Player archive

April 2025

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19 articles

April 25
- “Occasionally one comes my way, and I’m like, 'Yeah, that needs to happen.’ This was one of those cases.” Samantha Fish on the guitar that became the heart and soul of her new album, ‘Paper Doll’
- Elvis Presley and The Stones covered his songs, Albert King played drums in his band and Bob Dylan wrote a song about him. Two months before his death, Jimmy Reed told us his story in his own words
April 24
- "We were all very serious – guitar battles and everything…" Interviewed in late 1976, just prior to their split, The Band's Robbie Robertson and Rick Danko look back
April 23
- "Slide? I flipped the bird a lot when I was a kid, so I just naturally put that to use…" Bonnie Raitt started out driving Son House and Skip James to festivals – then she became the biggest female slide player around
April 22
- "Very few people can play fast and put feeling into it. A lot of it is just cold technique…" Peter Frampton: The Guitar Player Interview
April 20
- "I thought, 'Jeez, how the hell did he do that?'" Phil Manzanera on the tone, tuning and technique of his teenage friend David Gilmour
April 18
- “He goes, ‘Play, boy,’ in that very southern way. I start taking my solo, sweating: ‘He’s going to hit me! I know it’s coming.’” How Jerry Lee Lewis terrorized Rory Gallagher, Dave Davies and Ritchie Blackmore
April 14
- “He used to send me to my room to practice my vibrato.” His father is the late Irish blues guitar great Gary Moore. But Jack Moore is cutting his own path with a Les Paul in his hands
- "Get off the stage!" The time Carlos Santana picked a fight with Kiss bassist Gene Simmons and caused one of the guitar world's strangest feuds
April 13
- “It’s a special kind of moment when you hit that first note of a solo and you literally get nothing.” He’s played with David Bowie and the Cure, but Reeves Gabrels says things don’t always go right, even for the pros
April 11
- "When they left town, I went to the airport and got to meet Ritchie, and he thanked me for covering for him." Christopher Cross recalls filling in for a sick Ritchie Blackmore on Deep Purple's first-ever show in the U.S.
- “I’m still playing but I’m covered in blood. Billy’s looking at me like, ‘Yeah! That’s punk rock!'” Steve Stevens on his all-time worst gig with Billy Idol — and the visit to Jimi Hendrix's grave that never happened
April 7
- “Write for five minutes a day. I mean, who can’t manage that?” Mike Stern's top five guitar tips include one simple fix to help you develop your personal guitar style
April 6
- “The looping show is high anxiety for me. The only time I get to relax is when I’m soloing.” Johnny A. walks us through his song-based live looping strategy as he demonstrates his guitar rig
April 5
- "Bird just grinned. He’d never heard a guitar played like that!" George Freeman, onetime guitarist for Charlie Parker, has died at age 97. Read our 2024 interview with the jazz icon
- "It’s as if all of Jeff Beck’s genius is right here on one album. There’s a taste of everything.” Joe Perry riffs on Beck, the Yardbirds and "The 10 Records That Changed My Life"
April 4
- "It was in the early days of wireless guitars. I went to the bathroom but didn't have time to take my guitar off, and the sound was coming back through the amp." Squeeze guitarist Glenn Tilbrook reveals his best and worst gigs of all time
April 3
- “I did the dumbest thing and pointed it at the audience. When I turned around, flames were shooting into the crowd.” Kane Roberts on the time he nearly set Alice Cooper's audience on fire with his flame-throwing machine-gun guitar
April 1
- “It’s all been building up to 8 p.m. when the lights go down and the crowd roars.” Tommy Emmanuel shares his gig-day guitar routine, from sun-up to show time