Pat O'Brien (born May 17, 1965) is an American guitarist best known as the former lead guitarist for death metal band Cannibal Corpse, a former member of heavy metal band Nevermore, and as a live guitarist a few times with Slayer and now Exhorder. Biography was born in Northern Kentucky. He graduated from Conner High School in Hebron, Kentucky, in 1983 and currently resides in Tampa, Florida. His hobbies involve music and hunting. got his first guitar when he was 11. His mother bought him an acoustic guitar for Christmas. Later, when he started to practice more he received his first electric guitar, a Gibson SG copy. His father also bought him a 1974 Gibson Flying V. His influences include AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Mercyful Fate and Metallica. As a guitarist, O'Brien is formally trained, having studied classical guitar. He gave lessons at Buddy Rogers Music, a music store in Florence, Kentucky, and Maschinots Music in Southgate, KY, where he encouraged his students to listen to jazz, classical, fusion, country and blues and not focus solely on metal. He recalls that his interest in classical guitar probably came from a concert of Andrés Segovia he attended with his father. Segovia remains O'Brien's favourite guitarist and his main inspiration. Career started playing in a series of bands, sometimes as a touring musician and sometimes as a full-time member. Throughout the 1980s he played in heavy metal bands such as Chastain and Prizoner. In the 1990s evolved from heavy metal to death metal. Between 1990 and 1992 he played in the Cincinnati-based death/thrash metal band Ceremony alongside Steve Tucker, Greg Reed and Shannon Purdon. They released a demo in 1992 entitled Ceremony, and an EP called The Days before the Death that did not come out before 2000 and for which did the mastering with Mark Prator. After the band's breakup, decided to move out of Cincinnati. He relocated to Los Angeles and searched for a new band. Through tape trading he eventually got hired by Nevermore, who at the time were looking for a second guitarist. stayed in the band for two years during which they recorded the EP In Memory and the full-length The Politics of Ecstasy which both came out in 1996. He also toured with the band and took part in a video shoot for the song "What Tomorrow Knows" from Nevermore's eponymous debut album. However, he