Imagine having your guitar heroes answer all your questions while revealing their tone and technique secrets up close and personal where you can witness every minute detail about their how their hands work magic on key instruments, amps, and effects. Such is the enviable position of YouTube sensation Rick Beato.
His deep-dive interviews include a crazy range of players representing all ages and genres including David Gilmour, Billy Strings, Derek Trucks, Brian May, John Fogerty, George Benson, Matteo Mancuso, Al Di Meola, Tommy Emmanuel, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Mateus Asato, Pat Metheny, Steve Lukather, Yngwie Malmsteen, Nuno Bettencourt and Neal Schon.
Beato rarely performs live, so when he made a rare appearance in San Francisco we did a Guitar Player Presents promotion and sat down with him person to see what we could learn.
On David Gilmour and Neal Schon
“Sitting down with Gilmour was unbelievable because he played through all the original gear that he used on all these famous records,” Beato reports. “When you hear that Binson Echorec and he’s using his whammy bar and everything it sounds so pristine. He was playing through like five different amplifiers set up right near me.
“I sat two feet away from Gilmour, and when I watched David play I realized that he’s got massively big fingers. With some of this stuff it’s like, “How did I not notice that before?
“Another one is Neal Schon, who I just sat down with for an interview. I’ve watched Neal play a thousand times, but you can’t tell what people are doing unless you’re right next to them. For example, he showed me how he holds his pick and kind of uses it at an angle.
“He told me that his first guitar teacher drew a circle on the pickguard of his Les Paul and instructed him to keep his pinkie inside that circle. His picking chops are sick, he just rips, but he’s so relaxed no matter how fast it goes. He could always do that, but watching him up close you really get a feel for it.”
The Eric Johnson Effect
Beato is an proficient guitar player in his own right who wields his signature Gibson Les Paul Special Double Cut electric guitar in his highly-educational videos where he often breaks down the licks of his favorite players. Beato leans on 63 years of life experience that gives him a long lens through which to view the guitar universe. For example, in a video called “Why Are Guitar Players Clueless About Music?” Beato describes the “Eric Johnson Effect.”
“In that instance I’m talking about his use of spread triads on the intro to ‘Cliffs of Dover,’ he explains. “When guitar players hear that, they immediately reference Eric Johnson, even though I learned it from Pat Metheny’s Bright Sized Life album that came out in 1975. He uses spread triads all over the place, and Bach was doing this stuff 300 years ago.
“But people always talk from their point of reference. And if the only player they’ve heard to that is Eric Johnson, that’s totally cool. I’m glad that they’ve actually heard it from Eric Johnson. It’s important to talk about these things, and for me, to know the origins of some of these ideas.
Beato has an extensive background playing jazz, and one of his personal missions is to keep the genre’s guitar greats in the larger musical conversation, especially as they seem to fall off contemporary Best Guitarist lists.
Beato tells GP, “Whenever I do some type of guitar list I'll always throw in a jazz guy or fusion guy such as Pat Metheny, Larry Carlton, Frank Gambale, Joe Pass, George Benson or Allan Holdsworth. I think it’s important to keep reinforcing these things, especially to rock players that might not even know any of these names. I try to use my YouTube channel to do as much as I can to keep the legacy of incredible musicians alive.”
On Billy Strings, Mateus Asato and other young players
The gray-haired guru may be a bit jaded about the state of pop music, but not at all about the current guitar landscape. In fact, he bristles with optimism when talking about the young guns ripping up the modern guitar landscape, citing advances in technology for giving them a leg up on past legends.
“Young players have the advantage of growing up with great ways to learn like YouTube where you can watch the actual artists play their stuff. Billy Strings is amazing. Mateus Asato. Matteo Mancuso. Tim Henson. Tosin Abasi. These guys are all phenomenal and can play insane stuff. The greatest technical players are alive right now.”
Beato has worked practically every gig in the music business. He was in a band called Billionaire that got a record deal in the late ’90s but got dropped quickly after selling poorly. He did better behind the scenes as a record producer and a songwriting collaborator before major label budgets dried up when streaming hit.
On Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and other bucket listers
Beato landed well on his feet with his current gig as a YouTube content creator. His channel launched in 2015, and now he’s got about six million subscribers. The freedom to create content about whatever he finds interesting allows him to cultivate his greatest strength as a highly informed educator and interviewer.
There was a recent scare when Beato underwent open-heart surgery in July 2024. He made a quick recovery, and it gave him a big picture perspective. He doesn’t take his good fortune for granted, and has his sights set on getting as many iconic interviews in the can while he can.
“I’d love to interview Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend and Paul McCartney,” Beato reports. “I learn things from every interview because I ask about the things I want to know. I always talk about music, and I ask the questions that musicians want the answers to. It’s kind of like when I used to teach lessons, I’d tell my friends that I learn more than the students learn.”
