Shawn Lane was born a March 21th in Memphis, Tennessee, the so-called Cradle of Rock n' Roll which despite its many memes actually did end up giving birth to a titan artist post-Elvis, at least in what respects pure guitar playing which is somewhat of an irony taking into account guitar was at the end of the day actually his second instrument.
His rise to his speed-based shenanigans seems to be that he seemed to be born with hyperactivity and some form of nervous system problem which rendered his fingers to react or seem to move faster than usual, which coupled with a refined alternate picking gave way to absurd bpm counts which were not heard of in the 70's, something he could also replicate with the keys.
He played piano from early age to accompany his sisters, later he fondled the guitar but didn't take it seriously until he was 12, at 14 he was already the main guitar player for a relatively known band in the US Black Oak Arkansas although for touring days only. But around these dates he would also deal with his eventual demise, psoriasis and what's worse the arthritic kind of it, usually attributed/mentioned on par with his nervous system characteristics. Some speculate he didn't often play at full speed due to this which is hilarious to think in some way; in the first webm we can see a pretty fast but still primitive or "simple" shredding, still by 1979 this was years before some others did in the