A lot of rock or metal guitarists out there would be influenced and inspired by other musicians that play the same genre. While that is great and nothing wrong with it, I would strongly suggest more rock and metal guitarists to listen to more blues music. I’m not talking about listening to just SRV, Hendrix or Clapton.

You need to listen to real blues music. The classics. Stuff like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Sonny Boy Williamson, Bo Diddley, Willie Dixon, Albert King, BB King, Jimmy Reed, and all those guys.

I listened to all that stuff as much as I could to inspire my rock n’ roll playing. Most of your favorite guitar heroes in the rock and metal genres were inspired by the blues. Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath were both heavily blues inspired, that’s where they got the heavy rock sound from.

This is probably the reason why my lead guitar playing sound kind of bluesy and my rhythm playing is kind of bluesy as well.

Blues music would get slammed by a lot of musicians. The genre gets accused of “noodling” and being “boring”. It’s not boring. Blues music is serious music and if you actually listen to it, it’ll grow on you. Not all blues music is the same I-IV-V progression. There’s some pretty complex blues music out there if you look around.

Some guitarists would rely on classical music to be inspired in order to become a better guitarist in rock and metal, but you need to listen to blues as well. Blues music is not bad. I’ve always loved the genre.

This is where rock n’ roll and metal came from, guys. It all came from blues music. If it wasn’t for blues music, none of you would have a guitar in your hands right now.

Kev