1. Roy Z Ramirez was born on February 1968 and is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer, best known for his work with Bruce Dickinson, Halford, and Judas Priest.
14 Facts About Roy Z
1. 2.
Roy Z is the founder of Tribe of Gypsies, a Latin-influenced hard rock band.
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Roy Z was born Roy Ramirez in Pacoima, Los Angeles, California, United States, but changed his name in the 1980s because he felt "ethnic names were not trendy at the time".
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Roy Z began playing guitar and studying music at a young age, influenced by players such as Peter Green, Uli Roth, Jimmy Page, Frank Marino, Carlos Santana, Michael Schenker, Yngwie Malmsteen, Jeff Beck, and Robin Trower.
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Roy Z was featured in Mike Varney's "Spotlight" column in Guitar Player magazine.
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In 1991, Roy Z recorded a 5-song demo which netted a record deal with German indie label Dream Circle Records and led to the formation of Tribe of Gypsies.
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Roy Z gained widespread industry acclaim for his work with Dickinson, and in 2000 he was tapped to produce the Rob Halford solo album Resurrection, which featured the duet "The One You Love to Hate" with Dickinson, as well as Helloween's The Dark Ride.
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Roy Z would go on to produce and co-write every Halford album to date as well as taking over on guitar for the departing Pat Lachman in 2003.
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Roy Z re-connected with his former Driver bandmate, vocalist Rob Rock, for a series of albums starting with 2000's Rage of Creation.
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The album had to be shelved for more than eight months when in 2004, Roy Z got the call to produce and mix Judas Priest's reunion album Angel of Retribution.
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Shortly thereafter, Roy Z was tapped by former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach to produce his 2007 solo album, Angel Down, which included a guest vocal appearance by Guns N' Roses mainman Axl Rose.
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Roy Z took part in the Halford reunion and has played guitar alongside "Metal" Mike Chlasciak on all subsequent studio and live releases since, starting with the 2009 Christmas album, Halford III: Winter Songs.
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Roy Z has continued his production work, including Ravenous by Swedish heavy metal band Wolf in 2009 and Brazilian thrashers Sepultura's twelfth album, Kairos, in 2011.
14.
In March 2013, news leaked that Roy Z was working with Bruce Dickinson and that the project would involve former Scorpions guitarist Uli Jon Roth with whom both Z and Dickinson have performed live on different occasions.