Guitar Player Quotes

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. ~ Hunter Hayes

There comes a point with any collaboration like that where you start having other interests creatively. I was moving in one direction musically, and as a guitar player, Mark wanted to move in another direction. That was essentially the reason we broke up. ~ Scott Stapp

Chet Atkins ... is probably the best guitar player who ever lived. ~ Charley Pride

Muddy Waters, I suppose, was my first great hero. You know, every boy wants to be a guitar player, and Muddy Waters was just the king. He was the King Bee. He was it. ~ Hugh Laurie

I just play, just you know, If i just sit down with the guitar and just do whatever for, you know, an half an hour or an hour whatever. That's pretty much, that should do it for me. ~ Slash

I'm glad there are a lot of guitar players pursuing technique as diligently as they possibly can, because it leaves this whole other area open to people like me. ~ Richard Thompson

If you go to Japan, they're still buying vinyl, and they want the education. They know who's playing on what tracks from the '60s and the '70s - who the guitar player is, who the drummer is, who the producer was, what studio it was recorded in. That's how I grew up listening to music. We bought albums. We read the liner notes. It was important to know the whole history behind it. ~ Lenny Kravitz

I sit down with a guitar player and if there's a situation I feel strongly about, or a guy that I've been thinking about or if I'm mad at a guy, it comes out. ~ Avril Lavigne

Barney Kessel is definitely the best guitar player in this world, or any other world. ~ George Harrison

As a musician and a guitar player, I can noodle as well as anybody. But from my background as a session musician, I always try to play what is called for by the lyric and listening to the song. As a writer, that's what I do, too. ~ Richie Sambora

I'm a struggling guitar player. ~ Megyn Kelly

When Lonnie Mack came out with the guitar instrumental "Memphis" I thought, Oh God, finally somebody we guitar players can relate to ! ~ Richard Betts

My mother was a very beautiful lady, I thought. She was very good to me. I guess - she died when I was nine and a half, but if she had lived, I probably wouldn't be trying to play guitar. She wanted me to be known, but as something else. Not a guitar player. ~ B.B. King

Later in high school, I met Hillel Slovak, who was the original guitar player of the Chili Peppers, and we became really close. We had a band, and we didn't like the bass player, so I started playing bass, and I got a bass two weeks later. ~ Flea

I was never really a virtuoso guitar player per se. ~ Mick Jones

I do not consider myself a guitar player. My father is a guitar player - I'm not. ~ Rufus Wainwright

I invented rock & roll. Jimi Hendrix was my guitar player. James Brown was my vocalist. ~ Little Richard

The gut-strung guitar, the classical guitar, that is a whole different world on its own. When you think what the guitar can do and what every individual player does with a guitar, everyone has their own identity coming through the guitar. ~ Jimmy Page

My heroes, I couldn't imagine them practicing. Like Bob Dylan, you know? Bob Dylan's a very, very good guitar player, but it's like he's trying to hide it. I always loved this attitude. When you're very good ... it's like being an athlete - and I always hated sports! ~ Laurent Brancowitz

My dad is obsessed with music, so I was raised around this guitar player that really wanted me to be a guitar player. ~ Zach Condon

Besides being a guitar player, I'm a big fan of the guitar. I love that damn instrument. ~ Steve Vai

One of the things that was crucial for me I got from Rory Gallagher, which was the idea of, like, being a guitar player for life and living it. ~ Rory Gallagher

I was a guitar player first off. ~ Boz Scaggs

I'm the guitar player in Belle & Sebastian. ~ Stevie Jackson

My dad was good friends with the Bad Medicine Blues Band - one of the only blues bands in Fargo, as you can imagine! He took me out to see them play when I was 12 years old and I was really inspired by their guitar player, Ted Larsen. ~ Jonny Lang

Once we get out on the road, my tour manager who is also my guitar player does a great job of taking weight off of my shoulders where I can just focus on playing the shows.About two hours before every show, the pacing starts and the anticipation builds. I prepare for it just like I would when I used ride bulls, slap yourself in the face, wake yourself up and get your heart going. ~ Cody Johnson

The whole reputation of being a rock guitar player, I could really care less about it. Still, when I hear new groups today I do occasionally hear something where I think ... ahh, I've heard that lick before. ~ Tom Verlaine

So it's more the musician in me that makes me stretch out and try different things more than anything. But, like a lot of guitar players, I have one certain niche that's my thing that I'm better at than the others. ~ Lee Ann Womack

The hand touched my cheek again. It wasn't soft and cool like Gina's. It was warm, with calloused fingertips like those of….
….a guitar player. ~ Jeri Smith-Ready

I think of guitar players in terms of doctors: you have the doctor for your heart, the cardiologist, then one that works on your feet, your leg. But I believe George Benson is the one that plays all over. To me, he would be the M.D. of them all. ~ B.B. King

