2021: A Guitar Odyssey

Six successful guitarists from completely different backgrounds tackle the state of guitar in 2021, the repercussions of the digital universe, the future of guitar heroes, how to maintain one’s passion and unique voice amid the cacophony, living in the past, magic knobs and more

- By Richard Bienstock

CHRISTONE “KINGFISH” INGRAM

“The blues was the Civil Rights movement, and it’s everything that we have going on in the world now. It brings us together. And we can use that to our advantage at this point in time to call that our blues”

JOHN 5

“A hundred percent, there will be another guitar hero. It’s up to us, to the people reading this and the people listening to the music, to go, ‘I can be the next guitar hero.’ And that doesn’t mean just being able to play the guitar well ... It’s someone that is progressive. There’s a lot that goes into it”

KIRK HAMMETT

“All guitar heroes are judged by one thing: the song they’re playing. You can be the most ripping guitar player, but if your songs suck or are boring or just flat, people are going to be impressed for about 15 minutes. And then they’re going to check their Instagram, see what other guitar players put up”

ADAM JONES

“You can learn all this technique, you can learn how to play ‘Eruption’ just like Eddie [Van Halen], you can know all these pentatonic and harmonic minor scales. But it’s what you do with it. The techniques are second — what you’re reaching for is what’s inside”