I've never liked having like a set kind of schedule of training. Even when I was doing guitar lessons, I never used to practice.
I looked at myself, and I just said, 'Well, you know, I can sing, but I'm not the greatest singer in the world. I can play guitar very well, but I'm not the greatest guitar player in the world.' So I said, 'Well, if I'm going to project an individuality, it's going to have to be in my writing.'
I wanted to be a blues guitar player. And a singer. And a songwriter. Not a shock jock.
My father was a guitar player, and I was raised with a super high standard of what good guitar playing was.
I believe every guitar player inherently has something unique about their playing. They just have to identify what makes them different and develop it.
As a roadie for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, I learned that I should give up being a guitar player.
I am, by nature, a guitar player... I learned all of these other instruments around that, and around the theory that I built learning the guitar.
And this whole period of time of gradually working at being a better guitar player and songwriter have gradually led me to the point where I feel I'm doing a clearer representation of the thing that I've been feeling inside me since I was four years old.
As a guitar player, it's harder for me to impress somebody than it is to write a song that they like.
I've always known from the time I was eight years old what I wanted to do. I would have been fairly content to be someone's lead guitar player.
Guitar players never listen to lead singers.
When I was in high school, there were these British blues-rock-type bands with really good guitar players that would jam on one song for half an hour. And as much as I was amazed by some of those guitar players, seeing them prompted me to make a note that that's not something I could do.
My mother is a singer, my sisters all sing, my uncles are incredible singers and guitar players, so it's just kind of been like my habitat.
I always wanted to be able to show off like the guitar players do. I think I managed that alright!
Oh, man, I love the Staple Singers. I love Pop Staples' guitar playing, too. He's one of my favorite guitar players.
I go online, and I love watching heavy metal bands and guitar players play heavy metal versions of the 'Zelda' theme, and people do all the 'Zelda' music, which is one of my favorite soundtracks.
I know in my heart of hearts that Ritchie Blackmore is one of the great guitar players of all time. He's a fabulous technician, and he's got incredible skills, and he was a great showman.
I'm always trying to emulate guitar. Especially when I'm playing the trombone, that's what I think about. Like, I listen to guitar players every day: Warren Haynes, Lenny Kravitz, Prince, different people. And I'm always trying to find out a way how I can get my trombone to sound like that.
I didn't want to fall into the trap of competing with all these other great guitar players. I just want to sidestep the whole thing and get out of the race.
Guitar players in the nineties seem to be reacting against the technique oriented eighties.
