But then there was Hendrix, man. Jimi was really the last cat to freak me. Jimi was playing all the stuff I had in my head. I couldn't believe it, when I first heard him. Man, no one can ever do what he did with a guitar. No one can ever take his place.
After I made 'Oh Carolina' in the 1990s, the record company wanted me to copy that sound, and I refused.
Steve Vai had a unique style of playing. Steve Vai didn't sound like anyone else: Steve Vai sounded like Steve Vai.
I like the wildness of Buddy Guy.
I think guitar-wise, Eric Clapton was a big influence on me. I got to spend time around him. He's kind of strange, mysterious, serious and he always has played such hot guitar.
It's hard to say this about a guy like Eddie Van Halen, one of the greatest guitar players who ever lived, but he's really limited to a style and they're locked into it.
I'd never try to be that distinctive from the Bee Gees' sound. I'm very proud of being a Bee Gee and am always aware that I'll be identified as a Bee Gee.
When we do R&B midtempos or ballads, there's an Underdogs sound.
Of any guitarist, Jimmy Page was my biggest influence. I wanted to look, think and play like him. Zeppelin had a heavy influence on Rush during our early days. Page's loose style of playing showed an immense confidence, and there are no rules to his playing.
Everyone has said I got my own sound.
The one thing that Hendrix had that is unique among extraordinary guitar players is he had songs that were on the radio. His guitar genius was exposed to the masses by 'Foxy Lady.'
My favorite singer to this day is Nat King Cole. I've tried to emulate his phrasing. It is so absolutely beautiful to listen to his lovely voice.
I'm a very style-driven composer, and I like to give every project its own unique stamp.
Voices are like fingerprints, from Cagney to Bogart. They never lost it. My voice is instrumental in categorizing me.
James Hetfield, I mean, the minute he plugs in his guitar and adjusts the tone knob, he comes up with the world's greatest riff.
A lot of people say I got my own sound. I ain't never really got no comparisons. When people hear my music, they be like, 'He got his own lil sound.'
I try not to repeat myself in fills in all the Rush songs unless it is something simple or something I feel is my own characteristic thing.
Our sound is different because it's who we are as a band.
Ramones or AC/DC are two bands that have managed to keep their signature sound and their signature formula for years and years and album after album after album, without it seeming like a dead-end street.
It can even be a single note which defines the entire song.
When I'm writing with Tony Iommi, for example, still it's very easy. We go in, and I know exactly what his style is. It's very distinctive, and you know exactly what he's looking for, and we know exactly where we're going from the first chord.
It's definitely true that Stevie Ray Vaughan is one of my all-time favorite guitarists.
You can't have 12 records on your album and none of them sound alike. You gotta kind of have something to make them say, 'That sounds like Rakim.'
Everything Paul Kossoff did came from his fingers and went right into the amp. He was his own effects unit.
I believe very strongly in having melodic hooks, whether they're short or intricate, that you really remember in a movie.