Guitar Player Magazine says Dick Dale is the father of Heavy Metal, blowing up 48 amplifiers, creating the first power amplifier. ~ Dick Dale

Technically, I'm not a guitar player, all I play is truth and emotion. ~ Jimi Hendrix

I've known Shawn for several years. And he's just an amazing talent. He's a great writer, a marvelous, marvelous guitar player, and plays really good fiddle. ~ Guy Clark

A lot of guitar players get stuck on a person ... before they find out who they really are ... every guitar player should remember be yourself - just let it rip ... ~ Henry Garza

Too bad that Paul Ryan confessed to being a fan of Rage Against The Machine. By doing so, he not only begged for a bucketing by many of their fans but actually got one from the band's guitar player, Tom Morello. ~ Henry Rollins

I thought it was too 'glam rock' to practice. The problem is that now I'm a pretty bad guitar player. ~ Laurent Brancowitz

I think we choose gear by the way that it looks. We choose lots of things by the way that it looks. I don't like bands that look like roadies. I don't like when I can't tell who's the guitar tech and who's the guitar player. ~ Alison Mosshart

I'm first and foremost a guitar player. I've been playing since I was 12, which is over half of my life. ~ Annie E. Clark

My earliest musical memory was getting to watch my dad play drums in a local band. He's a banker by trade, but a drummer at heart. I remember seeing the guitar player do the solo from "Werewolves of London" with his teeth, and that was the moment that had me hooked. ~ Charlie Worsham

One of my favorites has always been 'Swap Meet.' One of the reasons why I like that is it's a song that's in a drop-D tuning, and of course, also being a guitar player, it's one of the songs that I really like the riff on it. ~ Chad Channing

I'll never be the best guitar player. ~ Chad Kroeger

What draws people to the instrument is the love for guitar players that play a certain way. I mean, even though it wasn't intentional, it was hard to avoid copying Eddie Van Halen. He was basically the *bleep* back then. ~ Tom Morello

To stay a great singer or guitar player, you've got to do it 24/7. That's what I do. ~ Sammy Hagar

At some point, I had to make a decision: I could practice more and become a really great guitar player or I could work on writing better songs. There are only so many hours in the day, and I found writing songs more fulfilling than working on becoming this virtuoso guitar player. ~ James Iha

I forget what the official name of it was, but they did an all-day of roots music - every kind of music you can imagine from around the country - New Orleans Jazz to Indian flute players, R&B, you name it. I met and became good friends with (blues guitar player) Joe Louis Walker. He was on the show. ~ Scotty Moore

I always had wished somebody else would sing my songs, but there wasn't anybody who knew them, so I sang them myself and eventually became a better singer and guitar player. ~ Buffy Sainte-Marie

Guitar players get inward and analytical about their playing but when you start to get positive feedback from other players it makes you think that it is coming together. ~ John Petrucci

As far as I'm concerned, I'm just a guitar player, and my job is to go out there and play and entertain and do my thing. ~ Les Paul

Invariably, guitar players that go solo make really bad records. ~ Richard Hawley

One thing I had figured out by then was that talent, like everything else, was just a starting point. What counted was what you did with it. I knew I wasn't the most talented guitar player or the best singer or the best writer, but I could do all of those things, and I had a complete vision of what it was going to take to succeed---a vision that included working, working, working. ~ Paul Stanley

I feel so lucky to have been in a group where it was a real band. This wasn't a singer and guitar player and some other guys. ~ Robbie Robertson

You don't have to be the best guitar player, or have the best voice, or even be the best looking person - writing a song that moves people is worth more than all the other nonsense. (Just look at Bob Dylan - he's got almost no vocal range at all, but his songs are deeply moving and iconic.) If I had to offer one piece of advice: Write a song that moves people, and write it from within yourself. Your personal narrative is more engaging and moving than anything else you can imagine in your mind. ~ Ryan Ross

I truly believe Brad is from another planet – not sure where, but he is otherworldly gifted. His dexterity, fluidity, and precision are extraordinary – and in addition to these shaving techniques, he's also not a bad guitar player. Just for the record, Brad has never actually asked me to start a band, and frankly that hurts! ~ Keith Urban

I'm fine with being thought of as a guitar player, and if I can get any recognition or respect for doing that, that's a pretty good thing for me. ~ Paul Weller

When I look for what I'm going to listen to I go backwards. I'm always going the other way you see. Most people are trying to figure out 'how do I get in the fast lane going that way?'. I'm going in the other direction. I wanna find the oldest thing to do. ~ Eric Clapton

I think I come under the singer/songwriter badge. I've always written songs right from the very beginning. Because of my style of playing people tend of me more of a guitar player than a singer sometimes. ~ Bert Jansch

