Producer KEVIN SHIRLEY: ROSE TATTOO Guitarist PETE WELLS Was 'The Gentlest Soul'

March 28, 2006

Producer Kevin Shirley, who is currently in the studio in England working on the new IRON MAIDEN album, has issued a statement regarding the passing of ROSE TATTOO guitarist Pete Wells. As previously reported, Wells passed away in Sydney, Australia on Monday (March 27) after a long battle with prostate cancer.

Commented Shirley: "I was very sad to hear that. He was the guitarist from Aussie rock band ROSE TATTOO and had been suffering from prostate cancer. I produced an album for him called 'Everything You Like Tries To Kill You' in Sydney in the late Eighties (or was it early Nineties?) and it was a brilliant experience.

"We recorded the album in 10 quiet days. In the morning, Pete would come in and bring in 24 beers, bang down a couple of headache tablets at 11am with the first beer (to avoid a hangover) and we'd begin, and at the end of the day we'd have a song finished and in the can, the beer would be finished and we'd go home — and the next day was just the same! Ten songs in ten days — and that was the album, and I loved it!!!

"Pete was the gentlest soul, a guitarist and tattoo artist, covered in tatts from head to toe, and he'll be surely missed. I didn't see him a lot — but every time I went back to Sydney, and I was in his neck of the woods, I'd tell myself I had to get to visit him, but invariably was too busy and never did! R.I.P."

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