"Where is the educational factor, where is the faith in the bright distance? Hey, guitarist, send 'em all on... and step on your pedal! Come on, Andryuha!"

Today, Andrei Shatalin, the same Andryukha to whom Kinchev's exclamation on the canonical recording of the song "All this is rock-n-roll", has passed away.

According to legend, Shatalin, aka Shuttle, learned to play the guitar on a bet. Allegedly, he, a young weightlifter, was walking in the yard when he saw some company listening to the Beatles on a tape recorder. Said, "What kind of nonsense is this? I can do that too." The argument quickly turned into a bet on a case of port wine: three days later, Andrei comes and plays the guitar in the same way as the Beatles, or is put in. He found a guitar somewhere, showed up and played at the appointed time.

The disputants were let down by stereotypical thinking: they did not suspect a subtle musician in the Krasnoyarsk guy weighing 90 kg and with the stern appearance of a barge hauler, but Shuttle was. I played the piano, composed my own pieces — and with such a background, it is quite possible to master the guitar in three days. Even if it's just a beautiful legend, it accurately describes Alice's founding father.

In case you don't know, Shatalin was in Alice before Kinchev. On each of the first four albums of the band there are several songs written by him. Russian rock of those times, for domestic reasons, often resembled a bard song with electric accompaniment: there is a man with a guitar, and the rest play along. But Shatalin's idols were Hendrix and Iommi, and he built his arrangements not around yard chords, but on hard guitar riffs. And if even the early "Alice" didn't sound like a kitchen, it was thanks to him.

Another veteran of Alice, bassist Pyotr Samoilov, called Shuttle a "musical yogi": he could do without food, water and air for days, practicing only music. In 1993, he needed this skill to repeat the trick of "learn to play in three days" at a new level. Then the band's second guitarist, Igor Chumychkin, committed suicide, and Shuttle had to practice for a long time in order to play for two on recordings and concerts.

He left Alice and rock 'n' roll in 2003.

After that, he was engaged in electronic and instrumental music, and he existed unnoticed, like a yogi. It was said that all his belongings could be packed in one bag, except for guitars. He was well aware of why he lived and what was really important.

And, of course, in the Russian hall of rock 'n' roll fame, which we do not have, but must be, a bearded barge hauler should stand in one of the places of honor. With your Fender or Gibson, it doesn't matter, but you always press the pedal.

The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.