What drew you to the blues as a suburban teenager?
It's so fundamental in me that I have to imagine that it was just born into me. You either want to hear those notes bend or you don't. When I heard Stevie Ray Vaughan, the grammar of it made perfect sense to me, and I just instantly wanted to do that. He was my portal to Jimi Hendrix, Albert King, Albert Collins, Freddie King, Buddy Guy. And I'm still on the same unbroken course as I was when I was 13.
What does the guitar mean to you now?
For me, it's my flotation device, because I now exist in this celebrity sort of world. But I don't feel like anybody's been able to truly knock me off my legs, because I have a trade. You can't just walk onstage and start playing guitar 'cause you thought it looked neat. With guitar, you get out what you put in, and it's the ultimate shield for other people trying to fuckin' take away your heart and soul. It's a completely exposed craft. There is no facade.
Do you worry that your pop hits overshadow your playing?
I understand how people would say, "I don't think he's pure at heart. I don't want him getting anywhere near the same kind of circle as Buddy Guy." So it's a really weird sort of incestuous situation for me, because if I wasn't me, I'd stand in front of me and say, "Prove it to me for the next 15 years, and maybe I'll think about accepting you." Because everything else you can buy, man. But guitar is the stuff that takes your life to figure out.
What are some of your favorite guitar moments?
One of my favorite guitar solos in the world is from Metallica's "Hero of the Day." Clapton's got a bunch of songs where he's really playing blues but he's playing it over these chordal changes, like "Old Love" and "Wonderful Tonight." It's not really about the solo — when I hear Prince at the end of "Let's Go Crazy," I get it. But for me, it's more about the way the harmony and the melodic movement of the chords support the guitar-playing. People respond to chords. I mean, Jimi Hendrix was a songwriter.
What goes through your head when you're deep into a guitar solo?
You just get out of the way of yourself, and I've got a big self for me to get out of the way of. I've had a few nights where I got so close to leaving the ground that I didn't know where it was going and kind of got freaked out — close to feeling like my wheels were gonna come off. For me, it's like finding the zipper on the back of my body and just coming out of it.
You're in constant pursuit of the perfect guitar tone. How would you describe it?
There's so many clichés about this, which I hate, like "molten glass." But I want it to sound like a voice. That's all. And you want that voice to speak back to you in a tone you don't expect — so it doesn't sound exactly like you. You want to listen to what it's saying back to you.
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