I did a song, "Court and Spark," for a Joni Mitchell tribute album that's yet to see the light of day. So she's someone I'd like to do something with, sure. I worked with the great guitar player Bill Frisell on Phantom Moon - that was fun. I'm such a fan; he's amazing. ~ Duncan Sheik

I'm a guitar player. Actually, I think of myself as a songwriter/rhythm-guitar player. ~ Rick Nielsen

My technique is laughable at times. I have developed a style of my own, I suppose, which creeps around. I don't have to have too much technique for it. I've developed the parts of my technique that are useful to me. I'll never be a very fast guitar player. I don't really know what to say about my style. There's always a melodic intent in there. ~ David Gilmour

I do a lot of the stuff that I started out doing that I think any guitar player that's concerned about the craft needs to do. It's basic practicing of the basic elements. I try to practice like a well rounded regiment of things where I can kind of do whatever I wanna do and I also have to practice the actual songs to keep that under my fingers as well. ~ John Petrucci

I could care less about sitting around and practicing the guitar for hours a day and trying to be the best guitar player on the planet. ~ Scott Ian

This was the danger of sharing your dreams with your parents. If you told them you wanted to learn to play the guitar, all they heard you say was, "I want to learn to play the guitar," and then they found some practical, convenient, cheap way, often involving a church basement, for you to do it. But Hector had not come up with any plan of his own. And owning a guitar seemed like an important stepping stone on the way to being a guitar player. So he pawned his soul and said he would take the lessons from the Presbyterian youth minister. What the hell, he thought. Or heck, he thought. What the heck. ~ Lynne Rae Perkins

I'm definitely a guitar player, but it's the last thing I listen to in a song, after the singer and the drums. ~ Dan Auerbach

And a lot of the technique and the little T-Bone phrases that define his style, Chuck Berry, when he rearranged the beat, they became rock 'n roll guitar licks. So in essence, T-Bone was not only the first electric blues guitar player, but he was the first electric rock 'n roll guitar player, really. ~ Duke Robillard

Without you, I'm just a guitar player. ~ Bella Jeanisse

When you heard Jimi Hendrix, you knew it was Jimi Hendrix. He introduced himself with his instrument. His attack to a guitar man, was, oh, something else! You think of one of the great American ball players, or one of the great fighters of the world, you know, that's the way he would attack any note on his guitar. ~ B.B. King

Translating how that latter fact came to life in the studio, engineer Chuck Zwicky explained from his own observations during the recording of the album that "the way that Prince's music comes together has everything to do with how he views the individual instruments, and for example, when he's sitting down at the drums, he's derivatively thinking about Dave Gerbaldi, the drummer from Tower of Power, and that's a real fascile and funky drummer; and when he plays keyboards, he's thinking about James Brown's horn player, on one aspect; and when he's playing guitar, other elements creep in, because he loves Carlos Santana, and Jimi Hendrix, and this other guitar player named Bill Nelson, a rock guitar player from the 70s. And so these aspects all come together to make this unique sound that is Prince, and it's not rock, it's not funk, it's not jazz, it's not blues - it's just his own kind of music. I remember there was one particular moment when he started playing this keyboard line, and I'm thinking 'He can't play that, that's Gary Newman.' And at that moment, he stops the tape, and turns and looks at me and asks 'Do you like Gary Newman?' And I said 'You know, the album Replica never left my turntable in Jr. High School after my sister bought it for me. I listened to it until it wore out.' And he said 'There are people still trying to figure out what a genius he is. ~ Jake Brown

You're always learning about this thing everytime you pick it up ~ Keith Richards

James Ralston, my guitar player, has performed with Tina Turner for about 22 years. Jim Hanson on bass has played with Johnny Cash, Rodney Crowell and Bruce Springsteen, and they're fantastic musicians and amazing singers they get a really cool vocal sound together. ~ Vonda Shepard

When I was a kid in Eugene, Oregon, there was this fantastic guitar player who went out on the tables, chairs, out in the audience and played. So I started taking my guitar in the audience. I tripped, fell backwards and ripped my pants. ~ Meredith Brooks

At the apex of Prince's career, I listened almost exclusively to metal. My sister actually purchased 'Purple Rain' on cassette, which I write about in my anthology ["Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas"]. And I felt ashamed that I liked Prince so much. A typical rock fan would be embarrassed that they liked Warrant or Ratt at the time, but I had the exact opposite experience. And I had this overwhelming fear that Prince was actually a better guitar player than any of the metal gods. ~ Chuck Klosterman

I spend a lot of time copying saxophone players and trumpet players. Not to say that it is not important to listen to guitar players, but there's so much music out there and so many possibilities. I like anyone who plays any instrument. ~ Bill Frisell

If you play music for no other reason than actually just because you love it, the skills just kinda creep up on you. ~ Nuno Bettencourt

