Dan Hawkins is one of the most popular and richest Guitarist who was born on December 12, 1976 in Chertsey, England, United Kingdom. He also revealed the news that The Darkness would be backing In 2012, he announced that The Darkness would be backing Lady Gaga during her European tour. during her European tour.
Daniel Francis Hawkins (born 12 December 1976 in Chertsey, England) is an English rock guitarist, best known as a guitarist and backing singer of the UK band, The Darkness. The band fronted by his older brother Justin Hawkins, achieved notable mainstream success between 2002 and 2006. He also plays lead guitar for Stone Gods. He is influenced by hard rock and glam metal genre such as Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Whitesnake, AC/DC, Queen, Mötley Crüe and Thin Lizzy.
Hawkins’ guitar of choice is the Gibson Les Paul and his main instrument, both live and in the studio, is his well used 2000 Honeyburst Standard (nicknamed “Dune” after the David Lynch film) which he played extensively in The Darkness and in Stone Gods. Over the years he has owned and played several Les Paul Standards and currently tours with 6-8 of them including a second 2000 Honeyburst (nicknamed ‘Terry’), a Wine Red 1997 Standard (known as UB40 which is used for the songs ‘Givin’ Up’ and ‘Friday Night’), a late 1970s Sunburst B-stock formerly owned by the guitarist from the band Sputnik), a 2003 Goldtop (belonging to his guitar tech, but borrowed for tours), a late 1990s Standard re-finished in white, and a 2013 Honeyburst Flametop.
The brother of His brother Justin Hawkins, lead singer of The Darkness, left the band in 2007 because he felt he was embracing the rock lifestyle too much., the lead singer of The Darkness, left the band in 2007 due to the fact that the singer felt that he was taking on the rock culture too excessively.
He performed mostly with the Gibson Les Paul guitar.
Among a variety of amplifiers, his primary choices are Marshall amps, particularly the 1959 SLP and Handwired Re-Issue models (as is exemplified in videos of The Darkness live at The Astoria, London in 2003). For his ‘dirtier’ sounds in Stone Gods, he played a Marshall JCM 800 Re-Issue head through Marshall 1960AX/BX cabinets, combined with a Diezel Herbert head. He has also been seen using both a Vox AC30 combo and a Wizard Modern Classic head to complement his several Marshall stacks. Effects wise, a vintage Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer pedal is his mainstay for overdrive, but photos of his 2012/2013 touring rig show additional pedals from Electro Harmonix, MXR, Strymon and Devi Ever among others.
