Diamond Rowe on Influence, Tetrarch, and Her Historic Signature Guitar
Diamond Rowe is the fearless visionary trailblazer that’s dismantling and deconstructing the boundaries of modern heavy music.
Blending blistering technical precision with raw emotion, Rowe has defiantly shattered the long-standing barriers of race, gender, and genre in a space that has been historically constrained by rigid norms and systemic exclusion.
As co‑founder and lead guitarist of Atlanta‑born nu‑metal revivalists Tetrarch, Rowe became Jackson Guitars’ first-ever female signature artist and the first black woman in heavy rock to earn her own signature model, the Pro Series DR12MG EVTN6.
But Rowe’s impact extends far beyond gear. She brings “athletic shredding” into a genre historically averse to solos, injecting technical flair into Tetrarch’s sound while remaining skillfully grounded with melodic hooks.
With every searing riff and boundary-breaking achievement, Diamond Rowe isn’t simply playing heavy music — she’s rewriting its future.
KP: I want to start with the coolest thing — you just became the first woman in metal to have a signature model with Jackson Guitars. As a guitarist myself, that’s the ultimate dream, right? Huge congratulations.
DR: Thank you so much. I remember growing up watching my favorite guitar players have their own signature guitars and dreaming about having my own. It's been such a huge dream come true to work with a company like Jackson to have this come to life. On top of that, to become the first female in Jackson history with a signature guitar is even crazier. Jackson has such a rich history of amazing guitar players, and to be the first woman to accomplish this is enormous.
KP: The most incredible. So just take me to that moment — what did it feel like to achieve such an incredible honor, and what does it mean to you?
DR: Honestly, it’s hard to put into words what it felt like to reach such an incredible milestone in my career. My favorite guitar players always had such a big presence in their bands, and I’ve always strived to be the same way. Everyone knows who Dimebag, Head, Slash, Zakk Wylde, Kirk Hammett, etc. are, and I have never wanted to be anything short of that as far as familiarity is concerned. I feel like having a signature guitar was a big part of that process for me.
KP: It definitely is. I read that you wanted the guitar to feel familiar to you, so it has much of the same shape as the first guitar that you got when you were 12, a “tele knockoff, $70 guitar,” as you said. Your parents upgraded you to a Gibson when you were 13, and they definitely made the right decision there. [Laughs].
DR: I think my guitar spec preferences that I have now come more from the Les Paul that I got. I played that for my first real years of touring, and that feel became what is comfortable for me today. I definitely wanted it to be a guitar that was 100% what I play and enjoy playing. Some players get really experimental with their signature guitars, but I just wanted it to be the most accurate representation of what I tour with and record with in the studio. I think we pretty much knocked it out of the park on that front.
KP: You definitely did. I remember my first guitar was similar — a Carlo Robelli black strat when I was 7 or 8 — but when my parents saw that I was serious about guitar, they upgraded me to an Epi Les Paul Custom in alpine white when I was 10 or 11.
DR: [Laughs]. That totally makes sense. I played the crap out of my little cheap tele knockoff, and when you’re that young, you don’t know the difference between cheap and expensive guitars. It’s all about learning and being able to play your favorite riffs. It’s just the purest form of pleasure!
KP: Right! And the funny thing is, similarly to you, even though I’ve been able to upgrade myself many times since then — getting a bunch of Duesenbergs through the years that I really love — my favorite guitar to play is still that old Epiphone. I can’t seem to get away from it! [Laughs].
DR: Dude, it’s art! It’s all about what makes you feel the most inspired and creative!
KP: It definitely is. So what was the process of actually designing the guitar like? What did you want to emulate, and what did you want to discard?
DR: The design process was pretty awesome. I got to work with Peter Witcher over at Jackson a lot on the preliminary build ideas, and he really kind of helped me navigate the process. They essentially told me to do whatever I wanted with the guitar, and that they would do the best that they could to apply everything that I wanted to the build. In respect to what I generally play, I didn’t really eliminate much, except for the tone knob. Since I generally play heavy music, the tone knob was pretty much useless to me, so I just got it out of there! [Laughs]. Now I just have two volume knobs — one for each pickup. I also made the scale length of the guitar 25 ½ instead of 24 ¾ like most single cuts — just a little different touch. I also added a little bit of a different bevel to the guitar and also some Luminlay fret dots, which I love. I get so stoked every time I look at them! [Laughs].
