Def Leppard guitar champ Phil Collen recently sat down with Music Radar to jot down 10 guitarist that made a life-changing impact on him.
1. Richie Blackmore
“He’s the reason I ended up picking up the guitar! My cousin took me to see Deep Purple at the Brixton Sundown, which is the Academy now, on the ‘Machine Head’ tour – so they were doing ‘Highway Star,’ ‘Smoke on the Water,’ all that stuff. We got in on the front row, right against the stage, and they blew my mind…”
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2. Jimi Hendrix
“My all-time favorite guitarist, at least for the last few years, has been Hendrix. I don’t think anyone’s gotten close to him. He was the first real electric rock player – it’s funny when people try to copy him and completely miss the point. Again, he was a blues player at heart, but there was funk, soul and other stuff going on too.”
3. Jimmy Page
“Again, it’s another blues-based guitar player. Led Zeppelin were a blues band… just a very loud one! Someone said they were the first heavy metal band, there was a review in the ’60s that described the noise as heavy metal.”
4. Mick Ronson
“I was a huge Bowie fan around the age of 14. It’s that time when the brain is forming, you start doing your own thing like getting into band. My cousin got me into Hendrix, Purple, Floyd, Zeppelin… but the stuff I was more naturally into was the glam rock thing.”
5. Michael Schenker
“Michael Schenker was and still is a huge deal to me. Like Mick Ronson, he’s another guy that I really notice in my playing when I pick a guitar up. Especially when it comes to feel and vibrato, he’s one of the magical few that just has everything spot-on.”
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6. Brian May
“Another guy that I think is really underrated, Brian is a team player which is really important, as I tend to find a lot of guitarists seem to forget that. He took it to another level and created a whole new style of rock guitar.”
7. Eddie Van Halen
“Like anyone when they first heard him, my jaw hit the floor and I was wondering, ‘What the fuck is that all about?!'”
8. Al Di Meola
“I saw him on the Old Grey Whistle Test or something similar when he was 21, playing with Return to Forever. I was like, ‘Shit, look at that picking technique!’ I’d never seen anyone do it that clean before and I probably haven’t since.”
9. Gary Moore
“I could keep going forever with this list… but Gary is one of my favorites that had it all – the tone, the vibrato, the technique, the speed, the passion, everything. When he played the blues, it always sounded great.”
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10. Pete Townshend
“When you listen to Pete, it’s like hearing real man guitar playing! [Laughs] The windmill and power behind each chord on those Who songs is pretty mind-blowing.”
11. Jeff Beck
“No one plays like Jeff Beck. Still, after all these years, he is very much his own thing and has been a huge influence. I got into BB King and all the older blues guys like Buddy Guy because of the musicians on this list, and Jeff is no exception.”