Doug Bristow

Doug Bristow: Lead guitar, lead vocals

Doug Bristow is a 5 year veteran of the Gunshy band. Doug’s musical career dates back to when he was 5 years old. This is when he began taking violin lessons. At age 6 Doug could already read music. He could read music, before he could read books. When Doug was 10 he was first introduced to the guitar. Although he knew that the guitar would eventually be his primary instrument, he continued to play the violin through Junior and Senior high school. He was always first chair. While in high school he began playing guitar in a band named The Titians. They were popular and played high schools and parties.

After high school, Doug took a 4 year hiatus from music while working for Boeing. His return to music came in a duo with his friend Dale Marwood at the Spot Tavern. From there they were recruited to play at Angelo’s in Renton for the better part of three years.

Doug then went on to play for several notable local Seattle bands including Heavy Metal Thunder, People’s Choice, Sound Investment, American River (for 12 years), Tiny Tony and the Statics, who during one concert performed as Chuck Berry’s band. The Statics also opened for the Doobie Brothers that same year. The next endeavor was Fabadab and that was followed by several local working bands for the next few years. Then Doug joined an all original recording group called Three Hands and then went on to be the lead guitar player for No Name Jack. Doug became a part of Gunshy in 1998. Doug is well known by his peers as a stellar musician who truly enjoys life in general and music in particular. Doug keeps the Gunshy band loose with his sense of humor, endearing personality and mellow temperament.

Doug Sez:

“My grandmother wanted me to be a concert violinist so I took lessons for ten years. When I was 7 years old I played a Christmas song Silent Night on my violin at my church and a guy came up and gave me 20 dollars which was a lot of money back then. He had tears in his eyes and told me to never stop playing music. I guess I kind of took that to heart because I’ve never really stopped playing. Although I played the violin, I knew I wanted to rock when I got my first guitar when I was ten. I played a Rickey Nelson song called My Bucket’s Got a Hole In It at the Yakima County Fair when I was 12 years old. That was where I started getting the rock and roll bug. From then on bands like Chicago, Doobie Brothers and the Eagles were my main inspiration and I loved rockin’ out. All my experiences have led up to where I am today and I love playing in Gunshy. We have a lot of charisma and everyone seems to have a role that makes it fit together. From my experience I can guarantee to you that this is very hard to come by. We’ve had major changes in Gunshy over the years, but all the changes were improvements that make us what we are today. We enjoy a great relationship with all of the past members of Gunshy, who come to see us play on a regular basis. The other great thing about this band is that we have excellent musicians visit us and jam with us every weekend including the old Gunshy members. This is my family. This is the most fun I’ve ever had playing and I hope to stay with these guys until I fall over on the stage about 40 years from now”