COVER STORY
a sudden the guitar became a voice. I’d
always rather hear the guitar than the
vocalist. Nothing personal to anybody
– I’m just that kind of guy. I love the
voice of the guitar. I can hardly wait for
people to stop singing so somebody can
just play guitar. I love the voice of the
guitar as a soloist. That’s why we love
Peter Green, and early Eric Clapton, and
now the new Eric Clapton.”
So what are the elements that make
up a good solo? His answer: “Tone
and oneness.” Refining it further,
he brought it down to how to fill up
one note and every note. He said, “A
musician is a juggler. You’ve got to
coordinate five things. If you put your
hand in front of you, there are five
things that have to go into one note:
soul, heart, mind, body, and your
cojones. Those five things have to go
into each note you play.”
“SOUL,
HEART,
MIND, BODY,
AND YOUR
COJONES.
THOSE FIVE
THINGS
HAVE TO GO
INTO EACH
NOTE YOU
PLAY.”
AUG/SEPT
“I was born with the gift of music. We
are all born with different gifts. I knew I
was going to be a musician and I didn’t
care about algebra or anything else
in school. I just knew. It was either a
blessing or curse. I knew when I was
in junior high school and high school
that nothing else would matter to me.
The last day of Mission High School
in San Francisco people were saying,
‘hey what are you going to do, man –
tomorrow when you are out of school?’
I said I’m going to be playing with B.B.
King and Michael Bloomfield, yadayada. They started laughing at me.
I said, ‘why are you laughing?’ They
said, ‘oh yeah, right.’ I said, ‘you can
laugh all you want to but that’s what
I’m going to do, man. I’m going to play
with Michael Bloomfield and B.B. King
and all these incredible people because
that’s what I want to do. That’s who I
am.’ For me it was easier because my
laser beam concentration, once pointed
determination, wouldn’t deter me from
hanging around Miles Davis, or Jerry
Garcia, or Bill Graham. I just knew that
DIGITAL EDITION
39