KP: Oh, that’s so cool! You know, I’ve never played with those before.
With your rise in the world of metal, you became a celebrated black woman in a very white male-dominated world, though you’ve said that you never felt like an outcast and instead saw your identity as a “blessing in disguise.” While some people would look at their differences as a handicap, I think that so much power can come from seeing them as superpowers.
“Use your individuality as a secret weapon. Don’t highlight the fact that you’re a woman just to argue your injustices — use it in a way to prove that being a woman is your artillery.”
DR: What’s crazy is that I think other people saw it as a superpower within me before I actually did myself. I’ve always been kind of a weirdo! [Laughs]. I’ve always liked activities that didn’t necessarily match my demographic (fishing, dirt bike riding, hockey, skateboarding, etc.), so when I started playing guitar, it was just another thing for me.
When I started becoming serious about it, I just wanted to be like my favorite players — playing heavy music all over the world. People around me — and people in the industry — definitely started to take notice, and the fact that I was a black female that could rip was always the biggest topic of discussion. [Laughs]. I think the fact that I never looked at myself as any different allowed me to just become the best guitar player that I could without worrying about how my differences could hold me back. Because of that, they never did.
KP: I really love that. That’s the way to do it! In what ways have you seen it as a blessing, and what, if anything, has your rise in music taught you?
DR: I feel like every great band or artist has always had something about them that was special — something that grabbed the attention of people who wouldn’t usually pay attention. I feel like that’s what I’ve kind of been within Tetrarch. I think because I’m such an anomaly, it causes people who maybe wouldn’t usually pay attention to us to double-take and really get into what we’re doing. In that way, I feel like it’s been such a big blessing in disguise.
KP: It definitely is. And when speaking of female influences, you’ve said, “Gender didn’t matter to me. At the beginning of Tetrarch, interviewers would ask me who my favorite females in metal were, and I felt like I had to make something up, but in actuality, I didn’t have any female influences in metal or rock.”
I can definitely relate to this sentiment, as when I think of who I really looked up to musically, some happened to be women, but it wasn’t because they were women. So, therefore, it’s totally plausible to me that you didn’t really have any female influences in a field that is so male-dominated.
But I also see the value in representation, of course. And I think it’s so, so cool that young girls will be able to look up to you as a force in an industry that lacks its fair share of female presence.
Who influenced you as you were maturing as a musician, and has that changed over time?
DR: Exactly! I would always feel so bad because I genuinely didn’t have an answer to that question. All of my biggest influences were dudes! [Laughs]. A lot of the greatest influences that I had then are still my greatest today, because they remind me of the part of music that gave me the most joy and fulfillment. Watching and listening to them takes me back to a time where it was just me and my guitar in a room learning my favorite riffs — and as I said before, there is nothing more pure than that, in my opinion. Guys like Jim Root (Slipknot), Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Head (Korn), Slash (Guns N' Roses), Dimebag Darrell (Pantera), and a bunch of others all still give me that feeling when I listen to them play.
KP: The purest thing! And to cap off that sentiment, you said that it took you a long time to realize that you were “something different… When people said it, I just brushed it off because I thought it was dumb.”
When did you first realize what you were doing was truly radical for women in the genre? Have you grown to appreciate the immensity of what you’re accomplishing over time? I hope that you can, because it’s so amazing!
DR: Oh, for sure! I just didn’t want to be looked at as some gimmick. Looking back, I didn’t want what I was doing to be dumbed down to just me being a female or for the color of my skin, because it was literally my entire life. I played because I loved it and because I truly knew from very early on that this was my life’s purpose. I didn’t want anything to get in the way or muddy up that vision. [Laughs].
I have definitely changed my perspective on this. I think when girls started coming up to me at shows and expressing how seeing me do this gave them the confidence to chase their own dreams, I started to realize that this was something bigger than myself. That’s the part that made me realize how fortunate I am to be in this position.
KP: I figured that you’d come around. [Laughs]. On the other hand, I think great power can also come from being almost ignorant to our differences — I want us to be seen as artists, not just female artists. So I can definitely respect the sentiment that, at first, you didn’t even think of yourself as anything different than a guitarist.
I think it’s definitely a tightrope walk to straddle the concept of both seeing yourself as “just” a regular guitarist but also recognizing the inherent value of you being an incredible source of difference in an industry that is often so homogenous.
