CASPER, Wyo. — Jimmy Santiago, lead guitarist of local extreme metal act Necrosticide, called in his older brother George for assistance nailing a spectacularly difficult guitar part after an afternoon of unsuccessful attempts, multiple sources confirmed.
“Generally speaking, I consider myself a pretty decent guitarist but I kept getting stuck in my head and my fingers just weren’t doing what I needed them to do,” Santiago explained while icing his hand. “After 30 attempts, I knew I had to call for backup. My older brother fucking shreds. I mean, he’s the reason I even started playing guitar. And of course, he nailed it on the first try. He didn’t even need to warm up or anything, it was crazy. It was like when we were kids and he beat Mike Tyson in ‘Punch Out’ without breaking a sweat.”
George Santiago, a successful CPA who lives in a nearby suburb and has two children, was bemused but pleased to hear from his baby brother.
“At first it caught me off guard. I haven’t picked up a guitar in like ten years. But I dropped what I was doing and went straight to his place to see what I could do,” said George Santiago while tuning his brother’s guitar. “My brother and I are very close, but I want to make sure he has the confidence to do these things on his own. I don’t want his bandmates to lose faith in his abilities. This was almost like the time he was having trouble getting his girlfriend off and I had to come in and finish the job for him.”
Dr. Burt Kreigler, a family therapist specializing in sibling relationships, said the situation with the Santiago brothers is far from uncommon in the music industry.
“I cannot tell you how many guitarists I have counseled who have found themselves shaken after calling in their older brother to nail a solo or really hard riff,” Kreigler said. “It’s the meeting point of relying on your older sibling to beat the Water Temple from ‘Ocarina of Time’ and an emo guitarist bringing in his sister to do guest vocals; it feels like returning to being a helpless child, while also feeling weirdly artistically invalidating.”
At press time, the elder Santiago was overheard giving his younger brother sage advice on how to deal with a moody drummer.