“I had a beat-up Strat and a Yamaha digital amp. Edgar was horrified. He said, ‘Doug, your tone is atrocious!’” Air-guitar playing AC/DC fan Doug Rappoport on how he fell into working with Edgar Winter and Paul Gilbert

Once Doug Rappoport felt the guttural howl of Angus Young’s Gibson SG, he was hooked on rock for life. “I heard the first crushing chords of Back in Black and it just knocked me to the back of the wall,” he says.

As a result, he accidentally stepped into session work in his late teens; then, once again by happenstance, he landed a gig with Edgar Winter, which he hung onto for 20 years.

“I ended up immersed in the whole classic scene,” Rappoport says. “That’s where I connected with Rick Derringer. He started inviting me to play with him and took me out on the road.”

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While he had chops early on, he loved to learn from his elders. “I was pretty green when Edgar hired me – I was younger than the rest of the guys in the band by quite a bit. Edgar saw potential; I’d pester him, saying, ‘How am I doing? What can I improve on?’

“I watched those guys closely and picked up a lot about rhythm guitar, chord voicings, and tone. And I heard a lot of stories of rock ‘n’ roll debauchery! It was a great hang.”

“Paul has the same basic influences,” he says. “We work really well together. I’m able to keep up with him – barely!”

What are your earliest memories of music in your life?

I heard Back in Black, and that was it. But I’d discovered music through Queen when I was about 4. When I was 10 I went to a small private school in West LA, where the kids were rockers. When we went out in the schoolyard they’d have their boomboxes playing Journey, Zeppelin, Aerosmith, AC/DC, and Van Halen. I liked it all!

What inspired you to pick up the guitar?

My mom had a piano and I used to noodle around on it. Later I got some money together and bought Back in Black and For Those About to Rock, and I’d play them over and over again, air-guitaring with a tennis racket. When I heard Hell’s Bells and that guitar solo, I said, “I have to do this!” I begged my parents to get me guitar lessons. That’s the DNA of my playing – Angus and Malcolm Young.

How did you step into session work?

Kind of by accident. For me, music was a solo journey; I didn’t have any mentors or anyone to measure myself against. I didn’t know if I was any good; so by the time I was 18 or 19, I was just trying to find out. I called people and asked to play for them.

A guy named Andy Brower in LA, who had a little studio, agreed to let me. That was good because he knew all the session guys. I just wanted him to go, “You’ve got to do this,” or, “You’re no good!” But he really liked me and ended up bringing me in on lots of sessions.

What gear were you using back then?

Whatever he loaned me! All I had was a crappy Strat and a practice amp. So I’d go to his studio and he’d loan me gear.

You eventually joined Edgar Winter’s band, staying on for 20 years. How did that come about?

I was working in Beverly Hills in the packing and shipping department of a Chinese art auction house. The owner wanted to record an album of jazz dances – he’d always wanted to be a singer. Now that he had zillions of dollars, he hired some guys to record, and my job was to drive the engineer around and hump his gear. I said, “Hey, man, I’m a musician,” and gave him a demo CD.

He ended up calling Edgar, saying, “I know you just hired somebody, but I found this guy who you might wanna check out.” Edgar listened to my CD, and out of nowhere I got a call from him. The audition was me sitting in his house while he sang me a bunch of licks, or played them on the piano, and I copied them.

He was like, “Oh, good, good!” and we’d sort of trade blues licks back and forth. He’d put on a track, and say, “Play a solo over this.” That was it. I got a call a couple of weeks later telling me I got the gig. I ended up touring with him for 20 years.

How did your rig evolve over those years?

I had that same beat-up old Strat and a Yamaha digital amp. When we did a short tour I shipped the amp, and Edgar was horrified! He said, “Doug, your tone is atrocious!” I think I just called someone and said, “Hey, I’m in Edgar Winter’s band. Can you give me a nice deal on an amp?”

Beyond that, I had a beat-up Les Paul that never stayed in tune, but I really liked the sound of it. I brought it on the road, and we always had some sort of beat-up JCM2000 Marshall. I tried all kinds of different pedals.

