Guitarist Quotes

I don't see myself as such an important guitarist. ~ Ritchie Blackmore

I wanted to be a musician, either a guitarist or a drummer. I guess my dreams were in the entertainment industry, and I landed somewhere along there. ~ Israel Broussard

That was the thing about Joy Division: writing the songs was dead easy because the group was really balanced; we had a great guitarist, a great drummer, a great bass player, a great singer. ~ Peter Hook

For the serious and dedicated guitarist, learning to play and master the Guitar represents The Path or Way of Enlightenment of which there is no end. Ultimately, playing the Guitar represents the Path to Spiritual Perfection. The guitarist is always a student on this Path. To become a master of the Guitar, relatively speaking, is to always be a student of the Guitar, continually learning and growing with the instrument. The master never thinks of him or herself as a master, but rather as the eternal student on whatever Path he or she is walking in life. We are all students here on this little green earth. ~ David Cherubim

I was training to be a lawyer ... I was president of the law society at Glasgow University, and my bass guitarist was my secretary of my law society; the lead guitarist and writer worked at the law firm that I worked. ~ Gerard Butler

Who I am as a guitarist is defined by my failure to become Jimi Hendrix. ~ John Mayer

I wouldn't say that I'm the greatest guitarist ever. I'd say probably that I'm the greatest guitarist sitting in this chair. ~ Jimi Hendrix

Although I'm a lead guitarist, I'd say that a good 95 percent of my time onstage is spent playing rhythm. ~ Kirk Hammett

Abe grinned as Noah went in for the kiss. He'd expected laughing passion or maybe a raw lip-lock, but his hands cradling Kit's face, the guitarist kissed his new wife with a tenderness that had every single woman in the room sighing and all but melting into the floor.

Abe shook his head. "He really doesn't give a flying you-know-what about his bad-boy image does he?" he said to David.

David shot him a laughing look, his golden-brown eyes shining. with happiness for a friend who'd found his way out of the darkness that had haunted him for so long. "Says the man holding a baby and avoiding the F word. ~ Nalini Singh

It wasn't a class system where I was the better guy and he was the second-rate guy. That was his role and my role was to play the solos. But he took great pride in his technique as a rhythm guitarist. ~ Wayne Kramer

Like an abandoned dog who cannot find
a smell or a track and roams
along the roads, with no road, like
the child who in a night of the fair
gets lost among the crowd,
and the air is dusty, and the candles
fluttering,
astounded, his heart
weighed down by music and by pain;
that's how I am, drunk, sad by nature,
a mad and lunar guitarist, a poet,
and an ordinary man lost in dreams,
searching constantly for God among the mists. ~ Antonio Machado

I love helping people fulfill their dreams, but I also want to revive some of my old dreams as well. Dr. Dale E. Turner once wrote, "Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born." As a kid, I had a lot of dreams. I wanted to be an explorer, an Oscar-winning leading man, a rock guitarist/singer. But I got into a groove and I began to let those dreams go and accept they weren't going to happen.
Now, I think I've reached a point where I want to quench the thirst of all my dreams. If they don't come to fruition in the exact way I envisioned them, that's okay. I at least want to pursue them. ~ Derek Hough

If you're a guitarist, you should not be intimidated by using your instrument as a synthesizer, but you shouldn't feel that you have to own one, either. ~ Andy Summers

I am a self-taught guitarist. I just try to piece together passages that have some melodic value! ~ Sam Palladio

[Loco De Amor is] a euphoric, melodic romp across the hemisphere ... A joyful, fun musician's record from a really good guitarist ~ Jon Pareles

There are lots of really good guitarists, but they play with the same pedals that everybody else does. Everybody buys the same pedals, so the sounds tend to be the same. I am looking for different ways of doing that without having to spend days and weeks and months fooling around with pedals, which I don't enjoy. ~ Paul Simon

I close my eyes
Only for a moment,
then the moment's gone
All my dreams
Pass before my eyes, a curiosity...

Same old song
Just a drop of water in an endless sea
All we do
Crumbles to the ground,
though we refuse to see...

Now, don't hang on
Nothing lasts forever
but the earth and sky
It slips away
And all your money
won't another minute buy...

Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind."

