Phil Demmel

Born and raised in the SF East Bay, Phil grew up watching local legends Y&T and Metallica work their way through the clubs and achieve international success. Forming the legendary thrash band Violence in high school, he would start his own journey into the music industry and worldwide acclaim writing songs and performing in some of the biggest metal acts on the planet and on its largest stages.

With over 40 years of live/writing/recording experience featuring a 16-year run (including a Grammy nomination) with Machine Head, immediately followed by fill-in spots with Slayer (on their farewell tour), Indie-Rock stalwarts Nonpoint, thrash legends Overkill, several spots serving as Lamb of God’s man out of the bullpen (even playing bass with them in certain situations) and most recently jumping in at the 11th hour for “Intro” buddy Alex Skolnick in Testament. There have been multiple “Jam” occasions with him playing alongside the largest names in the biz and his cover band called “The Merkins”, made up of some local rockers and his high school buddies. There was a BPMD release of covers songs with Bobby Blitz, Mike Portnoy and Mark Menghi and a reunited Violence EP.

Phil has been a proud Jackson guitar endorsee for over 35 years and a Signature Series Artist with them for over 20 years now as his “Demmelition King V” and “Demmelition Fury” models are a popular choice among the world’s axemen.

PD also uses and abuses:
Dunlop Pedals, Strings, Straplocks and Picks
EMG pick ups
EVH Amps
Nueral DSP Quad Cortex
Seymour Duncan Power Amps
TC Electronic Tuners
Floyd Rose bridges
FU-Tone upgrades
Enki Road cases