The “tastiest” blues guitarist Slash ever heard: “Rhythm, blues, and electric-blues”
You can draw a line from some genres and trace a sound all the way back to its origins. In the case of rock, start tracing, and you’ll find yourself at the blues.
Every rock guitarist that you’re a fan of was at some moment in time inspired by the blues. The genre was built upon relatively simple chord progressions, and then having musicians find themselves within those chord progressions. It was made for improvisation in the most romantic and heartbreaking sense, and the music which came out of the genre helped to create what we now know as rock.
While some guitarists have been happy to change the way they play and lean more into the versatile playing style that comes with various subgenres of rock music, others have decided to continue celebrating the idea of the blues; take, for instance, someone like Billy Gibbons, who truly celebrated the blues with his band ZZ Top, which injected bits of funk and exuberance into the genre but still very much championed the essence of that timeless sound.
Gibbons was always adamant that you didn’t need to overcomplicate sounds. He was very much committed to the romantic style of playing, where as long as you are performing with passion and allow your emotions to run through every single note, you’ll make something which is worth listening to. He didn’t see anything wrong with a three-chord song, and some of the best tracks he ever created were the by-product of this idea.
“There’s a secret language to the blues,” said Gibbons when he was talking about the genre he has dedicated his life to. “You need to say it without saying it! There is a mystique in the poetry and in those simple three chords that have been stretched every which way.”
He spoke about seeing BB King perform and how there were some solos he would play that didn’t consist of more than two notes, but it was the way he played those notes which truly resonated. That’s the power of the blues, and while a lot of rock guitarists moved away from the blues and went for sounds more over the top and complicated, many still adored this style of playing and the talent which is necessary for someone to be a great blues musician. Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash certainly wasn’t a blues musician, but he loved the work of Billy Gibbons.
“Billy is somebody I know,” said the aviator, sporting, top hat-wearing musician. “But first and foremost, way, way before I ever actually met him, he was one of the tastiest sort of rhythm, blues, and electric-blues guitarists who I ever heard.”
The two guitarists met in the ‘80s, and despite playing different styles, they hit it off over their love of rock music. They’ve shared the stage on more than one occasion, and Gibbons set aside his love of blues to give Slash and his hard rock offerings some love. Good music is good music regardless of whose listening, and both Gibbons and Slash are well suited to appreciate that.
“He’s kind of unmistakable. I guess he figured we were connected and latched onto all things ‘six-string’ in very short order,” recalled Gibbons. “We’ve knocked around pretty much ever since. I’d place that encounter somewhere in the late ’80s when Appetite was making some noise. Truly a sympatico cat if ever there was one.”
