Latest articles by Jas Obrecht
Eddie Van Halen talks guitar solos, playing fast, and the music teacher who slapped his face when he made a mistake
Van Halen touched on the essence of his approach to soloing in this classic Guitar Player interview
Brian May on the trials and tribulations of building the Red Special
May famously built the original with his father while in his teens. The duo even originally built the guitar's pickups themselves, though on that particular front they faced some headwinds
“If Seven Worlds had come out at the time it was ready, instead of being held back, he would have been as big as Jeff Beck”: Stevie Ray Vaughan details his friendship with Eric Johnson
As fellow Austin, Texas-based, up-and-coming guitarists in the 1970s and '80s, Vaughan and Johnson developed a close friendship, and had great admiration for one another
“I was working with Ibanez in the mid-'70s, and they showed me a new guitar from Japan. I played it, and they told me they'd made it for George Benson. I said, ‘You can call the police, but I'm taking it’: Bob Weir on Ratdog, and his unique custom models
Having – at the time of this archival GP interview – recently lost his six-string brother in arms, Jerry Garcia, Weir was ready to move on with new sounds, new approaches, and ever-fascinating new custom guitars
"I was playing an ES-335 before we got signed, but the guys said, 'Come on, you look like Roy Orbison' – this little punk kid playing a Ted Nugent axe": Why Eddie Van Halen left Gibson's famed semi-hollow behind, and how he would've built his ideal ES-335
"When I pick up a stock 335, you probably wouldn't even recognize my playing," the late guitar legend told GP in this classic interview
"He really lived it": Lightnin' Hopkins picked cotton and worked on a chain gang before becoming the most recorded of the postwar bluesmen – and schooling the likes of Billy Gibbons and Johnny Winter
"Lightnin' did everything the way you'd think a real blues player would do…" The story of Lightnin' Hopkins: Sage, scoundrel and natural-born storyteller
In Memory of Jim Crockett, 1937–2023
The former Guitar Player publisher died December 16, 2023
"Five strings, three notes, two fingers and one a**hole – that's all it takes to play guitar!" Keith Richards: The complete 1992 interview
Guitar playing. Songwriting. Mick Jagger. His blues heroes. Keith Richards is 80. In 1992, we sat down with him for one of his greatest interviews…
Steve Lukather: "I realized it was okay to play a bad note when I saw Larry Carlton six years ago. He broke his E string, and everybody was like 'Oh, no.' Then he took his clippers and clipped off the B and G strings and played a killer solo!"
In this classic GP interview, the session guitar and Toto king reveals how Carlton (especially his work on Steely Dan's Royal Scam) changed his view of what was possible within the confines of rock guitar playing
Billy Gibbons: “We went to the second change, but Lightnin’ was still in the first... Our bassist said, ‘Lightnin’, that’s where the second change is supposed to be, isn’t it?' Lightnin’ said, ‘Lightnin’ change when Lightnin’ want to change!’”
ZZ Top's main man and Johnny Winter recount their time backing Lightnin’ Hopkins, where they quickly learned that to accompany the blues legend meant doing things his way
John Lee Hooker: "Out of the Younger Generation of the Blues Singers, Who Was My Pride and Joy? Stevie Ray Vaughan... He Could Do Anybody – Albert King, Jimi Hendrix, George Benson – Anybody's Thing. I'd Sit Down and Watch Him Do That"
The bluesman who Miles Davis once described as the "funkiest man alive" discusses his love of B.B. King's signature Gibson, his most beloved Fender amps, and the guitarist who came closest to his style with GP in this 1992 interview.
"He Was Not Only a Great Rock and Roll Player, But in the Classics, and in Every Other Field, He Was Phenomenal": Ozzy Osbourne Shares His Fond Memories of Randy Rhoads in 1982 GP Interview
The Prince of Darkness discusses what he learned about music from Rhoads, and how the pioneering hard-rock guitarist would find a new guitar teacher in every town he played in, while Osbourne and the rest of his bandmates were "hunkered in the bar."
“We Could Take a Pretty Massive Dose and Hang in There for a While”: How LSD Influenced the Grateful Dead’s Music
From the Acid Tests and beyond
“I Am Just a Punk Kid Trying to Get a Sound Out of a Guitar That I Couldn't Buy Off the Rack”: a 23-Year-Old Eddie Van Halen Talks Building His Own Guitars
Screwdrivers, chisels, drills and chainsaws – the young prodigy reveals all in this amazing interview from the GP archive.
“I'm Just Like a Color Over the Top. He's the Solid Thing”: Angus Young on Malcolm Young and the Vital Chemistry of AC/DC
Read this classic Guitar Player interview with one half of the greatest guitar dueling brotherhood in hard rock history.
Watch John Lee Hooker Bringing the Blues to London in 1964
Video This historic BBC performance of “Boom Boom” helped turn a whole generation on to the blues.
Watch Lightnin’ Hopkins Play “the Best Blues Performance Ever”
Video Remembering the influential Texas bluesman born 110 years ago today with this archive gem featuring quotes from Johnny Winter, Billy Gibbons and more.
The Keith Richards Guide to Distortion
The Rolling Stone comes clean on distortion in this archive interview from the December 1992 issue of Guitar Player.
“People Don't Buy a Guitar Solo. They Buy a Song”: Steve Lukather Talks Soloing, Songwriting and Success
As ‘Toto IV’ hits 40 this year, we take a rummage through the vaults to bring you some classic Luke snippets.
