Thank you Ryan! For all the years of great chats

Ryan Sparks

I’m a true Canuck born on the West Coast of Canada in 1968, my family moved to the Montreal area in 1975 where I’ve lived ever since. American Dog bassist Michael Hannon recently gave me the tag “Rock Pig of The North”, which suits me just fine. The gates to my musical universe were opened rather dramatically at the tender age of 8 when I saw Kiss perform on T.V. for Paul Lynde’s Halloween Special in 1976. I quickly found other uses for my tennis racket as mock Kiss concerts were soon acted out on a regular basis with my childhood buddies. The dream of seeing the band live was fulfilled in 1979 when my mother took me to see a date on the Dynasty tour, one of the last tours with the original band. My musical tastes are all over the map but my true love is classic, progressive and heavy rock. My first writing assignment was for the now defunct metal site Electric Basement, after which I moved to Classic Rock Revisited where I’ve been a regular contributor since late 2003. I love dreaming of all things music related and spending time with my wife and 2 beautiful young children.


The Nuts and Bolts

Name: Ryan Sparks
Birth date: 4/28/68
Birthplace: Vancouver Island B.C. Canada
Currently Residing: Montreal Canada
Married : Y
Children: Y (2 children, a boy and a girl)
Personal Motto: Family first, everything else after that
How did you come to write for Classic Rock Revisited?
I had been visiting the site for a few months and decided to e-mail Jeb to tell him how much I enjoyed the site. I asked him if he was looking for someone else to contribute, despite the fact I basically had no experience. ( I had done 2 interviews for another website) He wrote back much to my surprise and asked me to send him a sample of my writing, 2 days later he was hooking up a phone interview for me with Steve Hackett!
First album you bought:
Kiss Alive
Approximate number of concerts you’ve attended:
Well over a hundred
First Concert:
Kiss, Montreal Forum, 8/6/79
Favorite Concert:
Gov’t Mule w/ Big Sugar, Cabaret Club, Montreal 3/9/1998
Worst Concert:
Kiss, Montreal Forum, 10/19/1990
Favorite Rock n’ Roll Movie:
Spinal Tap
Favorite Band:
Led Zeppelin
Least Favorite Band:
Poison
The most embarrassing CD in my collection is:
Sade’s Greatest Hits
Biggest Piece of Rock Nerd Memorabilia I own:
A cigarette pack autographed by Brian Greenway from April Wine
Favorite Rock T-shirt I ever owned or still own is: Motorhead - Rock n’ Roll
Craziest thing I ever did for Rock ‘n Roll:
Sold my Mom into the slave trade for Kiss tickets in 1996 and haven’t seen her since. It was all in the name of rock n’ roll.

Top 10 Desert Island Discs

1. Genesis – Selling England by the Pound
2. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
3. Yes – Yessongs
4. Frank Zappa – Hot Rats
5. Johnny Winter – Still Alive & Well
6. King Crimson – Larks Tongues in Aspic
7. Van Halen – Van Halen
8. AC/DC – Highway to Hell
9. Led Zeppelin - IV
10. Deep Purple – In Rock