(Kansas guitarist Kerry Livgren wrote this after reading a book of Native American poetry. The line that caught his attention was "For All We Are Is Dust In The Wind.") ~ Kansas (band)

Tony McManus is the best Celtic guitarist in the world. ~ John Renbourn

It's sad how things devolve, how if you hear just the early part of Freddie and Veronica's story, this romantic romp between a blue-eyed guitarist and knobby-knuckled songstress, you imagine they'll go on forever. ~ Michele Young-Stone

We were a really crazy band. This was in '73. I had my hair real short with a white stripe down the middle of my head. The guitarists had pink hair. We weren't playing CBGB's either, we were playing Statesborough, Georgia, for cowboys on penny beer night. We used to keep crowbars onstage when fights would break out. Those were really wild times. ~ Rex Smith

Over the years I hope I've become more of a musican and less of a guitarist. ~ Larry Coryell

I would say I am an amateur guitarist. ~ Rain Phoenix

The musical flags of the world should fly at half mast because truly one of the greatest guitarists in the world and king of the blues has died. I have cherished him and so has the rest of the world who knew him and loved him for his entire career. As we pain, we must celebrate that his music, his style of playing and singing will last forever, from the recordings that he has done and the influence that he has had and will have on guitarists all over this planet. Long live the spirit of B.B. King. ~ Stevie Wonder

I play bass. I play a bit of guitar. I've never been to a lesson, so my theory of music is non-existent in any instrument, but we always had guitars around. My dad taught me to play drums for 'Love Actually,' and I still play drums now. But I'm not a 'drummer.' I'm not a 'guitarist.' I'm trying to be a bassist. ~ Thomas Sangster

I think Wes Montgomery is the greatest jazz guitarist that ever lived. ~ Kevin Eubanks

Michael Bloomfield came in after rock n roll started, and he was a great guitarist. He idolized me - I know that. What else can I say ? he was a young, excitable man. To him, drugs were plentiful, and that was no good. I talked to him like he was a son of mine. He was a great and he was gonna be greater. But he was part of the "in-crowd" and so he never got there ~ B.B. King

Usually, no one quite knew where Django Reinhardt was going to be, but I met his brother and about an hour later in walks Django with an entourage of friends. He always traveled with a large group-carried his own admirers with him, the most sinister-looking bunch of hoodlums you've ever seen. I walked up and offered to buy him a drink. That seemed to be the right thing to do ... he was the first really brilliant solo guitarist I ever became aware of, I had records of his when I was 10 years old. It just blew my mind that anyone could play a guitar like that. Still does. ~ Charlie Byrd

I think people must wonder how a white girl like me became a blues guitarist. The truth is, I never intended to do this for a living. ~ Bonnie Raitt

Very unique: I was a singer-songwriter-guitarist. Very unusual in the late Seventies to find a singer-songwriter, and on top of that, a guitarist. ~ Andy Kindler

I wouldn't count myself as being a true blues guitarist because I feel you have to live it. ~ Robin Trower

I wanted to be the greatest woman guitarist alive. I had fantasies about being a female Jimi Hendrix. ~ Phoebe Snow

George Harrison was a fabulous, fabulous, fabulous guitarist, and a wonderful example of what a rock star should be. I totally revered him as an innovator. He was always fresh, daring, magnificently melodic, full of spiritual quality, and totally conscious of the chord structure beneath the solo. And he had the courage to play simple. He never took refuge in effects, or tried to impress with speed. I hope he knew how much we all loved and respected him. ~ Brian May

Once I got a guitar that was relatively user-friendly, but not super-duper easy, I really came on as a guitarist, at that point. It helped. It was a super-expensive guitar either, but something needs to steer you a bit, if you're playing an instrument that is really hard. ~ Jimmy Page

Eric Clapton is my dream guitarist. ~ Carole King

My voice is my improvisational instrument, the melody instrument. The guitar is harmonic structure. I'm not a good enough guitarist to improvise on it. ~ Paul Simon

Barney Kessel was 'Mr. Guitar,' the foremost jazz guitarist of his generation. He had an amazing imagination, his solos were incredible, he swung his tail off, he was a heck of an arranger and could out-read anybody ... ~ Larry Coryell

The song tells me what to play. ~ Joe Walsh

I'm a self-taught guitarist, but I have a classical music background. ~ Adam Jones

In jazz, you listen to what the bass player is doing and what the drummer is doing, what the pianist and the guitarist is doing, and then you play something that compliments that, so you are thinking simultaneously and thinking ahead. ~ David Amram

