Dave Kushner

Dave Kushner (born November 16, 1966) is an American musician best known as the rhythm guitarist for the hard rock supergroup Velvet Revolver.

Kushner has also been a member of Wasted Youth, Electric Love Hogs, Loaded, Danzig, Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro's solo band, Sugartooth, Zilch while he has also recorded with Infectious Grooves, Cyco Miko and more recently collaborated with Scars on Broadway guitarist Franky Perez releasing songs under the pseudonym of DKFXP, a combination of the initials of Perez and Kushner, as well as working with Indian singer and actress Shruti Haasan.

Kushner was born November 16, 1966, in Los Angeles.

He attended Junior High and High School with Slash, frequently attending the shows of Slash's then band Tidus Sloan, and began playing in bands at the age of 16.

He attended Musicians Institute in Hollywood at the age of 18 before signing his first record deal when he was 20.

Prior to joining Wasted Youth, Kushner worked at Tower Video.

Kushner joined Wasted Youth as a guitarist but played bass on the group's second album Black Daze, released in 1988, with the exception of the Van Halen cover of "On Fire" where he performed rhythm and lead guitar duties.

Kushner left the group over a year later.

The group was initially formed as a cover band in San Diego by friends John Feldmann, Kelly LeMieux and Bobby Hewitt playing their first shows locally before moving to Los Angeles adding Kushner to the group along with guitarist Donni Campion.

They named the band Electric Love Hogs in a satirical swipe at the L.A. glam rock scene of the late '80s.

Robert Trujillo, then of Suicidal Tendencies and Infectious Grooves, contributed to the record while Kushner was asked to make a guest appearance on the song "Punk It Up" from the Infectious Grooves debut album The Plague That Makes Your Booty Move...It's the Infectious Grooves, also produced by Dodson, released in 1991 before touring with Infectious Grooves for a few months.

Electric Love Hogs went on to tour with Stone Temple Pilots, when they were known as Mighty Joe Young, and L.A. Guns in the US and Ugly Kid Joe in the United Kingdom.

They signed a deal with London Records and released their only album Electric Love Hogs in 1992.

The album was produced by Mark Dodson whose production credits include Anthrax and Suicidal Tendencies, while Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee also co-produced two album tracks.

Percussion for the album was handled by Jane's Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins.

The group disbanded in 1993.

After the breakup of Electric Love Hogs in 1993, Kushner, Kelly LeMieux, also of Electric Love Hogs, and Kushner's former Wasted Youth bandmate Joey Castillo formed a new group called Lit. The group went through several lineup changes, with the final lineup consisting of Kushner, former Electric Love Hogs drummer Bobby Hewitt, Jar Gordon on bass, Amir Derakh on guitar and a singer known only as Eric.

After a year and a half, Kushner was invited to join Geffen group Sugartooth with Lit being disbanded and selling their name rights to the well known band of the same name.

In 1995, he teamed up with Suicidal Tendencies and Infectious Grooves singer Cyco Miko on his solo album Lost My Brain! before joining Danzig.

Kushner's tenure in Danzig lasted 9 months and he performed only one show at the Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood.

In 1997, Kushner appeared on the compilation album Friends & Family, Vol. 1 which featured music by Suicidal Tendencies, Infectious Grooves and Cyco Miko among others.

In 1998, Kushner joined the hard rock group Zilch, formed by former X Japan guitarist hide.

Unfortunately, hide died before the release of their debut album.

The group continued and eventually recorded and released Skyjin in 2001 and it was during this time that Kushner met Duff McKagan who, at the time, was touring with Loaded.

In 2001, Kushner became musical director for Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro's touring band following the released of his solo album Trust No One.

During a tour of Japan, former Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan, touring with his group Loaded, met Kushner who was at the time playing with Japanese hard rock group Zilch.

After the tour, bassist Jeff Rouse left the band to rejoin Alien Crime Syndicate to release their new album XL from Coast to Coast with Mike Squires also leaving to join ACS becoming the group's second guitarist.

Kushner and bassist George Stuart Dahlquist, of Asva and Burning Witch, replaced the departed duo.

Loaded announced a tour of Europe with stops in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy and Spain as well as shows in the UK however this tour was soon canceled after McKagan began collaborating with his former Guns N' Roses bandmates on a new project.

After performing at a benefit gig for Randy Castillo in 2002, former Guns N' Roses members Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum decided to form a new band after recognizing that their musical relationship was still very much intact.

Initially they began rehearsing with Buckcherry duo Josh Todd and Keith Nelson, who performed with the trio at the benefit, but eventually decided against forming a group with them.

During a Loaded show at Hollywood's Viper Room, McKagan introduced Kushner to Slash, after Kushner said they had known each other previously, who confirmed they were friends at Junior High and High School.

After Kushner jammed with the group he was invited to join with Slash stating that "Dave brought a cool vibe to what we were doing. There was no deliberation; that was it, it was a perfect fit."

Former Guns N' Roses rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin also joined them for 2 weeks eventually suggesting that "Duff and I will sing and we will just do a club tour in a van."

Slash states in his autobiography that it was hard to tell if Stradlin was serious or kidding.

After auditioning Kelly Shaefer (of Atheist/Neurotica), Stradlin left the group.

While Shaefer's audition was unsuccessful, the quartet continued auditioning for a lead singer, with VH1 filming the recruitment process.

Kushner has also been writing and composing music for films and television, most notable the theme for FX series Sons of Anarchy, titled "This Life", where he received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music in 2009 while in 2010 he received an ASCAP Award for the theme.

He collaborated with composer John O'Brien on the music for the movies Four Christmases, Couples Retreat and the ABC police drama series Detroit 1-8-7 while he was also asked to develop a spin-off of How I Met Your Mother entitled "The Bro Code" by Fox creative director Dave Warren and The Simpsons segment director Ralph Sosa.

In 2009, Kushner was named "One of The 50 Greatest Unsung Guitar Heroes Ever" by Total Guitar magazine.