"I can still remember picking up a guitar for the first time," says Rod, recalling days as a lonely fifteen year old looking for affirmation. "My friend told me I looked like I knew what I was doing, so I decided to make an honest man out of him."

Growing in and out of phases, he made Robert Smith, Johnny Marr and Daniel Ash early mentors, graduating to Keef, Jimmy Page and Neil Young when he could take the taunting of his more pure-rock peers no more. Several years later, he picked up the bass, because no one else in the band wanted to play, and was soon blown away by the power and rhythm.

Several guitars and many influences later, he's thinking about something so personal and selfless, all the terrible songs he's written, and all the great ones yet to come. Rod plays a 1963 Gibson EBO bass (O, the stories it could tell...), and his guitars are an American Standard Stratocaster (93) and a Yamaha Jumbo acoustic. If push came to shove, he would have to list Lou's Big Muff, Small Stone and Turbo Rat as his three favourite pedals of all time, but nobody pushed, so just give him any old guitar and leave him alone...

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