I never felt I had enough personal style to pursue being just a guitarist. ~ Bruce Springsteen

Being a songwriter is hard to hide - always doing it in plain sight at school, I mean - but I play guitar behind closed doors only. The lyrics, they're words on paper. To have someone hear me play the guitar, they'd be glimpsing through the boarded-up windows of my soul. And, to be honest, I'm not ready for anyone to snag front row tickets yet. ~ Allyson Kennedy

I actually knew Sully's sister, and I was in a band called Stripmind, and then I became roommates with Sully and being out of a band, he asked if I wanted to join in his. Tony was originally the second guitarist in the band; a guy by the name of Lee Richards was the first. The rest is pretty much history. ~ Robbie Merrill

Reading a book about management isn't going to make you a good manager any more than a book about guitar will make you a good guitarist, but it can get you thinking about the most important concepts. ~ Drew Houston

Of any guitarist, Jimmy Page was my biggest influence. I wanted to look, think and play like him. Zeppelin had a heavy influence on Rush during our early days. Page's loose style of playing showed an immense confidence, and there are no rules to his playing. ~ Alex Lifeson

The pianist Cecil Taylor is extremely melodic; the guitarist Derek Bailey is extremely melodic, and Ornette Coleman. ~ Pat Metheny

I wanted to be a writer when I was a little kid. Then I wanted to be Pete Townshend - the songwriting guitarist who occasionally sang. ~ Travis Morrison

The reality is each new day and each project is another opportunity to learn, experiment and try something I haven't done before. I've found that's what keeps me motivated and moving forward - learning new things and challenging myself on a daily basis to improve as a composer, recording engineer, percussionist, guitarist, producer ... the list goes on and on! ~ Jason Graves

I was not a great guitarist, so I sold my 1960 Fender Stratocaster in exchange for a Shure Microphone, made in Chicago, and a flute. ~ Ian Anderson

Learning the notes on the fretboard is key to any guitarist's development on the instrument, and [Guitar] Trainer HD is a neat way to get that info burned into your brain without having to carry a guitar with you everywhere you go. Pretty cool! ~ Bryan Beller

And my baby says whe's goin' to quit me, I'll tell you for this reason why,
Lead in my pencil gone bye-bye!
Laid down last night, couldn't help but cry,
Wanted to write so bad, I was about to die!
Lead in my pencil, babe it's done gone bad,
And it's the worst old feelin' baby, that I've ever had!

-blues guitarist & singer 1935 ~ Johnny Temple

You hired a female guitarist?"
"Uh, yeah. She fuckin' rocked our faces off. ~ Olivia Cunning

There's no great guitarist that doesn't sit down and listen to Chet Atkins and Eddie Van Halen, and all these other great players. ~ Lee Ann Womack

While the sound mixing was underway, Bonzo was on the loose, taking care of buisness his own way. One night he showed up backstage at a Deep Purple concert at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. Bonzo was drunk and in very high spirits, and was wobbling on his feet in the wings when he noticed a free microphone during a lull in the music. Staggering forward, Bonzo walked out onto the stage before the Deep Purple roadies could grab him. The group stopped playing, amazed, as Bonzo grabbed the mike and shouted, 'My name is John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, and I just wanna tell ya that we got a new album comin' out and that it's fuckin' great!!' Then Bonzo turned to leave, but before he went he turned back and gratuitously insulted Deep Purple's guitarist. 'And as far as Tommy Bolin is concerned, he can't play for shit!! ~ Stephen Davis

I'm a real sucker for guitars. I've had a crush on many, many a guitarist. ~ J.K. Rowling

The tree witches kept to themselves, a self-sufficient coven specializing in certain skills. The witches sang, played music, and danced at the gatherings around the fire, but nothing like what she'd experienced when the gargoyles transformed. After the first night, she was hooked.It was a risk to return but one she was willing to take. She'd ventured to that different world to hear the unique groups, especially to watch the guitarist with hair as black as midnight. ~ Lisa Carlisle

I remember going foraging for breakfast in St. Louis once. I saw this one girl sitting in front of the venue, and she made this pink T-shirt with a big heart in the middle of it and a misty picture of our guitarist Mark [Potter]. She was so embarrassed when she saw me. And I was trying desperately not to laugh. ~ Guy Garvey

