So who are the most influential guitarists in the history of rock? Which guitar players have inspired others to learn and play the guitar the most? These 10 guitarists led the way motivating generations of people to rock!
Jimmy Page
Influenced Slash, Joe Perry, The Black Crowes, 80s hard rock bands such as Bon Jovi, The Cult and Def Leppard
Jimmy Page was a young veteran of the London recording scene when he joined the Yardbirds in the late 60s to ultimately replace Jeff Beck. After this band broke up he reformed it with new players to create Led Zeppelin which became one of the biggest bands of the 70s. Yet again another blues influenced player he also branched out into folk and world music using alternate tunings and odd time signatures. He was also the master producer in the studio creating a “guitar army” on all the Led Zeppelin albums with numerous overdubbed guitar parts.
Tony Iommi
Influenced hard and metal players including bands Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Kyuss, Soundgarden, Rage Against The Machine, Alice In Chains, Queens of The Stone Age, Tool
Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath can really be credited with creating heavy metal. The bands music was inspired by the idea of people paying to see scary horror movies so why wouldn’t they want to hear scary music? Using powers chords, dissonant intervals in his riffs and often down tuning his guitar to create a heavier sound his playing has influenced 100s of heavy bands.
Eddie Van Halen
Influenced Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Kirk Hammet, Nuno Bettencort, Jason Becker, Marty Friedman and virtually all other shred and hard rock players that followed.
The first Van Halen Album released in 1978 featured a short guitar solo piece “Eruption” that featured two handed tapping. While probably not the first example of this technique on record it was one of the most well executed and prominently featured. Following this every serious rock lead player sought to learn this and the other flashy techniques that Eddie Van Halen played including the “horse whinny” sound made with his whammy bar.
Kurt Cobain
Influenced Jack White, bands like Bush, Silverchair, Weezer, Blink 182, Green Day and The Offspring
Led Zeppelin and Van Halen inspired bands in the 80s to take over the top guitar playing and fashion (big hair and spandex) to extremes. The worst example of this were bands like Poison and Warrant. As a reaction to this silliness in the glam metal the Seattle indie rock scene became popular in the early 90s and the biggest band of the bunch were Nirvana. As Nirvana’s leader, singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain helped to spearhead a change in musical style. Their sound (and look) were more stripped down and basic with a simple punk rock feel avoiding flashy over the top playing.
Joe Satriani
Influenced (and taught) Steve Vai and Kirk Hammet, and numerous shred players like Greg Howe, Guthrie Govan and Tony MacAlpine etc.
Joe Satriani actually started his music career as a guitar teacher teaching other famous players including Steve Vai and Kirk Hammet from Metallica. In the late 80s he released Surfing With The Alien an instrumental rock masterpiece that become a gold record. He paved the way for other instrumental “shred” players to have successful careers playing musically technical and complex rock guitar music. In recent years he has teamed up with other virtuoso rock guitarists including Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, John Pertrucci and others touring as the G3.
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