Everybody has to start somewhere, even if that somewhere is sitting Indian-style on the floor in your bedroom, plucking out an awkward first chord and feeling like a dork. In fact that’s what stops most wannabe guitarists before they’ve even begun: The initial agony of knowing nothing just doesn’t match up with the imagined ecstasy of ripping into a guitar right off the bat. But the fact that even Frank Zappa got his start fooling with chord books and that John Mayer was subjected to a year of guitar store lessons is somewhat heartening, right? This collection of quotes imply that not only does their love of music bind these amazing guitarists but also their complete and utter dedication to learning guitar. As Judas Priest’s Glenn Tipton said, “I gave dedication a completely new meaning.”
Jerry Garcia, told to Rolling Stone in 1993
“When I first heard electric guitar, when I was 15, that’s what I wanted to play. I petitioned my mom to get me one, so she finally did for my birthday. Actually, she got me an accordion, and I went nuts — Aggghhh, no, no, no! I railed and raved, and she finally turned it in, and I got a pawnshop electric guitar and an amplifier. I was just beside myself with joy. I started banging away on it without having the slightest idea of ... anything. I didn’t know how to tune it up, I had no idea. My stepfather tuned it in some kind of weird way, like an open chord. I thought: ‘Well, that’s the way it's tuned. OK.’ I played it that way for about a year before I finally ran into some kid at school who actually could play a little. He showed me a few basic chords, and that was it. I never took any lessons. I don’t even think there was anybody teaching around the Bay area. I mean electric guitar was like from Mars, you know. You didn’t see ’em even.”
Keith Richards, told to Guitar Player in 1992
“Chuck [Berry] was my man. He was the one that made me say, ‘I want to play guitar, Jesus Christ!’ And I’d listened to guitar players before that — I was about 15 — and I’d think, ‘He’s very interesting, nice, ah, but ...’ With the difference between what I’d heard before 1956 or ’57 and right after that with Little Richard and Elvis and Chuck Berry, suddenly I knew what it was I wanted to do. It was the hardest thing about that age, you know, when people say, ‘Well, what you gonna be when you grow up?’ … I had no idea, and suddenly that problem was taken care of for me by listening to that shit. Now I knew what to go for, whereas before my life was the usual teenage kid-you know, like goin' to school, getting’ thrown out … And then suddenly I had a focal point, but not that I was naive enough, even at that age, to expect it to pan out. But at least I had something to go for, some way to channel the energies that you have at that age. And definitely with rock and roll, you have to start somewhere around then.”
Luther Dickinson, told to Gibson.com in 2007
“My father showed me a lot growing up, but he said it was self-taught so you have to spend a lot of time by yourself just internalizing it and making it all make sense … But the great guitar player Sean Lane was a teacher of mine, and a jazz player named Ed Finney was a teacher of mine. Lee Baker, who played in my father’s band Mudboy and the Neutrons, was a great inspiration. Lee had a beautiful ’57 Les Paul that he would just rip, but then he also had an old acoustic so he’d do country-blues and rock and roll … Later in my life R.L. Burnside came around, and he was one of the first people to ever take me on the road. Kenny [Brown, R.L.’s guitarist] literally showed me the ropes, and ever since then my brother and I have been touring and trying to make our way.”
Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, on www.j-tull.com
“My first ownership of a musical instrument was the more than slightly disappointing result of mail-ordering a genuine high grade plastic Elvis Presley ukulele. With imprinted likeness of the great man’s autograph and different colored nylon strings, this wretched piece of tat was just about playable, but failed to stay in tune for more than 30 seconds. It was supplied with pitch pipes to enable tuning the notes of the open strings and a chord chart to songs like ‘The Campdown Races’ and ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy,’ which I could not remember Elvis actually having made famous. I was about nine at the time.”
Frank Zappa, told to Guitar Player in January ’77
“I began [playing guitar] when I was 18, but I started on drums when I was 12.1 didn’t hear any guitarists until I was about 15 or so, because in those days the saxophone was the instrument that was happening on record. When you heard a guitar player it was always a treat — so I went out collecting R&B guitar records. The solos were never long enough — they only gave them one chorus, and I figured the only way I was going to get to hear enough of what I wanted to hear was to get an instrument and play it myself. So I got one for a buck-fifty in an auction — an arch-top, f-hole, cracked base, unknown-brand thing, because the whole finish had been sanded off. It looked like it had been sandblasted. The strings were about, oh, a good inch off the fingerboard, and I didn’t know any chords, but I started playing lines right away. Then I started figuring out chords and finally got a Mickey Baker book and learned a bunch of chords off that.”
Glenn Tipton of Judas Priest, told to ChatShow in 1999
“I was a bit of a late bloomer, having started learning guitar and writing songs at the age of 20, but once I started, I was totally absorbed. I never put the guitar down in those days. I gave dedication a completely new meaning. I had the choice; I either worked in a factory for the rest of my life or I did something different. The advantages of doing something different were obvious. I went into it because I loved heavy metal and it was a great career move.”
Joni Mitchell, told to Acoustic Guitar in 1996
“When I was learning to play guitar, I got Pete Seeger’s ‘How to Play Folk-Style Guitar.’ I went straight to the Cotten picking. Your thumb went from [imitates alternating-bass sound] the sixth string, fifth string, sixth string, fifth string ... I couldn’t do that, so I ended up playing mostly the sixth string but banging it into the fifth string. So Elizabeth Cotten definitely is an influence; it’s me not being able to play like her. If I could have I would have, but good thing I couldn’t, because it came out original.”
Joe Bonamassa, told to Modern Guitars in 2006
“My dad put a guitar in my hands when I was like four. He was a guitar dealer, so there were always guitars around the house. It just kind of happened like that … My dad had a great record collection. I’d just sit there on weekends, pull stuff out, and listen to it. Most of it was blues, and stuff like Peter Green, Eric Clapton, Bluesbreaker stuff, Paul Kossoff and Jeff Beck.”
Mark Knopfler, told to Guitar Player in 1979
“I picked up the basics from people like the Shadows, the Everly Brothers, Duane Eddy, Rick Nelson and Elvis … I played with different groups in and around London and we did some real diabolical stuff. I even played bass for a while. Besides playing electric guitar, I’d also get asked to play some acoustic stuff. But, since I didn’t have an acoustic guitar at the time, I used to borrow one from a friend so I could play folk joints … I was into playing American music, especially the blues. First, I learned how to fingerpick — just the basic stuff —- and then I began developing a clawhammer style. And all during this time I was playing my solidbody without an amp of my own. While I was into many different types of music, and played with many different local groups, I really didn’t have a band to call my own until Dire Straits was formed in 1977.”
John Mayer, told to MusicDish.com in 2000
“I had a year of music store lessons, and I went to Berklee College of Music for a year, but I didn’t get much more out of it than the ability to be surrounded by music for 24 hours a day. I left because what I was doing was kind of frowned upon by Berklee. I play a lot with the thumb of my left hand and I had to pretend that I didn’t when it came time for exams. I’m sure there’s some merit to the ‘learn the rules before breaking them,’ but I couldn’t wait to do my own thing.”
Photo Credit: John Rahim