Freddie Bryant is a brilliant young guitarist and composer. ~ Kenny Burrell

It feels like guitarists are samurais. You know, I'm playing a guitar, instead of a katana! ~ Miyavi

The composers hated me. The singers detested me. The guitarists were terrified by me. ~ Bulat Okudzhava

I started out as a guitarist in the early '80s. ~ Johnny Depp

I think Ace is a great guitarist, and with the four original members of KISS, there's a magic and chemistry that you just can't touch. ~ Vinnie Vincent

The Beatles had some juice when it came to distortion, but Clapton was finally able to break through those early studio engineers' fear of overloading. He defined the sound that guitarists spend the rest of their lives trying to get. ~ Joe Perry

But if you want me to knock Kingdom Come, all I will say is that I heard the guitarist said he'd never heard my playing, and I'd defy any guitarist in American not to have heard Led Zeppelin. ~ Jimmy Page

Jimi Hendrix was the most exciting guitarist I've ever heard. ~ Brian Jones

My body is an object of work. That's why I think to be an actor is one of the most violent jobs. If you're a pianist, you have your piano. If you're a guitarist, you have your guitar. But if you're a dancer, or you're an actor - your instrument is your body. ~ Monica Bellucci

I thought Eric Clapton was good. He still is. Not only is he good - he's rock's #1 guitarist, and he plays blues better than most of us ~ B.B. King

Many people think of me as just a riff guitarist, but I think of myself in broader terms. As a musician I think my greatest achievement has been to create unexpected melodies and harmonies within a rock and roll framework. And as a producer I would like to be remembered as someone who was able to sustain a band of unquestionable individual talent, and push it to the forefront during its working career. I think I really captured the best of our output, growth, change and maturity on tape - the multifaceted gem that is Led Zeppelin. ~ Jimmy Page

I always knew he was selfish and self-indulgent and kind of lazy; those are practically prerequisites for playing lead guitar. ~ Rainbow Rowell

He slipped off my shoes and began massaging the soles of my feet with his skilled hands. If it's one thing a guitarist knows, it's how to use his fingers. ~ Dannika Dark

I don't care how famous a guitarist is, he ain't learned everything. There's always somewhere to go, something to mash up, but he ain't found it yet. You never learn everything on that guitar neck. ~ David Edwards

A lot of blues guitarists play with only three fingers, and they can't figure out certain runs that require the use of their little fingers. Classical training is good for that. ~ Ritchie Blackmore

I'm not particularly good at anything. I'm not an incredible guitarist or piano player or songwriter. I think what I do is, when I notice someone is really good at something, I try to get that out of them. ~ Benny Blanco

When I hear a great musician, I can feel his life inside the music. ~ John McLaughlin

The jazz guitarist Peter Sprague calls his home recording studio SpragueLand, but sometimes it seems that the moniker better captures the way he has turned the entire southland into his own musical playground. Sprague is a highly versatile musician who draws on the wellsprings of jazz and Brazilian music as primary influences. ~ Andrew S. Gilbert

Music can be your friend when you have none, your lover when you're needy. Your rage, your sorrow, your joy, your pain. Your voice when you've lost your own. To be a part of that, to be the soundtrack of someone's life, is a beautiful thing. - Killian James, lead singer and guitarist, Kill John ~ Kristen Callihan

It's definitely true that Stevie Ray Vaughan is one of my all-time favorite guitarists. ~ Kirk Hammett

In the past, I tried to be more of a typical session guitarist. I wasn't so concerned with impressing anybody. ~ Brad Paisley

I was really good friends with Matthew Ashman, the guitarist in Bow Wow Wow. He died, unfortunately. He was one of my best friends during my sort of punk period. ~ Boy George

Ray Gomez is one of the greatest guitarists of all times! ~ Narada Michael Walden

Of all the early breakthrough rock and roll artists, none is more important to the development of the music than Chuck Berry. He is its greatest songwriter, the main shaper of its instrumental voice, one of its greatest guitarists, and one of its greatest performers. ~ Cub Koda

The great British blues guitarists of the Sixties - people like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Peter Green - could play like virtuosos, but they also understood the importance of energy and intensity ~ Joe Perry

I really wasn't needed ... Just straightening up riffs, that's all. Just two guitarists doing it instead of one. ~ Jimmy Page

