Top 5 Guitarists Who Inspire Me
David Pajo
Johnny Winter
I only recently started listening to Johnny Winter and I don’t know why it’s taken me so long. I feel like a putz for dismissing him. I can see how people think he overplays; he probably does. But jeez Louise I wish I could overplay like that … his phrasing is impeccable!
Andy Gill
I knew Andy’s playing was an influence on me but I didn’t realize how much until I started playing with Gang of Four. The songs feel so natural, not foreign at all. I must have absorbed his vocabulary. He made such a huge impact on me as a young man trying to figure out how to unplay the guitar. I only respect him more the more of his songs I figure out … pure genius.
Pete Cosey
Pete played with Miles Davis from ‘73-‘75. Only two years and it’s still blowing minds! It’s not so much his notes as much as the mood he’s able to evoke. I’m often searching for that mood in my own playing.
Steve Albini
Steve was my gateway drug to Gill, but he has a style and approach all his own. I loved how alien the guitars sounded with Big Black when I was growing up. It never sounded organic, it was perverse and more akin to metal clanging against metal. Didn’t seem like chords made by human fingers. I tried to add that kind of frigid, emotional distance in Slint, because it made the emotionally vulnerable parts even heavier.
Britt Walford & Brian McMahan
No one shaped my guitar playing more than Britt. We grew up together, musically. He encouraged all my weirdness and I his. He and Brian know my playing better than anyone else as well.
Brian never thinks of himself as a great guitarist but I am convinced that he is. His brilliance goes beyond the physicality of the instrument, which I appreciate and have learned from immensely.
