“The credit was obscured. And as the years have passed, they have brought it out into the open”: Tim Pierce has recorded with Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and more – but this song is his crowning achievement

Session guitar legend Tim Pierce has played on countless records. From helping launch Bon Jovi’s career with his off-the-cuff Runaway solo and recording with the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, to working with Tina Turner, Roger Waters, Meat Loaf and more, his guitar talents have afforded him a kaleidoscopic career.

You’d think that picking a standout achievement would be difficult, but when asked about his contribution to one late 1990s record, he tells Guitar World, right off the bat, that it has a strong claim to be his magnum opus.

New York alt-rock group Goo Goo Dolls were tapped to write the soundtrack for the 1998 film City of Angels. They, in turn, sought out Pierce to help track the electric guitar and mandolin parts of Iris. The song was a huge success, and today it sits just outside the top 10 best-selling singles of all time.

“That’s probably the best record I ever did,” Pierce believes. It’s certainly the most popular single he’s ever played on, but he plays down his role in its creation.

“That was a situation where they gave me credit,” he says. “But the credit was somewhat obscured. And as the years have passed, they have actually brought it out into the open.

“John [Rzeznik, guitar/vocals] talks about me every time he does an interview about that song. He’s very open and nice about it. But they didn’t have a lead guitar player, so nobody was threatened when we were doing Iris.

“Nobody was being put on the bench, so I was able to come in, play a big guitar solo, and overdub some mandolin.”

Ultimately, Pierce credits the freedom he was afforded by the band’s lack of a lead guitar player for its success.

“That record had the most airplay, I think, of any song for, like, 18 months,” Pierce adds with pride. “It still holds up.”

Pierce’s Guitar World chat also found him recalling his experiences working with Michael Jackson, who he says is a surprising gear nerd, and why, despite the success of Runaway, he was never asked to join Bon Jovi full-time.

To read the interview in full, head to Magazines Direct to pick up a copy of Guitar World.

Earlier this year, he took to YouTube to reflect on the time he played the biggest gig in history, and was then kicked out of it halfway through.

A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He’s also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.