Rod Abernethy

{{Short description|Guitarist, songwriter, and composer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Rod Abernethy

| image = Rod-abernethy-jc.jpg

| caption = Abernethy performing live in Raleigh, NC

| birth_date =

| birth_place =

| occupation = Songwriter, guitarist, composer

| years_active = 1975–present

| current_member_of = Arrogance

| instrument = Guitar, vocals

| genre = Acoustic, folk, video game music

| website = [https://www.rodabernethyguitar.com rodabernethyguitar.com]

}}

Rod Abernethy is a performing songwriter, guitarist, and composer. His music has been used as scores for EA, Midway, Vivendi, Universal, Sony, Ubisoft, Bethesda, Paramount, Disney, THQ, Activision, Konami, Majesco Entertainment, NC Soft, Namco and Nintendo.

Abernethy first appeared on the public landscape with a 1975 LP Solo, produced by Don Dixon from the North Carolina band Arrogance. He later joined Arrogance as lead guitarist,{{cite web|first=Philip van |last=Vleck |url=http://www.arrogance.us/articles/back4more.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060716003221/http://www.arrogance.us/articles/back4more.htm |archive-date=July 16, 2006 |title=Legendary Rockers Unite|url-status=usurped |accessdate=July 16, 2019}} staying with the band through their releases Suddenly (Warner Brothers,1980) and Lively (1981). He eventually left Arrogance before the recording of the unreleased, at the time, The 5'11" Record (1982) to pursue a solo music career composing for films, TV, and video games.{{cite web |first=Jan |last=Hoeglund |title=Rod Abernethy |url=https://soundiron.com/pages/rod-abernethy |website=soundiron.com |accessdate=July 16, 2019}}{{cite web |first=Chris |last=Greening |title=Rod Abernethy Interview: Career Highlights Past and Present |url=http://www.vgmonline.net/rodabernethyinterview/ |website=vgmonline.net |date=October 2011 |accessdate=July 16, 2019}}

As a composer, Abernethy has more than 80 video games to his credit, including id Software's RAGE, TERA, EA’s science fiction survival horror opus Dead Space (2009 BAFTA for Use of Audio - Music Co-Producer), Tolkien's The Hobbit for Vivendi Universal, Alpha Protocol, The Wheelman, Blacksite: Area 51, Star Trek: Legacy, Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII, and Dead Head Fred.

Abernethy returned to performing live in 2014 and was the Overall Grand Prize Winner of the 2021 International Acoustic Music Awards. In 2019 he was the Grand Prize winner of American Songwriter's Bob Dylan Song Contest. His last album Normal Isn’t Normal Anymore was released in 2021 and produced by Grammy nominated producer Neilson Hubbard.