The guitarist Joe Walsh called the coolest ever: “This mad scientist that played the guitar”
Joe Walsh was never the kind of musician looking to wipe the floor with his competition. He was the kind of fun-loving guy who was more than happy to have a job playing music with his friends, and as long as there was a good tune behind him, that was all that mattered. Reaching the top of the mountain takes more than just good songs. It’s about having swagger, and as far as Joe Walsh could tell, Les Paul had some of the greatest moves in the business.
Then again, Walsh was certainly no slouch when he first got started. The James Gang had helped get millions of people to something a little heavier than The Beatles in the late 1960s, and very few guitarists can make a band look 99% more cool as Walsh did once he joined the Eagles. But a few good licks are never quite good enough to make someone a superstar.
As much as Walsh loved practising his guitar, Les Paul was more interested in the instrument’s potential beyond rock and roll. Before the genre even had a name, Paul was always experimenting with the different tones he could achieve with his instrument, usually working alongside Mary Ford to showcase his capabilities.
In fact, looking back at some of the footage, a few of the moves that came from guitar heroes later is what Paul ended up doing. Looking at some of the more intricate solos that he did, you can see him doing various hammer-ons and comically holding up his picking hand, which is practically the go-to sign for any guitarist looking to get a cheap round of applause from their audience.
But no matter how many notes he managed to play, every tune always had a great sense of melody. Paul knew early on that it was no use shredding if he had nothing to say, and listening back on his interpretations of classic tunes, he knew not to play 20 to 50 notes at a time when just two or three would do the job.
Above all else, though, Walsh loved Paul for his resilience whenever he played, telling Rolling Stone, “He was one of the coolest people on the planet. I got a chance to hang out with him, and he was like this mad scientist that played guitar. He was in a car accident, and they said, ‘You’ll never play guitar again because he broke his arm in about four different places. He sat down, started playing and said, ‘Alright, set my arm like this. Put the cast on now.’ And he played great.”
Beyond just being a musician, that kind of resilience has carried Walsh through every phase of his career. Despite enduring the loss of his child, Emma, and eventually becoming strung out on drugs, the fact that he’s still among the living today and playing just as well as he used to comes from those lessons that Paul taught him.
Outside of the music business being incredibly sleazy, Les Paul was one of the few who genuinely wanted to make the world a better place through his music. And by his signature Gibson models, he created the handbook that every other guitarist has studied for years.
