Yuji Adachi


Yuji Adachi, known as You, was a Japanese musician and songwriter, best known as guitarist of the influential heavy metal band Dead End. He also ran a guitar school.

Career

You was largely influenced by UFO guitarist Michael Schenker. At 16, he joined his first band Steeler, performing covers of UFO, Rainbow, and Deep Purple. In 1982, You was a member of Terra Rosa and a year later of Jesus, before joining Dead End in 1986. That same year the band released their debut studio album, Dead Line, on the independent record label Night Gallery. You became the main composer of their songs. They released three more major studio albums until 1990, when Dead End disbanded.
You formed the short-lived band Goatcore with Color bassist Marry. He later also worked with Ryuichi Kawamura, Nami Tamaki and Cozy Murakami among others and released two solo albums. In 2009, Dead End reunited and released two studio albums.
You released his fourth solo album Andromedia on March 13, 2019. The instrumental album features The Yellow Monkey member Annie on drums and Atsushi Hasegawa of Ded Chaplin on bass. That same day, a remastered version of Jesus' demo tape Le Dernier Slow was released. In addition to bonus live tracks, it also includes a new recording of "Sahara", which You had written just as he left the band decades earlier at age 19. Youcoustic, the guitarist's first acoustic album, was released on March 18, 2020.
You performed live with Hasegawa and drummer Tetsuya Hoshiyama on June 14, 2020 for an audience-less concert that was streamed online. On June 19, 2020, Dead End announced that You had died from sepsis on June 16, aged 56.

Discography

Albums

YOU had about 50 guitars at home: