Photography by Austin Marc Graf
Jazz, pop punk, K-pop, gospel, blues, R&B, hip-hop. If you can name it, Justin Lyons has played it.
That’s why he’s the GuitarSlayer.
His journey started around age 6. His foundation in music came from his upbringing in Oak Cliff in the church and an influence from his family members who also did music.
Around age 10, Lyons had his first studio session with a group that paid him to play, and by 13, he was excelling quickly.
“By age 15, I was super advanced,” Lyons says. “My oldest brother was the one who really made me not afraid of being out in front of an audience and being out in front of people. He would take me everywhere with him and just let me play for people.”
He went on a European tour at age 17, and upon returning, started a band called Connect Four.
“We rocked the city for four or five years straight, and it was great,” Lyons says. “But I didn’t see music being a mainstream income for me.”
On top of his music, Lyons worked a 9-5 job at an immigration office and also worked as a barber. Having so much on his plate, Lyons was burned out and stepped away from music for about a year.
“I just wanted to realign with my strategy and with my faith,” Lyons says. “And when I decided to go back, I told myself, ‘This time, you gotta go about it the right way. No drinking this time, no going crazy. You have to take this serious.’ Because I know my gift was given to me from God.”
Lyons ended up getting laid off from his job, but got a call a couple weeks later to do a show with Jesse Boykins. He had his first show back from his break in 2010 and hasn’t stopped touring since.
In 2012, he got the call that changed his life and his career. He got invited to be the guitarist for K-pop artists, which started his trajectory in a different way.
He spent 10 years in Korea with “every big K-pop artist you could name.” In the span of that 10 years, he got a call to play with Lil Wayne. He was on tour with Blackpink at the time, but was able to make it work.
“I learned a lot about myself during that time,” Lyons says. “And more importantly, my mental health. Being away from home for 10 years, I was by myself, nobody in my family has gone to this extent with music, so I didn’t have anyone to call or relate to.”
The pandemic rolled around in 2020, and Lyons found himself working at Amazon while continuing to work on records and having a short stint of a YouTube show.
“It was mentally stimulating in a way because we had to wear a mask,” Lyons says of his job at Amazon. “No one knew who I was, you know? It was so humbling. To just meet people and talk to people. There were so many people that I came across and it was humbling to just hear their stories and talk to them.”
Lyons worked at Amazon for six months — “six months too long” — before returning to the music scene full-time. He went back to Korea to work with Blackpink again for a short time. And upon returning home, he decided to use his gift to help others.
“I love producing music and I love when I’m walking down Deep Ellum and I see artists playing on the street,” Lyons says. “Me and my production partner actually used to do this all the time. We’ll go to them and say, ‘Hey, what do you want to do with your skill?’ And we’d say, ‘Well let us produce your project.’ And we started exercising our production skills like that, because I really want to change people’s lives. I know what it’s like to be a struggling musician.”
He then was offered to play for Machine Gun Kelly and has been doing so for the last three years.
“It’s been a whirlwind of greatness,” Lyons says. “I just took it on. They sent me 33 songs, and I had to learn them in two days. And I can’t even tell you the brain power I had to use for that. It was a lot.”
Fast forward to 2024, Lyons got the call from the Dallas Mavericks, who wanted him to perform the national anthem. Lyons gladly accepted.
They asked him to return, right on the precipice of the NBA Finals.
“I did it again, and that time it was even better,” Lyons says. “I was looking at it from a performance perspective and a stylistic perspective as well. I wanted to do something different. I feel like the National Anthem is such an honorable moment for a lot of people. I’m one of those people who thinks it needs to be considered a performance, not just, let’s hurry up and get this over with and get to the game.”
Then, the team asked Lyons to add his live guitar work to the classic intro music “Eminence Front.”
The Who’s anthem has been a staple before the Mavericks’ starting lineup is announced before tipoff since the last season at Reunion Arena (2000-01). The tune needed some updating, and Lyons was able to provide the perfect modern-age touch to the 42-year-old song.
“It was fun to have them receive it the way they did, and to have Mark Cuban’s approval was wild,” Lyons says.
Lyons has plenty of plans for the future, including tapping into the country music scene and starting his own podcast.
“It’s mind blowing to be doing this at this scale,” Lyons says. “Knowing where I came from in Oak Cliff — before getting the call to go to Korea, I was afraid of flying. I told my boys I would rather ride a bike than fly.”
Most importantly, Lyons plans to continue to use his gift for good.
“I lost a friend to suicide a couple of years back, and that is what really just had me thinking about how I approach what I do in a different way,” Lyons says. “It has nothing to do with guitar whatsoever. My guitar just gets me in the room. My guitar just gets me on the stage.”
