MUSIC NEWS - Legendary rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix has been named the greatest guitar player of all time today by Rolling Stone magazine and tops their list of guitarists that was compiled by music experts and top guitar players.
"Jimi Hendrix exploded our idea of what rock music could be: He manipulated the guitar, the whammy bar, the studio and the stage," said Grammy-winning guitarist Tom Morello in the magazine's upcoming issue, citing Hendrix's "Purple Haze" and "The Star-Spangled Banner" as key tracks. Hendrix tops the Top 10 listed that includes Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, B.B. King, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Pete Townshend (full list below).
The panel was recruited to vote for their favorite guitar players includes musicians like Lenny Kravitz, Eddie Van Halen (who was named #8), Brian May and Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys), along with a group of Rolling Stone's senior writers and editors. The experts also weighed in on their top picks, with Pearl Jam's Mike McCready saying Eddie Van Halen is the "a master of riffs" and Joe Perry praised Jimmy Page's "vision of how to transcend the stereotypes of what the guitar can do."
The full list will be featured in a special issue of RS with four special covers of Van Halen, Clapton, Hendrix and Page, and will be on newsstands and online this Friday.
Rolling Stone's top 10 greatest guitarists follow:
1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Eric Clapton
3. Jimmy Page
4. Keith Richards
5. Jeff Beck
6. B.B. King
7. Chuck Berry
8. Eddie Van Halen
9. Duane Allman
10. Pete Townshend
As with all lists of this type there's room for discussion. So, do you agreee? Who do you feel should be on the list?
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