DR: Ignorance is definitely bliss sometimes! I do think that, at times, some women put too much focus on their differences, which in turn puts us under a magnifying glass for all to see. I’m not saying that this is the case for everyone, but I think if you move as if it’s not a thing, people will only spotlight the authentic side of it. I think what's so cool about what I’m doing is that there is nothing about it that’s fabricated. Me playing guitar was not a manufactured thing — I was just a 12-year-old kid that loved Metallica and Slipknot, and following that passion led me to this amazing place.
KP: For sure. What is your personal view on that whole concept of representation, and has it changed over time?
DR: I definitely think this depends on the kind of representation we’re speaking about. In doing what I do, I think it's someone who isn’t afraid of bending stereotypes and going into rooms where you’re the only person that looks like you do and that does what you do. It's always extremely important for those who will come after you, because it can give them the confidence to do what they never felt comfortable doing before.
KP: I agree with you completely.
And to speak about the band, Tetrarch released its latest album, The Ugly Side of Me, on May 9th via Napalm Records — congratulations! What can you tell us about its writing and development?
DR: I definitely think there was a little bit of pressure with writing this record and following Unstable. I consider Unstable to be our breakthrough record, so naturally we wanted to make sure that it was just as good — or better than that. The one good thing is that we feel like we have really come into who we are as a band, so this record was all about writing the best songs that we could as opposed to just experimenting and trying to figure out who we are.
KP: It also marks the first time that your vocals have been featured on a track in a way that’s more prominent than background textures. How did that feel? As a musician myself, I’d be so intimidated by that because my voice has never been my instrument! [Laughs]. What gave you the confidence to pursue that full-force?
DR: I’ve always naturally been a decent singer. Josh and the boys have been mentioning for years that I should sing a little bit, but I was always way too self-conscious on that front. I also had no interest in it, to be honest. I truly just love the guitar. I think that now I have a little bit more confidence than I used to with the matter, so when it came up while writing this record, I was more open to at least trying it and seeing how it came out. When I listened back, I was like damn, this is kind of cool. It adds a different dynamic to the song that we haven’t done before. We ended up using it! I wouldn’t say that I’m going to be taking Josh's job anytime soon, but it's cool to now be able to use that element when it serves the song well!
KP: I want to speak about confidence in a wider view, because not only do you exude a lot of it, but I think it takes a ton of confidence as a woman to be able to command an industry that’s almost completely dominated by men.
What gave you the trust and the belief in yourself to be able to command the stage, your instrument, and the industry the way that you do?
DR: Luckily, since day one, I do feel like I’ve always had parents and a support system that reassured me that I could do anything or be anyone that I wanted to be. I never felt handicapped by their expectations. They supported every journey that I have gone on, and when I found music, they supported me every step of the way. Having that core has meant everything.
On top of that, I think a lot of it is learned through experience and growth. I have always been a relatively confident person, even as a kid, but I’m sure that I’m way more confident on stages now than I was when I was 13. A lot of it comes from experience and honing your skills. Now I walk into a place or onto a stage, and I know that I’m supposed to be there. I also know that there’s no one in this world that can get up there and do Diamond better than I can do Diamond. There's comfort in that.
KP: I love that. What advice would you lend to women who want to find that same solid sense of self?
DR: Find something that you love and that you excel at, and immerse yourself in it. Not only does this give you a sense of identity, but it also gives you the confidence to love yourself and feel accomplished. There’s nothing more fulfilling than finding your life’s purpose and living through that.
KP: What is the best advice that you could lend women in general about life or work?
DR: Use your individuality as a secret weapon. Don’t highlight the fact that you’re a woman just to argue your injustices — use it in a way to prove that being a woman is your artillery. Women are strong and can accomplish amazing things. Work your ass off and be the best that you can and want to be in whatever it is that you’re doing... It will take you places that you never ever thought that you could go.
KP: What do you feel makes a provocative woman?
DR: Wow, this is a good question! I think a provocative woman can mean so many different things, but the first word that comes to mind is confidence. I know the word in itself just means something that’s super reaction-provoking, but most people associate “provocative” with a sexual connotation. I believe that a provocative woman is confident or assured of herself enough to be authentic and the version of herself that she loves most, regardless of what anyone else thinks. It can be a beautiful thing.
Photography: Guillermo Briceno
