US guitarist (June 30, 1953 Tulsa, Tulsa County, OK - February 19, 2016 Englewood, Arapahoe County, CO)

Born Ya’acov Burns, he was the lead guitarist in Point Blank, a hard southern rock band, and also toured and recorded with artists such as Johnny Winter, the Allman Brothers Band and ZZ Top. The Texas native first learned to play the guitar in the late 1950s when he picked up his father’s old Martin D-28 and soon devoted his time to learning the instrument as he grew up in a small city south of Fort Worth, TX. Burns played in bands throughout his school years and after high school, he began playing at nightclubs, park festivals and an occasional battle of the bands. He moved to Houston and started playing clubs in the downtown area before landing a job as a guitar technician for ZZ Top. Playing in clubs across Dallas and Fort Worth, Burns ran into Kim Davis, a guitarist whom he’d known since he was 14 years old and in 1974, they formed Point Blank and would eventually release six albums, including 'Point Blank' (1976), 'The Hard Way' (1980) and 'On a Roll' (1982), before disbanding in 1984. They would reunite 20 years later at a benefit show in 2005 and release two more albums: 'Reloaded' (2006), a live album, and 2009’s 'Fight On!', their first studio album in 27 years. Burns died 7 months after being diagnosed with lung cancer.