Guitar Tricks Insider September / October Issue | Page 9

RIFFING
Wow, Lonnie Mack. I remember when I was a
kid and that came out, I bought that record and
brought it home. That was a 45 that I used to
play on 33 over and over, trying to figure out
exactly what he was doing. It was strange be-
cause he had a lot of hits around Dallas, but I
don’t remember him ever playing around here,
so I never got to see him. The only thing I ever
saw was the picture of him on the album cov-
er of The Wham. I loved his tone and his wild
guitar, but at the same time he was blues and
he was my hero. “Chicken Pickin’,” “Susie Q,”
“Memphis” of course. If you didn’t know how to
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER
play “Memphis” in Dallas, you weren’t a guitar
player. Nobody could play like him. They could
play the notes and learn the licks and play the
song, but nobody sounds like Lonnie Mac k, ex-
cept Lonnie Mack. He used a Magnatone (amp).
It took several years before I figured that out.
It was like it was from outer space. I felt exact-
ly the same way about Lonnie Mack when I first
heard “Wham” as I did when I heard “Purple
Haze” for the first time. Just what in the hell is
that? It’s so far out, it’s the neatest thing you’ve
ever heard. You don’t even know what it is. Plus
it’s called “Wham.” Whoever named that knew
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