Jason Becker – A life to remember

As a kid there was only one thing Jason Becker wanted to do and that was to play the guitar for the rest of his life. This drove Jason to spending hours upon end practicing in his room in order to perfect his craft of choice. With discipline and motivation towards reaching musical brilliance, his work lead to historical acclaim that Jason stretched the boundaries of guitar playing to strange lands.

Jason picked up the guitar when he was 6 yrs old and never looked back after that. Jason’s father, a guitarist himself encouraged Jason’s musical interests and his love for the instrument surely rubbed off on his son. By the time he reached high school, Jason was playing at school events and local cafes. At school he met Marty Friedman, a future guitar legend.

Jason formed the neoclassical speed metal band Cacophony in 1986 along with Marty, who was a bit more experienced than Jason at that time, having worked with bands such as Deuce, Hawaii & Vixen. But Marty was seemingly in awe of Jason’s playing as he stated in many interviews and was fervent about his team up with him.

Cacophony released their first album Speed Metal Symphony in 1987 when Jason was just 17. The album is now considered a milestone in the catalogue of speed metal, brilliant in any which way it became symbolic of the genre. They followed this with Go Off the next year. Both the albums are looked upon as yardsticks for measuring metal guitarists as they require high levels of speed, accuracy and consistency to cover.

The same year Jason released his first solo album, Perpetual Burn. The title song became one of Jason’s most famous and technically challenging songs, laden with roadrunner scalar runs and complex sweep picking patterns. By that time, Cacophony had split after amazing success in Japan and parts of Europe. While Marty headed towards Dave Mustaine’s Megadeth, Jason found an opening in David Lee Roth’s band after Steve Vai’s exit.

It finally seemed to be happening for Jason at the age 20. He was living his dream of being a guitar hero. But fate had something else in store for him. While recording for Roth’s A Little Ain’t Enough, he was diagnosed with ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease and was told he only had a couple years to live. Jason’s family was understandably shattered, but he never let the grief be shown. His body grew weak and this tremendously affected his playing – so much so that he had to alter some of the parts he had actually written for the album, tuning them to easier patterns. He somehow managed to complete the album, but was in no state to tour with the band and his work as Roth’s axe man ended here.

Jason started composing using keyboards and a computer which could be done using one hand and wasn’t as taxing on his body as playing the guitar. Jason’s musician friends helped record Jason’s compositions which would shape into 1996’s Perspective, a beautiful confluence of Asian, African and American music. Even the legend Eddie Van Halen did his bit to help promote the album. Shortly Jason could no longer compose even on the keyboard. A friend helped him design a computer system by which he could communicate on the basis of his blinking.

Over the years Jason got stuck to the wheelchair and lost the ability to speak. In this state of helplessness and frustration, Jason discovered the world of Spirituality through the teachings of the Bengali yogi, Yogananda. Priests from neighboring temples helped Jason to deal with his hardships. During visits to the temple Jason discovered new friends and additional support in India.

By the late 90’s Jason also developed breathing problems which required a tube to be inserted into his body to help him cope. But his new found faith in the divine enabled him to overcome all sorts of suffering. Jason released some of his unreleased demos under the names The Raspberry Jams and The Blueberry Jams.

Jason’s second phase of spiritualization started when he met the spiritual leader Ammachi. Jason describes the meeting as heavenly, and was overwhelmed by the power of her love and energy. Since the years from his spiritual awakening, Jason’s health has remained stable if not improved and the amount of medication he used has decreased.

Jason’s example is one of grit, determination and hard work. Not only is his music inspiring but his life by itself is too. It’s very easy to loose faith in life when one undergoes such terrible suffering. But Jason has worked through all this to find meaning in life and he manages to still bear a smile on his face all the time. He’s still alive today more than two decades after he was diagnosed with ALS.