Russ Parrish

Russell "Russ" Parrish is an American guitarist, vocalist, and friend of the band Racer X. He is most well known today for playing the character of Satchel in the heavy metal band Steel Panther, although he also played in the band Fight with Rob Halford and War & Peace with Jeff Pilson. Parrish lived with Paul Gilbert for a time in the 90's and played with Gilbert and Jeff Martin in The Electric Fence. He also played Racer X songs with Jeff Martin in Bad Dog.

The song "God Of The Sun" from Racer X's Technical Difficulties album was written by Parrish and Martin during the Bad Dog era.

Career
Russ Parrish was born in Redwood City, California and started playing guitar at a young age. Allison Zahigian, who directed "Journey to Success", a documentary which featured Parrish, mentions that her stepmother was Parrish's neighbor growing up and that "he wasn't very social. Just played guitar all day." Parrish grew up in rural Fresno, California and remarks that there was not much to do other than practice guitar. After high school, Parrish attended Hollywood's Guitar Institute of Technology at the age of 16. It is rumored that his audition piece was a note-for-note cover of Yngwie Malmsteen's "Far Beyond the Sun" accompanied by a written notation. During his time at GIT, he was featured in Varney's Spotlight column.

He studied under Paul Gilbert as a student, but became a friend and colleague upon graduation. After graduating, Parrish became a teacher at GIT alongside Gilbert and Bruce Bouillet, as well as a personal friend of Jeff Martin, through whom he met Judas Priest singer Rob Halford. Parrish was well-known for his incredible technical skill, although he often emphasized the use of melodic ideas instead of "shredding".

Allegedly, Parrish used to heckle Paul Gilbert during the latter's open counseling sessions.

After the breakup of Racer X, he was hired by Jeff Martin to play in the band Bad Dog, which performed several Racer X covers. Parrish was able to play the Racer X parts as-recorded, being one of the few people in the world at the time who could do so in a live application. The band also had some original songs, but was never signed to a label and eventually broke up.

During Paul Gilbert's tenure in Mr. Big, he rented out a room in his house to Russ, who Paul says "was there more than I was." Parrish would record demos in Gilbert's home studio, and Paul affirms that Russ' demos were always better than his because he would take the time to make them sound like full studio productions. Parrish is seen playing bass in the tuning section of Gilbert's "Terrifying Guitar Trip" instructional video.

After Bad Dog, Parrish joined Jeff Martin and Paul Gilbert in The Electric Fence, a cover band that performed at GIT. According to Gilbert, they formed the band in order to get out of demonstrating repetitive speed techniques to students. The band often dressed in outlandish costumes and spoke in British accents. In a 2016 interview, Jeff Martin speculated that this band was what got Parrish interested in comedy and parody bands. Soon after, Parrish was hired to play guitar in Jeff Pilson's War & Peace band. The band recorded a set of demos, which were later released on Shrapnel Records in 1993 as Time Capsule.

Russ Parrish was introduced to Rob Halford through mutual friend Jeff Martin. Halford had seen Russ play in a local band and decided to hire him to be the lead guitarist in his new band, Fight. Parrish played in the band on their War of Words album and in several live appearances. In a 1993 Headbanger's Ball interview, Parrish states that he was in a number of bands in Los Angeles prior to joining Fight, "all of which ended in disaster." He quit the band after touring in support of War of Words. When asked about the reason for his departure, he replied, "Just got bored with the music. Wasn't worth the money anymore."

During this time, Parrish and Paul Gilbert saw a band in Cleveland called Outta the Blue, which closed every show with Racer X covers. Due to Parrish's previous expertise with Racer X material, he joined them as a guitarist and can be seen in photos wearing an Outta the Blue shirt.

In the mid-90's, Parrish was hired as the guitarist for the touring band of Kevin Gilbert (no relation to Paul). Allegedly, Parrish would later refer to Kevin Gilbert as the most talented musician he'd ever worked with. In a 2018 interview, he referred to Kevin Gilbert as "one of the only true geniuses I've ever worked with." In the early 2000's, Parrish was making a living by playing in two cover bands. The first was a Rush cover band called Moving Pictures. The second was a successful Van Halen cover band called The Atomic Punks, which he fronted with future Steel Panther vocalist Ralph Saenz. Parrish was praised as being one of the only guitarists who is able to emulate Eddie Van Halen's signature sound.

Parrish was also an occasional actor. In 2000, he played the lead role in friend Dean Cameron's rock musical "Rockalypse Now", put on by Los Angeles' Sacred Fools Theatre Company. Parrish played Dikk Rokk, Rock Dick, a rock & roll detective. The script and most evidence of the musical has since been lost. In 2003, Saenz and Parrish formed Metal Skool, an 80's glam metal cover band. The band continued to play weekly shows in Los Angeles, and eventually recorded an album of original songs entitled Hole Patrol. Years later, in 2009, the band renamed to Steel Panther and released the commercially and critically successful album Feel the Steel. In this band, Parrish plays "Satchel", a stereotypical glam metal guitarist who regularly advocates drug use and promiscuity, while indulging in self-deprecating humor which frequently references the low income of mid-level musicians and advanced age of the band members. in 2004 Russ Parrish, Dean Cameron, and Darren Leader formed an ALT Rock band called "The Thornbirds" and made 1 album called "all the same". The Thornbirds were played on Howard Stern's radio station a few times.

Steel Panther has included Racer X members in their shows. On one occasion, they invited Jeff Martin and Scott Travis onstage to perform Judas Priest's "You've Got Another Thing Comin'".

Style
Parrish's technical prowess on guitar is comparable to that of Paul Gilbert or Bruce Bouillet. Students of his often testify that he was not only technically gifted, but stylistically diverse. With a long line of influences, it has been claimed that he could perfectly imitate the guitar playing of such players as Vinnie Moore, Steve Morse, and Uli Jon Roth. Additionally, he could adapt to any style including bebop and modernized jazz. Paul Gilbert similarly praised Russ' playing, commenting that he "always played great."

Parrish is influenced by Eddie Van Halen, Paul Gilbert, Yngwie Malmsteen, Alex Lifeson, Buck Dharma, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, and several others. Growing up, he was a fan of The Beatles, T-Rex, David Bowie, ZZ Top, Hughes/Thrall, and Rush. In an interview, he recalls "getting into [his] 1982 Isuzu hatchback and [...] putting on Van Halen, AC/DC, or T-Rex." A former student of at MI claims that Parrish was an avid fan of sneaking into Mike Stern concerts.

A famous tape of Parrish demonstrating licks and exercises to a student shows him utilizing advanced implementations of alternate picking, legato, tapping, hybrid picking, and sweeping. He specifically mentions playing in the style of Paul Gilbert, Vinnie Moore, and Uli Jon Roth. In Steel Panther, Parrish has adjusted his style to resemble popular 80's guitar players such as Eddie Van Halen, George Lynch, and Warren DeMartini. He frequently double-tracks his guitars to include harmonized leads. Melodic ideas, chromaticism, atonal sequences, and blues ideas are prevalent in his Steel Panther solos. Despite the fact that the "Satchel" character is supposed to be dumb, Parrish often explains complex musical ideas while in-character. In a sketch making fun of 1-4-5 chord progressions, "Satchel" elaborates that he attended GIT in the 80's.

Personal life
Despite his playboy character in "Satchel", Parrish is was married. Russ has 2 children and is often seen wearing his wedding ring even while in character. Russ's son's name is Jackson and his daughter's name is Lucy.

Parrish previously dated Billy Idol keyboard player Julie Greaux and has at least 2 brothers.