A year before finishing high school, Haner got a summer job touring with
Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, best known for their hit songs "
Woolly Bully" and "
Li'l Red Riding Hood". After high school, Haner did session work and played in night clubs in the
Los Angeles area while attending The
Dick Grove School of Music, where he studied composition, Arranging, Advanced Music Theory and Film Scoring. He spent a year as one of
Motown star
Norman Whitfield's main session guitar players, working with
The Undisputed Truth,
Rose Royce &
Jr. Walker. His work with Whitfield included the songs "
Car Wash" and "
Wishing on a Star", as well as several movie soundtracks, including
Car Wash (1976),
Which Way Is Up (1977) and
Animal House (1978). His recording credits include Frank Zappa, Tower of Power, The Ventures, Avenged Sevenfold. Haner signed his first record deal with
Polydor under the name of Brian West. His self-produced first album, ''Don't Stop Now'', featuring the
Tower of Power horns, was successful in Europe, where it was certified gold in several countries. Throughout the 1980s, Haner recorded and toured mainly in Europe. In the early '90s, his composition work extended to scoring television shows and films, including
TV 101 and
Eerie, Indiana. From 1998 to 2003, Haner produced his wife's hypnosis show as he continued as a session musician. In 2003, he signed with a
Nashville music publisher and released two CDs:
My Old Guitar and
Carney Man. The latter's success led to a successful run in stand-up comedy. In 2005, Haner's first novel,
Carney Man, was published. After a year spent mostly in comedy clubs and in Las Vegas opening for comedians, including
Bobby Slayton,
Ralphie May,
Lisa Lampanelli and
Brett Butler, Haner started touring and doing
Comedy Central television specials as "Guitar Guy" with
Jeff Dunham. While on tour with Dunham, Haner released two solo CDs:
Cougar Bait and
Fistfight at the Wafflehouse. He also released a CD with Dunham, ''
Don't Come Home for Christmas'' (2008), featuring Dunham's puppets singing Haner's original songs. Since leaving Jeff Dunham's show in 2011, he has released three more CDs:
The Artist Formerly Known as Guitar Guy,
Alone and
Perfect World. In 2012, he spent the summer in Africa, headlining the prestigious South Africa Comedy Festival. Haner also appeared on
Showtime's "Red Light Comedy Special" with Bert Kreischer, taped in Amsterdam, and on
AXS TV's "Gotham Comedy Live from NYC", performing his own music and stand-up comedy. That year, he released his second book,
Ginny Reb, about a young woman's experiences in the
Confederate army. Haner took a break from comedy and performing in 2014, so he and his wife Suzy could take over as coordinators of the
Orange County School of the Arts' Commercial Music program in
Orange County, California. In the fall of 2016, he composed the music score for the two-hour premiere of the highly acclaimed television show
Z Nation on the
SyFy Channel. Haner continues to do session work, and in 2018, he played sitar on
The Ventures' first album in over 15 years. 2018 also saw the launch of the Synyster Gates School of Music, a free online school created by him and his son for guitarists of all levels. He returned to comedy in 2018 and did a US tour with "The Deplorables". In 2019, he teamed up with comedian Michael Loftus to do a comedy special for FOX Nation. In 2025, he wrote and starred in "A Bennington Christmas Carol". A musical based on Dickens' Christmas Carol, but set in 1926 Bennington Vermont.
With Avenged Sevenfold Haner made his first appearance with
Avenged Sevenfold on their third studio album,
City of Evil (2005), playing acoustic and electric guitar on several tracks, including a dual guitar solo with his son on "Sidewinder". He contributed string arrangements to their
self-titled album in 2007 and was the orchestral arranger on the track "Until the End," which would appear on the album
Diamonds in the Rough (2008). He played additional guitar on the track "
So Far Away" and the guitar solo on "Tonight the World Dies" on their
Nightmare album in 2010. He played the outro guitar solos on both "Coming Home", from
Hail to the King (2013), and "Angels", from
The Stage (2016). In October 2017, Haner made a rare live appearance with Avenged Sevenfold at their all-acoustic concert at the
Grammy Museum in L.A. When with the band Haner goes by the name "Papa Gates", to go with his son going by the name Synyster Gates. ==Personal life==