[sadie]

aw, you're such a sweetie, gadzooks.

martin fowler, i think you got some good advice from metal militia there (strangely enough), and i wish i could agree that it were that simple. however, it has been my experience that chronic guitar masturbators like the one you describe have very weak egos and react very badly to any kind of (even constructive) criticism.

it could be that he has been highly praised over his lead abilities by rednecks who love listening to the end solo of "free bird" repeatedly with lit lighters. it could be that he has a natural talent for free form notes that go along with chords, that he feels the flow. it could be that he just really sucks at rhythm. regardless, this is where he has found his validation, and he isn't likely to step out of it.

this is probably why you've been fired from every band you've ever been in; people don't really want to hear the truth, and they especially don't want to hear it bluntly.

my suggestion is to try to casually talk about how using an exclamation point at the end of every sentence it loses its power...just like a really cool jamming guitar solo gets old after 20 minutes. and ending every son with a really cool jamming guitar solo gets old after two songs...