Player archive

December 2024

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24 articles

December 31
- “Listen, I’ve actually sat in a room with her and a guitar, watching those tiny hands finding all these weird jazz chords. She made it look so effortless.” Watch Amy Winehouse stun audiences with her voice and a Stratocaster
December 29
- “There was a deadly silence for what seemed like ages.” Ralph McTell scored a hit with his classic “Streets of London.” It only took him 10 years — and three recordings
December 28
- “I wrote two songs that should have gone into the dustbin. They turned out to be my biggest hits.” The guitarist behind a pair of classic-rock gems says he’s just a strummer who thinks of himself as a jingle writer
December 27
- “When I got the role of Keith Partridge, they knew I could play and sing because I played 'Voodoo Child' before my screen test.” David Cassidy on seeing Hendrix, learning from the session guitar greats, and jamming with John Lennon and Paul McCartney
December 25
- "I thought it was about the lamest song I ever wrote in my life.” Eddie Van Halen on guitar solos, the music teacher who slapped his face, and his all-time worst song
December 21
- "By the time he was finished with me he wasn’t playing very well at all, because he didn’t feel like it." John Mayall recalls Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor in Guitar Player's December 1970 issue
December 18
- “The guitar's not even in tune. But we liked the sound.” Randy Bachman tells us how a throwaway song with an inside joke gave him a hit even bigger than "Takin' Care of Business"
December 17
- "Ozzy took a look around and said, ‘You’re joking aren’t you?’ I said, ‘It’s a lot nicer on the inside.' " Zakk Wylde cracks us up with tales of Ozzy as he reveals the stories behind his greatest tracks
December 16
- "We got the wrong producer. But it's the song that changed everything for us. We would have never done as well otherwise." Guitarist Billy Duffy tells the story behind the song that gave the Cult a second life
- “I still can’t believe Stevie got killed. Imagine how that felt when I was calling up my mother to tell her. I’m still in denial about it." Jimmie Vaughan on the pain that lingers from Stevie Ray Vaughan's death
December 15
- “If you're playing with a flatpick full-time, you're only half playing the guitar.” Rory Gallagher delivers a master class in blues in Guitar Player’s 1978 interview
December 14
- "Anytime I would move to another guitar, I would just be annoyed by it." Derek Trucks explains why the Gibson SG is the best guitar for him
- “I’d probably have practiced a little more If I knew I was going to affect that many people’s lives.” Ace Frehley takes us behind the scenes of five classic Kiss cuts
December 13
- “It wasn't until we listened back to it that we realized, ‘Holy s***, this song's really got something.'” Robbie Robertson told us how one simple change helped the Band save "The Weight" from oblivion
- “I took from the best and tossed in little bits of myself. Before long, it started to sound like me.” Eric Gales shares his secret for developing your own guitar style
December 12
- "I said, ‘It’s just a guitar riff.’ He goes, ‘You should write a song with that. It’s catchy.’” Tossed off as a B-side, this 1974 classic-rock gem became a number-one hit
December 10
- Who is Chris Herin and why are Peter Frampton, Alex Lifeson and Martin Barre playing lead guitar on his new album?
- “When she died, she was literally the last person I had in my life. I fell apart. I didn't care anymore.” Chris Impellitteri nearly gave up when tragedies took his family. Guitar kept him alive
December 9
- "He'd been given the guitar for his 16th birthday and obviously didn't want it. I took one look and said, ‘Thanks, I'll have it!’ " Phil Manzanera on his Roxy Music Firebird, "Love Is the Drug" 1951 Tele and other favorite guitars
December 6
- “Eddie told us that he copied that style from listening to us. He was a big fan of the band and came to see us play regularly.” Rick Derringer recalls a young Eddie Van Halen and performing with Johnny Winter
December 2
- “They said, 'You've got to do it,' but I'm so glad they did. It became my biggest song.” The guitarist behind a power-pop gem almost let his hit single pass him by
- “I thought, Why do they want me in the front row?” Ritchie Blackmore on Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and the time Ian Anderson pranked him at a Jethro Tull concert
- “It was the first time we ever made money. We bought one Mesa/Boogie Mark IV and shared it between ourselves in the studio.” How the Offspring made the number-one indie-rock record of all time with two guitars and one amp
December 1
- “Front to back, it’s an amazing guitar album. It made me want to drive 95 miles per hour, and then I went out and did it." Samantha Fish talks Guns N' Roses, B.B. King and the 10 albums that changed her life