Jason Becker

**Jason Eli Becker** (born July 22, 1969) is an American former guitar virtuoso and composer. He is best known for his time playing guitar in the David Lee Roth Band from 1989 to 1990, and previously worked with Neoclassical rock duo Cacophony, alongside his friend Marty Friedman, who went on to play for Megadeth soon after Cacophony disbanded.

However, just as Jason’s guitar career was taking off, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and the disease gradually robbed him of the ability to play the guitar, walk, and eventually to speak. However, Jason now communicates with his eyes via a system developed by his father, and his friend and producer Mike Bemesderfer coupled that with technology which allows Jason to compose music.

At one point, he was co-guitarist with Steve Hunter.

## Biography

#### Early Life

Jason Eli Becker was born on July 22, 1969, in Richmond, Contra Costa County, California, to Gary and Patricia (Heffley) Becker. According to his official website, his mother stated that Jason was “born knowing what he wanted to be”. A few years later, his family welcomed his younger brother, Ehren, presumably around 1972 when Jason was two. Becker was described as being a very eager child, always curious and in the middle of doing something. He thought from very early on that his peers would be as wise and interested in him as his other family members, and he refused to talk to anybody for a while due to the fact that school didn’t live up to his expectations. Soon after though, Jason became more outgoing, and was soon introduced to the xylophone by his father. Jason began learning guitar at the age of five, and by the time he was thirteen, he could play many Eric Clapton tracks note-for-note. Jason cited Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan and Eddie Van Halen as his biggest influences. At one point, when he and his brother were eight and five, they snuck into their father’s art studio and recorded themselves singing and playing Bob Dylan songs.

Along with this, Jason also practiced to Jeff Beck, as well as Eddie Van Halen, Clapton, Hendrix and Bob Dylan. It was obvious that the majority of Jason’s early life was dedicated to practicing playing the guitar, and after years of practicing and learning virtuosic techniques, he decided to learn music theory and even received guitar lessons, in which he learned traditional jazz related chords and progressions, but stayed dedicated to the guitar. At the age of around fifteen or sixteen, Jason met and began working with Marty Friedman, with whom he initiated a longtime friendship. The partnership began when Jason sent a demo tape to Shrapnel Records head Mike Varney, who immediately contacted Friedman upon hearing it. Friedman cited that Jason often played his riffs better than him while they were working together. During the time that he had begun working with Friedman, Jason was completing his final year in high school.

### Cacophony

After Jason had completed high school and begun working with Friedman full time, they formed a Neoclassical rock duo called Cacophony. They only released two albums following their formation; *Speed Metal Symphony (1987)* and *Go Off! (1988)*. Following this, Jason decided to become a solo artist.

### Solo

After Jason split with Friedman and Cacophony once he had made his decision to go solo, he began working on his only solo album, titled *Perpetual Burn (1988)*. The album featured what is probably Jason’s best known song, *Altitudes*. Following the release of Perpetual Burn, Jason decided to audition for David Lee Roth’s Band after former guitarist Steve Vai had left to join Whitesnake.

### David Lee Roth

Following his decision to audition for The David Lee Roth Band, Jason sent a demo tape and soon received a call, finding out that he had been accepted into the band. Following Jason’s acceptance into the band, Friedman was slightly annoyed that his former band mate had managed to find another band, despite the fact that he himself went on to play with Megadeth a few years later. Soon after, The David Lee Roth band began working on *A Little Ain’t Enough (1990)*, but during the time that the band were recording the album, Jason was suffering from what he called a “lazy limp” in his left leg, which was thought to have been a pinched nerve, or damage to a muscle or tendon. However, Jason also noticed that he wasn’t able to play the guitar as proficiently as before, and this led to him and his family becoming concerned.

### ALS Diagnosis

When The David Lee Roth Band travelled to Vancouver, Canada for more recording sessions, Jason’s limp had worsened and he had begun struggling to play guitar in the studio. One day, after he became frustrated with his playing, he locked himself in his bathroom and noticed that his hands looked different. He soon visited a doctor, and was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and given two to five years to live. Following this, doctors began doing everything they could to help Jason in a bid to slow down or reverse his symptoms. This meant that when he was recording A Little Ain’t Enough in the studio, he would often have to leave for the hospital. However, there was virtually nothing that the doctors could do to treat him when he began to lose the sensation in his fingers and hands. David Lee Roth was heartbroken upon hearing of Jason’s ALS diagnosis, going on to say, “Man, I cried when the verdict came in”, and even said that Jason “got struck down way too f\*\*\*ing early”.

Following his diagnosis, Jason knew that he had to leave David Lee Roth’s band, as he knew that he would not have been able to perform due to his declining health. Though he did manage to finish the album, Jason didn’t tour with the band, and he returned home, knowing that he would have had to start a whole new life. As his condition continued to worsen, Marty Friedman, his friend and former band mate, called him up several times as Jason continued to face challenges due to the effects of the disease. For some time, Jason managed to walk with the use of a cane, but as his health deteriorated, he soon had to rely on crutches, and soon enough, he became confined to a wheelchair. Once he had lost all movement in his hands, he could only compose music while being hooked up to a computer, as he needed to find away to get his musical ideas out from inside his head. By the middle of 1996, Jason had become almost completely paralysed, to the extent that he was only able to partially move one of his fingers. Soon enough though, he lost the ability to speak, but his father Gary invented a way for Jason to communicate using his eyes by using an alphabet board, with which he could spell out his son’s thoughts through his still intact eye movements.

Jason is still alive and well today, at 54 years old, and has been living with ALS for about thirty-four years as of 2023. However, he is still reliant on his parents and friends, which is a huge concern as Gary and Pat are both getting older themselves. They have described caring for Jason as a 24/7 job. Jason has also become a very spiritual person as well, with a tendency to joke about things, but he has proven that no matter how far a person falls, they can still stand back up and follow their dreams.

## Discography

### With Cacophony

* *Speed Metal Symphony* (1987)
* *Go Off!* (1988)