Legendary guitarist Brian May has opened up about who he believes are the best musicians of all time.
The founding member of Queen recently took out the top spot in a fan-voted ranking of the top guitarist of all time, which was published on Guitar World.
However, the humble rock star has dismissed the accomplishment saying that he believes there are many musicians who are better at guitar than him.
“The nice thing about guitar playing is that everybody’s different. You can’t really rank people. Of course, I’ve got my favorites too. But the fact that people put me in that position makes me smile. It’s a lovely feeling,” he told The Howard Stern Show of the accolade.
“I’m not in the first million guitarists in the world; I know that. There’s people I listen to every day that do things that I could never do,” he added.
When asked who May thinks is the greatest guitarist of all time, he listed some big names.
“I listen to Nuno Bettencourt and I just smile because it’s so beautiful and it’s so way out of what I could ever do,” he said.
May continued, “It doesn’t bother me, ’cause I don’t feel in competition. I just love the guy and I love what he does. Same with Jeff Beck. Same with Ed Van Halen. We worked together, and it was the most wonderful experience. My jaw dropped every time he touched the strings. It was just beautiful,” recalled May.
He continued, “There are so many wonderful guitarists. Steve Vai is just colossal, beautiful. And of course I still have my old heroes. Eric Clapton is still my hero. Jimi Hendrix is still my hero. Of course — it’s always gonna be that way. Jeff Beck, to me, is something so exceptional and outside anything you could have imagined.”
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Watch the interview with Brian May:
