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The Latest Breaking News from Total Guitar

"My first guitar was a beat-up flamenco-style acoustic that my grandmother had in her closet": Slash, Jimmy Page and more remember the guitars that set them on the path to six-string immortality

We dive into some of our classic interviews to rediscover the stories of how famous players got started - featuring Slash, Jimmy Page, Stone Gossard, Albert Lee and more

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“I have probably modeled myself after that. I go, ‘Well B.B. did it, so I can do it!’” Slash reveals one of the biggest lessons he learned from his blues hero, B.B. King

Slash was into B.B. King's music before he even thought about picking up the guitar – and the blues great would have a huge impact on the Guns N' Roses guitarist's mindset and style

Guitar World

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“It was a quality instrument to learn on. Without my dad, who knows what kind of tree trunk I would’ve had”: You’ll never guess what guitar thrash metal pioneer Kerry King learned to play on

Kerry King’s first guitar is as far away from his hellishly barbed electric guitars as you can get

Guitar World

“I wish guitar players were more adventurous, but they’re just not. They seem like the most conservative people on the face of the planet”: Buzz Osborne has a piece of playing advice that every guitarist should listen to

Words of wisdom from Gene Simmons and author Flannery O'Connor have helped the Melvins maestro maintain his maverick sensibilities

Guitar World

“He gave me a bunch of pills... I could barely move my arm, so I could only play high up on the neck, and the first thing I did was that riff. I don't remember when I sang 'sex on fire'": The story of Kings of Leon's global smash

"One of the sound mixers walked in and said, ‘Sex on Fire', huh? And it just became a running joke..."

MusicRadar

“I would pick her out in a crowd... Like, ‘I know who that is,’ like David Gilmour”: Heart's Nancy Wilson says this “Clapton-type shredder” is her favorite contemporary guitarist

Nancy Wilson explains how the young guitarist has impressed her with her distinct conversational-type shredding

Guitar World

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“I thought, ‘OK, I’ll prove myself. I’m not a guy, so if I prove myself a little bit harder, then I might be noticed and taken seriously as a player’”: Nancy Wilson on the making of her acoustic masterpiece turned Instagram guitar staple

Nancy Wilson reveals Yes were a big songwriting inspiration behind 1980 acoustic classic Silver Wheels

Guitar World

“I was going for a sound where it’s like, ‘Is this person virtuosic, or do they totally suck?’ That’s kind of where I live”: St. Vincent on channeling Neil Young and embracing a less-is-more approach to guitar solos

St. Vincent took inspiration from one of Neil Young's “one note” solos on her new record, All Born Screaming

Guitar World

“If you want to bench press 200lbs, you start at 80... You should concentrate on performing with articulation at whatever speed it is”: Kerry King on how to master thrash metal speed riffing

In a new interview with Total Guitar, the Slayer axeman demystifies his approach to light-speed riffing, and reveals what he loves about AC/DC

Guitar World

“It should be – and usually is – pedal-first for us, because pedals can affect your playing so much”: Shoegaze heroes DIIV on how stompboxes formed the building blocks of their new album

After prioritizing pedals in their songwriting process, DIIV reveal how they manage to translate their studio sound to the stage

Guitar World

“There’s not a guitar teacher in the world that would ever teach anyone to play a guitar like that”: Buzz Osborne thinks Jimi Hendrix is one of the greatest guitarists ever – but says his technique was “wrong”

“Hendrix played weird!” says the Melvins maestro

Guitar World

“I’ve typically been afraid of Strats just because they carry so much baggage”: How a gift from Mike McCready helped change St. Vincent’s relationship with the Stratocaster

Listen to the song that St. Vincent reveals begged for a Strat moment

Guitar World

“You have to have your own sound, do it with authority and let it all hang out… If you do that you communicate with your guitar”: Duane Eddy reflects on his signature sound, hanging with Elvis and the story behind his go-to Gretsch

In this 2018 interview, available online for the first time, Eddy discusses the lessons learned as one of the founders of rock ‘n’ roll guitar

Guitar World

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Guitar World

“This disease won’t beat me and I will continue writing and playing for as long as I can”: Glenn Tipton explains how Richie Faulkner and a ‘no surrender’ mindset has helped him adapt his Judas Priest role

Tipton stepped back from official touring duties in 2018, but continues to write and record alongside Faulkner as a crucial member of Judas Priest

Guitar World

“It was found in the trunk of a car. They had sanded it to make it look like it wasn’t mine”: Tyler Bryant's stolen Pinky One Strat was played by Jeff Beck, inscribed by Steven Tyler – and, miraculously, returned to him five years after it was taken

The blues-rock guitarist recalls the loss – and remarkable recovery – of his most significant six-string

MusicRadar

"If we do this correctly, I think this could be one of the best blues songs ever!": How Joe Bonamassa and Kevin Shirley took an obscure Tim Curry track to a whole new level

"When I first heard it, I was really stricken by the guitar playing, and I was really taken by the whole vibe of it"

MusicRadar

“You can almost hear The Beatles influence and the Led Zeppelin influence at the front of the song”: How Dave Mustaine channelled unlikely influences for Megdeth's Hangar 18

"These were songs that I took with me to that first band – didn’t get a chance to get them out in my second band – but my third one I did”

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Guitar World

“It’s like Brian May walked over to his tone booth and just turned it up to 11!” Kirk Hammett names his favorite Queen song – and it’s a seriously deep cut

Metallica may have covered Stone Cold Crazy, but that’s not Hammett’s no. 1…

MusicRadar

"He wrote it for me, but the record company had the power to prevent any other record coming out and they said, ‘This is a number one smash: Beck doesn’t get this’”: The story of the Stevie Wonder and Jeff Beck connection

Denied the song Stevie Wonder wrote for him, he instead gifted the guitarist a composition that would inspire one of his greatest performances

Guitar World

“Freddie was a good riffmeister! He was a devotee of Jimi Hendrix. People think he was just concerned with the lighter stuff but it’s not true. He did enjoy the heavy stuff”: Brian May reveals the inside stories behind 13 classic Queen tracks

In a world-exclusive interview, Brian May takes you behind the scenes of the making of 13 iconic Queen cuts, and reveals what inspired his magical guitar playing in Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer Queen, Don’t Stop Me Now and many more

MusicRadar

“It was just another riff, like Into The Fire. We didn’t make a big deal out of it and it wasn’t being considered as a track for the album": Ian Gillan on the unlikely success story of writing and recording Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water

"The downdraft from the mountains caused the smoke to blow across Lake Geneva, like a film set or dry ice on a stage show. At this point, Roger wrote the words ‘smoke on the water’ on a napkin”

Guitar World

“To me, those are blues machines”: Joe Bonamassa picks his three quintessential guitars for playing the blues – and names his “Les Paul killers”

Bonamassa has one of the most expansive guitar collections around, but if he had to choose, which models would he select as the best bits of kit for playing blues?

MusicRadar

“I know Pagey made me mix the outro section half a dozen times: ‘Not enough of me, dear boy! Not enough of me, make me louder!’” – Andy Johns on the challenges of engineering Led Zeppelin's Rock And Roll

In 2011 the acclaimed engineer revealed some of the realities behind making Led Zeppelin IV: "John’s got his hi-hat nearly all the way open and that was bleeding all over the place"

Guitar World

“It was so destroyed you could take the paint off with your hands”: How Rich Robinson brought his ’68 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop back from the brink after Hurricane Sandy

The Black Crowes guitarist says his restored LP is a rare example of an instrument that (eventually) came back stronger following the 2012 disaster

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