Music is all about leadership and there ain't really a lot of leaders.
As for my band, well, my mentors were Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Jimmie Lunceford, and no one had a band more smartly dressed than Duke.
Basically, everything I've learned on guitar, I've learned from listening to my favorite albums. I never had any formal training. My teachers were Dimebag Darrell and Slash and the guys in Rancid and Slayer.
The musicians I respected were much older than me. I expected them to cut my head, and they did.
My idol has been Franco Corelli. But every singer can teach you something.
The thing about influence is that any composer worth anything will give you the same names.
My biggest musical influences are probably my parents.
It's wonderful to read interviews by old blues guys - they talk about all their influences, they talk about who taught them how to play, and who they saw, and how they were determined to play that way.
I don't think I ever modeled myself after a singer. I've more or less copied the styles of horn-tooters right from the start.
