Six-string heroes: Slash’s favourite guitarists of all time
The mercurial guitarist Saul Hudson is better known to his fans and everyone else who hasn’t been living under a rock as the one and only, Slash. One part of the generation-defining band Guns N’ Roses, Slash also found fame as one of his era’s greatest guitarists of all time. As able to deliver magnetic solos as he was powerhouse riffs, the six-string maestro soon became a generation’s defining guitar hero.
A swashbuckling performer capable of melting your mind and turning sane people into lose-their-shit fans within a few licks. However, like all musicians, it didn’t all happen by accident. Slash had to dedicate himself to the craft and would achieve his unbridled success through the meticulous practice it takes to master his instrument. But he also needed inspiration, and while there were certainly some non-guitarists who would have influenced Slash, it was the commanders of the six-string that truly grabbed his attention.
The son of legendary rock costume designer Ola Hudson, Slash was always likely to jump on the highway to hell and pick up as much rock and roll road rash as he could along the way. His early adoption of the devil’s music meant he was always destined to be a guitar hero himself. The fact that he seemed to possess, alongside a hefty dose of determination, the same God-given style that saw his own heroes flourish, Slash would always be a guitar god of sorts.
The list of Slash’s favourite guitarists includes the crème de la crème of the instrument and a team of players who deserve their place on his pedestal. Whether it is a searing solo ability or the talent to make normal riffs feel magnetic, Slash has covered some of the greatest players of all time.
The first name on the list is likely one of the first names in most people’s collections: the incredible talent of Jeff Beck. While many of the mentioned guitarists are happiest when performing in the rock arena, Beck is content to provide the tunes for any genre or sub-genre you can think of. Slash even declared one of Beck’s solos to be his favourite of all time.
He may not have had the public acclaim as some of his contemporaries, but among other players, there was nobody more able. “‘There’s a song called ‘Come Dancing’ on the Jeff Beck record Wired,” Slash once said. “I mean there’s so many great guitar solo’s but that one was one I remember picking up on when I was a kid and going wow that was fucking awesome,” he added with high praise.
In addition to including artists such as Queen’s Brian May, the proverbial guitar idiot Ted Nugent, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Slash also picked out arguably one of the most underrated guitarists of all time: Rory Gallagher. That’s not to say the Irish blues musician wasn’t appreciated by his contemporaries, but they seemed to be the only ones who paid attention to him.
Often cited as Jimi Hendrix’s favourite guitarist of all time, Gallagher’s name rightly belongs in the pantheon of rock. Sitting alongside him is, of course, Jimi Hendrix. Arguably the most heavily influential guitarist in history, Slash is full of admiration for the left-handed player: “He was the pioneer for electric lead guitar,” Slash told NewsHub, “Even the guys before him — like Clapton and Beck and all that — but the thing about Jimi is he came along and he was definitely the primal wild man, shit coming out of his pores”.
He added: “It was the extremes of all the different nuances that all the different guitar players before him had and just coming out in droves and saying it in a certain way that was uniquely Jimi and nobody else. Jimi’s still the man. It’s funny because you hear about him so much but he was that great. And his material stands the test of time all these years later.”
Another Slash favourite is Eric Clapton, an icon of the instrument and likely a big name during Slash’s early childhood living in London. Clapton was one of the most influential players of his day working with Cream, among other acts and while speaking to Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones, Slash shared his thoughts on the band, “Cream had a hell of a lot to do with it, Derek and the Dominoes was really good, and there’s a bunch of cool stuff that he [Clapton] did,” he said.
Slash, talking about his five favourite guitar heroes with Jones, explained: “Clapton, Keith Richards, Mick Taylor, I’m gonna put the guys from Aerosmith in as one [laughs], and Jeff Beck, it’s hard to do it in five ya know. I put Keith in their and Mick Taylor for sure, Keith’s a big one but then there’s Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix, and I could go on and on, ya know.”
Across countless interviews, Slash has done just that, selecting reams of different favourite guitarists for different occasions. However, The Rolling Stones duo of Mick Taylor and Keith Richards will always be special for him. In fact, they feature on his favourite albums of all time, “I was going to name a favourite record that has been a favourite for all my life it would probably be either Beggars Banquet or Let It Bleed from the [Rolling] Stones,” said the guitarist. It’s arguably The Rolling Stones’ ultimate moment in the sun.
But for a more significant run of his favourite Stones records, Slash continued: “Actually, Sticky Fingers, Let It Bleed, Beggars Banquet, Exile on Main St. — those four records in a row are pretty much my favourite music of all time,” he added.
While many of the guitarists mentioned are from the past, perhaps operating as Slash’s greatest influences, there is one performer on the list who is almost a contemporary of Guns ‘N’ Roses, Eddie Van Halen. According to Slash, he’s a guitarist who has had a huge impact on music: “I’m a huge fan of Eddie as a person and player. And I loved [1978’s] Van Halen when it first came out. That style that he did, I’ve always thought that was something that he did, and nobody else did it like him. And then it became a thing.”
Looking back, it’s easy to see how Slash evolved into the virtuoso guitarist we know and love today. Unlike any other guitarist in history, Slash was nurtured in the nursery of rock ‘n’ roll. His list of favourite guitarists reveals his willingness to act as a magpie, carefully picking and choosing the shiniest elements of each player’s style. From a very young age, Slash had an education in performance and panache, and it’s something he has taken to all of his work ever since. If one man is a student of rock, then it’s Slash, and here he’s offering the next guitarists a little bit of extra-curriculum reading we should all dive into.
Slash’s favourite guitarists:
- Jeff Beck
- Rory Gallagher
- Ted Nugent
- Joe Perry
- Mick Taylor
- Jimmy Page
- Keith Richards
- Jimi Hendrix
- Brian May
- Billy Gibbons
- David Gilmour
- Angus Young
- Eddie Van Halen
- Elliot Easton
- Joe Walsh
- Eric Clapton
