think it was when Nirvana showed up, the environment shifted to where I was the perfect studio musician," Pierce tells .
"Because I was the guy who could sound a little less polished, a little more like a band guy, but I could reliably deliver all the parts. It's just perseverance and time that brought me into the fold.” The ‘80s, was an era in which , and acrobatic shredding were in vogue.
Everyone wanted to dazzle and take the guitar to new heights. Grun.
