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February 2026

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28 articles

February 14
- “There are babes jumping up and down. I’m going, ‘That guy's copping my song.’ And then I realized it was me!” Bonnie Raitt on learning her guitar work was the theme for the hit TV show ‘Baywatch’
February 13
- “Zakk, why am I alive?” Zakk Wylde on his favorite untold Ozzy Osbourne story
February 12
- “I didn’t have the money, but I said, ‘I want it.’ Now it’s worth millions.” Andy Summers on the history-making $200 guitar behind the Police’s biggest hits
February 11
- “It’s blasphemous to put a whammy bar on a Les Paul? Screw you! I’ll do what I want.” Steve Vai on the radical guitar mods he learned from Frank Zappa — from a torched Jimi Hendrix Strat to the birth of the JEM
- “Tony's locked away with his bag of Quaaludes. Bill’s come to fire me, and he's got a can of Budweiser...” Ozzy Osbourne on cocaine, conflict and the bitter irony of being fired from Black Sabbath
- “One of your sound guys told me to turn down earlier.” Jack White on the priceless advice Prince gave him
February 10
- “The shop assistant said, ‘I could phone up Eric Clapton and he’d come and buy it.’” Robert Fripp on a briefcase of cash, a music store showdown and the ’59 Les Paul Custom that powered King Crimson’s most radical music.
- “I said, ‘I’ll only do it if we can get Glenn’s son. I wanted the blood.’” Don Henley on loss, legacy and the end of the Eagles
- “I thought, What would be the worst thing a criminal could do?” Johnny Cash on the true story behind his infamous signature song
February 9
- Win tickets to see Warren Haynes perform on his “Winter of Warren” solo tour at Guitar Player Presents
February 8
- “I looked down and saw the second finger of my left hand dangling by a thread.” Dr. John on the fight that nearly killed his guitar-playing dreams — and set him on a new path to music immortality
February 7
- “I kicked him in the wrist as hard as I could. I know I broke it, because I used to wear these great big platform shoes onstage.” Lita Ford on the Runaways, rock and roll — and what happens to hecklers who get in her face
- “He said, ‘You S.O.B., you got to me on that Telecaster. You got that so cheap.’” Vince Gill on how he found the instrument he calls “the definitive guitar in my life”
February 6
- “The critics hate my records. They’ll review cats like Santana and Eric Clapton and give them more credit and recognition.” George Benson on fame, freedom — and why jazz only forgives you when you’re broke
- “Are you effing kidding me? He's one of the only guitarists that you can identify with one note.” As he releases ‘B.B. King’s Blues Summit 100,’ Joe Bonamassa relects on the most overlooked aspect of the King’s guitar genius
February 5
- “I went, ‘Oh no! If my dad sees this, he's gonna kill me!’” Geezer Butler on the Black Sabbath album cover that made him to leave home in fear for his life
- “Dylan loved it. It didn’t get better than that.” Alice Cooper on his teen-rebellion anthem that won Bob Dylan’s stamp of approval
- “People don’t realize how important they are and how they just changed the world.” Jack White on the difference between blues and rock guitarists
February 4
- “That is partly the reason, but he also had a bit of aggravation.” Yardbirds drummer Jim McCarty on the other reason Eric Clapton left the group to join John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers
- “Our first two albums were dismal failures. So we doubled our efforts.” Scott Gorham on the power of harmony guitars and Thin Lizzy’s ‘Jailbreak’ success
February 3
- “I asked the organ grinder, ‘Can I borrow your monkey for a moment?’” Photographer Richard E. Aaron on how a late-night Lynyrd Skynyrd party and a Jack Daniel’s–chugging chimp made rock history
- “Please don’t turn into Yngwie Malmsteen or Joe Satriani!” Ian Anderson on how he nurtured the soloing talents of Jethro Tull’s new guitarist
- “We got the song in three takes, on one track, for 57 bucks. Isn’t God wonderful?” Guitar legend Link Wray on the hit that introduced distortion to rock and roll, inspired Jimmy Page to play guitar — and caused public outrage
- “They were not talking to each other at all.” How Steve Lillywhite made a Platinum album with the Rolling Stones in the midst of Keith Richards’ and Mick Jagger’s darkest moment
February 2
- “When I did it, it sounded like a bunch of cats fighting.” Johnny Rzeznik on his number-one regret about the Goo Goo Dolls’ biggest hit song
- “We f**king love you, Ozzy!” Slash, Andrew Watt, Duff McKagan, Chad Smith and Post Malone honor Ozzy Osbourne with a show-stopping all-star performance of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” at the Grammys
February 1
- “He goes, ‘I play a little. I'm a hillbilly.’ Whips out his flatpick, man, and wailed on it.” How a devastating childhood accident and chance encounters with legends helped Ry Cooder become one of guitar’s most influential stylists
- “America is a dangerous place at the moment.” Brian May says Queen will not perform in the U.S. “Everyone is thinking twice”