What was the key to nailing classic songs like Frankenstein?

Edgar’s not very particular about the notes you play, just as long as you hit the key parts of the song. He showed me the parts, but overall he was pretty free. He wants you to do what you wanna do.

When I first joined the band he extended Frankenstein to over 20 minutes. There were multiple solos, and I had a long solo, and the thing just stretched out. In the 20 years that I played with Edgar, we maybe did the radio version three times – and I don’t know that we ever did it the right way!

What led to the end of your run with Edgar?

We toured all the way up until the COVID shutdown. For lack of a better term, Edgar is a bit of a germophobe. He was really nervous, but he ended up feeling a bit more comfortable once the vaccines came out. He went out with Ringo, and now he’s pushing 80, and it’s just stopped after that. So it’s not that I quit; it just stopped.

You recorded a pretty shred-heavy solo for Metro PCS a bunch of years back. What’s the story there?

I got that gig from Tosh Yanagi. He called me out of the blue and asked if I could sub for him. I said, “Yeah,” and that was it. I have this Bogner 412 amp, which is my go-to. I spent hours micing and testing each speaker until I found the sweet spots, so I brought that. I might have had a Friedman too.

I showed up at a really fancy studio, which I think Fleetwood Mac built for Tusk, and it looked like they had about 100 microphones on my cab! They just cut me loose – they just said, “Shred!” and that was it! I did a few takes; it was pretty quick and easy. That’s the only time I got mail money – you know, money sent in the mail. I got it for as long as that thing was running.

Now you’re focused mainly on your solo work and sessions, what’s the latest in your toolkit?

I moved up to Oregon about 10 years ago. I’m not readily available to show up at all the studios around bigger cities, so I do everything remotely. I use my Universal Audio OX 99 percent of the time. And man, that thing records just incredibly.

It’s got two circuits – one is the clone of Jimmy Page’s Marshall, and the Eddie Van Halen circuit is the second part. Between those two I can hit every killer Marshall tone ever. I’ve been using it for virtually all of my sessions.

I also picked up an ENGL artist edition, which started out as a Doug Aldrich signature amp many years ago, before they parted ways. Everybody who tried it loved it; Gary Moore was using it. But they never really put it out. I got my hands on one, and it’s fantastic. I use that for all the heavier stuff.

I’ve got a Les Paul Gold Top, which is my go-to. And a couple of years ago, I picked up a guitar I’d dreamed of having forever – a white Gibson Les Paul Custom, like Randy Rhoads’. It’s got a magic tone so I use that quite a bit too.

You just wrapped up the Rawk album with Paul Gilbert. What’s that been like?

Paul is unbelievable. First of all, however fast you think he is, he’s faster! Things that are effortless for him are just mind-boggling to me. It’s really pushing me to my limits. He also knows every song ever written! You can name anything from The Carpenters to AC/DC; he knows all of it, and loves it. We match well because he loves classic rock.

Beyond that, you’ve joined Asia and have your solo career. What’s next?

I would love to get an album done. I haven’t done one since 2008, but I’ve got tons of riffs recorded. Other than that playing with Asia has been a blast. We’ve got some dates coming up. And I’m still working with Paul. I’m playing rhythm guitar, of course, because it’s Paul Gilbert!

We’re getting ready for a tour; we’re gonna do about five weeks. I’ve been working like crazy on that, because I gotta have all these Racer X licks under my belt.

And I’ve been playing with a Japanese artist named Eikichi Yazawa. He’s like Elvis over there but no one outside of Japan knows him. I’ve been playing with him for about eight years. I’m gonna go over there in the fall and winter to tour with him.

Andrew Daly is an iced-coffee-addicted, oddball Telecaster-playing, alfredo pasta-loving journalist from Long Island, NY, who, in addition to being a contributing writer for Guitar World, scribes for Bass Player, Guitar Player, Guitarist, and MusicRadar. Andrew has interviewed favorites like Ace Frehley, Johnny Marr, Vito Bratta, Bruce Kulick, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Morello, Rich Robinson, and Paul Stanley, while his all-time favorite (rhythm player), Keith Richards, continues to elude him.