Frank Hannon
Frank Hannon
Frank Hannon is a founding member and lead guitarist for the band Tesla. Frank started playing guitar at the age of 10 after breaking his leg on a dirt bike and playing guitar all summer long in a leg cast. His main influences include Peter Frampton, Joe Walsh, Ted Nuget and Jimi Hendrix. He grew up in South Sacramento close to Tesla co-founder Brian Wheat. The two began playing together and formed their first band Earthshaker. Frank used a 4-track tape machine to record the early demos for what would become Tesla’s first album. Frank and Brian have been playing together for over 25 years as well as being co-managers for Tesla.
Frank is also an established singer/songwriter. In 2005, he released his first solo album Guitarz from Marz exclusively through his website. His second solo project, Gypsy Highway emerged in 2010. Drawing on his early childhood influences of American folk artists, Frank has showcased his lyrical, vocal, and acoustic storytelling and song writing abilities. Frank continues to play with Tesla, but also performs select acoustic dates in support of his solo projects. In the summer of 2011, Frank performed acoustically at Summer Jam in Des Moines, Iowa in between the headliners. The crowd of 10,000 loved singing along to all their favorite Tesla hits while Frank performed in between John Waite, .38 Special and BTO. Frank has also recently performed acoustic shows with Aaron Lewis of Staind.