SamboraBlog

Quick quotes: Let's hear it for Les Paul

Guitar heroes who are headed to Cleveland for the Les Paul festivities sing the praises of the man and his namesake musical instrument:

"My main guitar is a Les Paul. A lot of great guitar players played a Les Paul, so I identified with the sound of it. It's an extension of what I'm trying to communicate as a musician."
-- Slash of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver

"Les is an old friend of mine. He gave me this special white Les Paul -- he wound the pickups himself -- for my birthday, first time I met him. I play everything from heavy metal to blues to jazz on it. He just hit it right on the head when he designed the Les Paul. I like it better than most girlfriends I've had. The godfather of rock 'n' roll, I call him. Without him, none of us would have a job."
-- Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi

"Les is one of the most important musicians and inventors of the 20th century. He's not a rock musician by any stretch, but some of the ways in which he approached the electric guitar opened the gates to a remarkable sense of possibility. You listen to his late '40s recordings, like 'Lover,' and the guitar never sounded like that before. My first guitar was a Les Paul. It set me off on a journey I'm still on today."
-- Lenny Kaye of the Patti Smith Group

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"I remember going to sleep many nights with a Gibson catalog, dreaming about getting a Les Paul. I finally did, with a loan from my Dad. It's a really heavy instrument. But it plays like butter. I met Les backstage at a show once. Jeff Beck made me play 'Flight of the Bumblebee' for Les, which was a little embarrassing. He changed history, big-time."
-- Jennifer Batten of Michael Jackson's and Jeff Beck's bands

"I don't think there's a guitar player who wasn't influenced by Les. When our lead guitar player, Nokie Edwards, first heard Les' stuff back in the day, Nokie didn't know it was speeded up. So that's the way he learned how to play it; that's what started his fast fingers going. Les was the first to do many things. He just blew us away when we heard his music."
-- Don Wilson of the Ventures