Players archive

July 2026

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22 articles

July 28
- “I sent him a postcard: ‘You gotta get out of Winnipeg.’ So he went to Thunder Bay, met Stephen Stills and started Buffalo Springfield.” Randy Bachman on sharing guitars and amps with Neil Young as rock and roll upstarts
July 24
- “He said, ‘I ain’t going to let you see a thing!’” Buddy Guy on the blues giant who turned his back on him — and the hilarious reality check that followed
July 23
- “I saw blood everywhere. But I kept going because I knew there were 12 guys down there I wanted to meet.” Tommy Emmanuel says a fatal gang fight triggered a lockdown before his gig at San Quentin Prison. He went on anyway
- “The world is filled with blues lawyers playing ’59 Les Pauls and clowns like Steven Seagal playing beefed-up pentatonics.” Eric Clapton’s Beano album just turned 60, but you’re still missing the point of what Slowhand achieved
- “Listen, I’ve actually sat in a room with her and a guitar, watching those tiny hands. She made it look so effortless.” Watch Amy Winehouse stun audiences with her voice and a Stratocaster
July 22
- “Ozzy requested a remote switch so he could turn the pedalboard off from the next hotel room.” Randy Rhoads’ constant practice drove Ozzy Osbourne crazy. The solution? A tiny pedalboard designed to please them both
July 21
- “I just don’t think he is a good guitarist.” Ronnie Montrose offered a brutal assessment of Sammy Hagar two years before he joined Van Halen. But Sammy had the last laugh
- “I had a dream where Chet came out with his red guitar, and he showed me how.” Tommy Emmanuel on the guitar hero who became a father figure after his dad died
July 20
- “He strapped it on and started jerking and pulling on the neck. He goes, ‘Where’s the B-Bender?” Vince Gill explains how his fingers became the secret to the Telecaster sound that fooled a steel guitarist
July 19
- “It ended up being the last song we recorded. I didn’t even know if we were going to record it.” How Peter Gabriel’s breakthrough solo hit “Solsbury Hill” was recorded with just hours to spare
July 18
- “He said, ‘This is Eric Clapton. This may sound like a hoax but it’s not.’ I was like, ‘What is going on?’” Derek Trucks reveals the voicemail that launched his professional relationship with Slowhand
July 14
- “It was a spiritual download that just flowed through me.” John Lennon played it on repeat. Frank Sinatra called it the best song of the 1970s. How a simple C9 chord inspired a timeless top-10 hit
July 13
- “He was singing like Bob Dylan. And his two guitar players were horrible.” Don Felder on helping out Tom Petty, recording with Joni Mitchell and writing the Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’ solo with Joe Walsh
- “It just took me back to high school.” Nita Strauss reveals why Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979” made her burst into tears — and how she reinvented it on guitar for the group’s upcoming tribute album
July 10
- “The time to stop is when you can't do it anymore. There's no passing of the goddamn torch…" Keith Richards: The Guitar Player Interview, 1983
July 9
- "Joe Satriani and Eddie Van Halen are genius guitar players. But I can't relate to it." Neil Young on why guitar virtuosos and music schools doomed the future of rock — and why one note is enough
July 8
- “Duane was sitting on the floor playing slide with this Coricidin bottle. I said, ‘How do you do that?’” Don Felder on the moment Duane Allman showed him how to play slide guitar
July 7
- “I was nervous for about a minute. And then I said, ‘Forget it’” Steve Vai on replacing Eddie Van Halen as David Lee Roth’s guitar foil for ‘Eat ‘Em and Smile’
- The Beatles debuted All You Need Is Love live to an audience of 400 million. Is it any wonder George fluffed his solo?
July 6
- "I hit it with a hammer…" How J.J. Cale created one of the craziest guitars you'll ever see
- “We realized we were a better live band than studio outfit. A light bulb finally went off: We need to make a live album.” Dickey Betts and Gregg Allman reveal the complete story behind rock’s definitive live album
July 1
- He changed electric guitar forever — and did it all in just two-and-a-half years before his death at 25