Sometimes, I must admit, I'd like to have a second guitarist onstage with me, but it wouldn't look right. I'd like to play for another 20 years, but I don't know ... I just can't see it happening. I don't know why. It's a certain foreboding ... a funny feeling ... vultures. ~ Jimmy Page

During our first meeting, Tony Iommi was a great jazz guitarist, his capabilities cover all styles - Black Sabbath has even narrowed his horizons. ~ Geezer Butler

Larry Carlton is an incredibly versatile guitarist who has been a major force for guitar for many years. He is easily recognizable - all you have to do is hear him once and from that point on you'll be a fan, just like me. It gives me great pleasure to extend congratulations to Larry on his 2011 George Benson Lifetime Achievement Award. Congratulations ! ~ George Benson

There were some older guitarists on my side of town, and I got to know many of them. ~ Tommy Shaw

soothing: re-press of an old French recording of Ida Presti, possibly the greatest guitarist who ever lived, and her husband Alexandre Lagoya, pairing on Debussy's "Clair de Lune. ~ Jonathan Kellerman

An uninhibited, Chuck Berry devotee but experimented with and broke a lot of ground on feedback techniques and solid variations in tonal and dissonant utilizations. I'm one of the best guitarists in the world, and I play with great emotion. ~ Ted Nugent

Bruce is still my friend. We don't talk much. We don't have to. He is great and in his own league. I'm not him and he is not me. But we are on similar paths, writing and singing out own kind of songs around the world, along with Bob and a few other singer/songwriters. It is a a silent fraternity of sorts, occupying this space in people's souls with our music. Last year, I lost my right-hand man, the pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith. This year Bruce lost his right-hand man, the saxophonist Clarence Clemons. It's time for another talk; friends can help each other just by being there. Now both of us will look to our right and see a giant hole, a memory, the past and the future. I won't play with another steel player trying to recreate Ben's parts, and I know Bruce won't play with another sax man trying to play Clarence's. Those parts are not going to happen again. They already did. That takes a lot out of our repertoires. ~ Neil Young

The freak show was about to begin.

Spotlights flooded the musicians powered by solar panels near a massive amplifier. The guitarist continued playing and the others joined in, playing a raucous crossover between hard rock and heavy metal. The one with long blond hair grabbed hold of the microphone and belted out a shattering cry that sounded like a call to battle. The crowd went pin drop silent to listen and then cheered in unison as the band played on. The front man sang piercing growls and low croons about the Knights in Stone, the protectors of the ancient forests, battling against the evil tree witches... Kayla's coven. ~ Lisa Carlisle

Standing out like a punk guitarist in a mariachi band. ~ Brandon Sanderson

I set myself up to be a bass guitarist and bass players get a lot more work than people like me. ~ John Entwistle

Going onstage without my primary instrument is like being a guitarist and going up onstage with no guitar waiting for you. What do you do? That's why performance is painful for me, because I feel like I am always in a strange place with a bit of a handicap. ~ Son Lux

When I went over to the States to promote Outrider, everyone was telling me I was a blues guitarist. I'm not a bloody blues guitarist. I'm a guitarist. ~ Jimmy Page

I hired Bob at Terrytoons. He was my assistant animator, and then became an animator himself. He had just come from Boston with his family and was a brilliant draftsman as well as a great jazz guitarist. We had lots of fun nights in Greenwich Village together and then later hanging in LA. Bob worked on Fritz the Cat , Heavy Traffic , Coonskin , and on Wizards . I am terribly saddened by his passing and will miss him dearly. ~ Ralph Bakshi

My interests are guitars, cars, and vacation. I've been playing guitar all my life. My dad was a professional guitarist, but I'm terrible, which lets me off the hook, so I just play for myself. ~ Josh Hartnett

There are so many good guitarists out there, I am by no means a very good guitar player. ~ Marnie Stern

Guitarists should be able to pick up the guitar and play music on it for an hour, without a rhythm section or anything. ~ Joe Pass

These babies ain't just guitars; these babies are living, breathing instruments. ~ Brenda Sutton Rose

When I was a kid I really liked the guitarist of The Doors [Robby Krieger]. He plays blues, but he plays a lot of melodic things. He plays scales that are kind of unusual, and some bent notes. ~ Stephen Malkmus