Still to this day, I am deeply satisfied when watching a guitar player who is connected with their art and instrument. GuitarTV helps you tap into that connection, and to each other. ~ Steve Vai

I only took about five guitar lessons in my life from an actual teacher. I learned fast that that wasn't for me. I didn't have the attention span to learn that way. So I learned the basics from my dad, then just from playing on stage, and watching other guitar players. ~ Jason Aldean

I don't even wanna say female guitar-players, just guitar-players, because music of all things doesn't need to be gendered and stratified, that's so boring. ~ Annie E. Clark

At the end of the European leg, our lead guitar player pulled a knife on our bus driver in England. I ~ Duff McKagan

I tend to prefer the band thing. I think playing solo is good for about 45 minutes. I remember when I was on my solo tour that I got a chance to play with Martin Stephenson of the Daintees. He's now refashioned himself as almost a delta blues guitar player and he's got all the technique, all the persona and the charisma on stage. I think I do too, but I'm more of a first position strummer guy with a little bit of filigree work. I could listen to him for hours; I could listen to myself playing solo for about half an hour! ~ Bill Mallonee

When I got out of high school, I was in a blues band. It was the kind of music I was interested in, and listening to, mostly because it was becoming a vehicle for a generation of guitarists - like Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. Mike Bloomfield. And that's what I wanted to be, principally: a guitar player. ~ Todd Rundgren

By far the most astonishing guitar player ever has got to be Django Reinhardt ... Django was quite superhuman, There's nothing normal about him as a person or a player. ~ Jeff Beck

David Gilmour can do more with one note than most other guitar players can do with the whole fretboard ~ Dave Mustaine

It hit the damn papers that I was being chased through the woods with dogs and choppers. I mean, who the hell are we after here, John Dillinger? For Chrissakes, I'm just a lowly guitar player. ~ Richard Betts

I'm more of a rhythmic player. My soloing is pretty much limited to playing slide guitar. ~ George Thorogood

The greatest guitar player in the world today for me is Paco de Lucia, who is actually Spanish. ~ George Benson

I always thought Kurt Cobain was the perfect embodiment of the great alternative guitar player. ~ Billy Corgan

To be a good artist / letterer / designer / guitar player it takes practice. A lot of it. More than you can even fathom when you're starting out. ~ Jessica Hische

I was a very bad musician. I was the world's worst guitar player, so when I was performing solo with a guitar, I had to keep things very simple. ~ Loren Mazzacane Connors

I grew up not really listening to guitar players. Especially when I was studying music, I was just interested in piano players and arrangers and composers; I came to playing in a band from the perspective of someone who never expected to play guitar in a band. ~ Daniel Rossen

My brother, who's ten years younger than me, worked with me in the studio when he was very young. He's a guitar player and does programming as well. To have the working and personal relationship coincide has been very natural. ~ Atticus Ross

I bet a chef could get more pussy than a guitar player right now. ~ Roy Choi

Anybody who's a guitar player that's spent that time with another guitar player, there's nothing better than that. ~ John Frusciante

I always hated jazz guitar. I loved jazz saxophone but I hated jazz guitar. If I would buy an organ trio record I would make sure I'd buy one that did not have a guitar player on it. The sound was awful! ~ Tom Verlaine

I listened to classical guitar and Spanish guitar, as well as jazz guitar players, rock and roll and blues. All of it. I did the same thing with my voice. ~ Boz Scaggs

Neil Young does throw in a major seven chord here and there, so if you're a new guitar player learning Neil Young songs, you'll learn some seven chords, and some different positions. Nothing too complicated, just enough to kind of open up your knowledge a little bit. ~ Jesse Harris

Bruce's band is so different from the Grateful Dead; there's no lead guitar player, for one thing. ~ Phil Lesh

I will miss a good friend who was so talanted. He was such agreat performer/ guitar player. Sleep well Prince. ~ Ronnie Wood

To me, all guitar players can play, because I know they're getting to where they're at. It's a very hard instrument to accept, because it takes years to start working with it, that's first, and it looks like everybody else is moving on the instrument but you. Then when you find a cat that's really playing, you always find that he's been playing a long time, you can't get around it. ~ Wes Montgomery

Karma," he said once, "is not a sentence already printed. It is a series of words the author can arrange as she choses."
Love. Murder. A broken heart. The professor in the drawing room with candlestick. The detective in the bar with the gun. The guitar player backstage with the pick.
Maybe it was true: Life was a series of words we'd been given to arrange as we pleased, only no one seemed to know how. A word game with no right solution, a crossword puzzle where we couldn't quite remember the name of that song. ~ Sara Gran

I never met a politician who didn't want to be a guitar player in a rock band. I've got the opportunity to say what I believe in. ~ Billy Bragg

At school I had a really hard time being a guitar player. It's like being a male ballerina in a way. It's not the norm. ~ Orianthi