Nick Wheeler
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Nick Wheeler |
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Nickolas Don Wheeler (born March 20, 1982) is the lead guitarist, co-founder and backing vocalist for The All-American Rejects.
Biography
Wheeler's musical career was first inspired through his sister's music collection such as Queen and Def Leppard. He first started playing guitar when he was seven.
When he was a teenager, he was invited to play with his band at a party where Tyson Ritter was the bouncer. Ritter, seeing that Wheeler's band didn't have a bassist, joined them, starting a close friendship with Wheeler, although Ritter had never played a bass guitar in his life. The two traveled to New York City to record their first album. Later, they added Mike Kennerty and Chris Gaylor to their live show. Their first album, for which Nick played drums and guitar, relased many hits such as Swing Swing, Time Stands Still and The Last Song. After a year a half hiatus, they relased their second album called Move Along, this time with Interscope Records instead of Doghouse Records, which relased their first self-titled album. The CD sold much better than the first album, with Top 20 hit, Move Along and Top 10 hits It Ends Tonight and Dirty Little Secret.
He spent a semester at Oklahoma State University before dropping out.[citation needed]
He has many tattoos including the Queen Crest on his upper left arm and a Muppets tattoo on his upper right arm. He also has the Def Leppard Hysteria album cover triangle on his right shoulder/back and a Bon Jovi tattoo on his left shoulder/back. He also has a Smashing Pumpkins tattoo on his left arm and a tattoo of the Gibson Firebird logo on his inner right forearm. He also has a tattoo of his dog Chiquita coming out of a banana with a sticker of Oklahoma which is were he was born on one of his lower legs. All four members of the AAR, as well as the touring crew, have the AAR logo on their upper right breast.
In 2006, Wheeler and his bandmates embarked on two tours: the Black Clouds and Underdog Tour with Fall Out Boy and their headlining tour, Tournado.
Though he did not appear in the video, he played guitar for the song Snakes On A Plane (Bring It) which featured frontman Gabe Saporta (Cobra Starship), William Beckett (The Academy Is...), Travis McCoy (Gym Class Heroes), and Maja Ivarsson (The Sounds).
In 2007, Wheeler and Ritter played an acoutic version of 'It's My Life alongside Bon Jovi on MTV Unplugged: Bon Jovi.
On April 5 2008, Wheeler and bandmates, along with Paramore, headlined Bamboozled Left in Irvine CA.
Equipment
He owns many guitars, both electric and acoustic. His main guitar is his Vintage Sunburst Gibson Firebird V. He is seen with a Firebird in all the videos except for "Gives You Hell", in which he uses a green Gibson ES-335 and a blue version in It Ends Tonight. Also in "The Last Song", he is seen with a Classic White Gibson Firebird. He also owns a Gibson Firebird VII. Aside from using his Gibson models during concerts Nick is also seen using a blue Fender Telecaster.
Nick's choice in amps nowadays is a Vox AC30 for his dirty sounds and for his clean tone, he usually uses uses a Roland JC-120, but sometimes a Fender Bassman as well.
He uses a Big Muff (New York one) for his distortion. On their Kyte Cahnnel it is seen that he has a Lovetone Big Cheese for the song Damn Girl on their third album When The World Comes Down.
External links
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