Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt has slammed those who think playing AC/DC songs is ‘easy’ while also sharing some other guitar opinions.
According to Ultimate Guitar, during an appearance on The French Connection podcast, Bettencourt ran through his thoughts on a lot of rock icons, including Eddie Van Halen and Queen’s Brian May.
First he shared his ire at guitarists who laugh at playing AC/DC songs: Well, try to fucking play the intro of a song – I don’t give a fuck if it’s ‘Back in Black’ or… it never feels the same as Angus or Malcolm (Young) doing it.”
“Try to do a solo… How he’s digging, you can feel the wood in the guitar when he does it on that. We’re not supposed to ‘play’ solos, we’re supposed to ‘feel’ solos, we’re supposed to feel the song.”
Bettencourt also discussed the wisdom of Queen’s May. “What Brian May taught me was – melodically bending notes, the simplified things, and to be OK with being simple at times,” he said. “One of the things I learned early on was – I always was disconnected with guitar players that when I heard a song and then a solo came.
I always thought, ‘Why didn’t I connect with the solo?’ even though the solo was great. But Brian May taught me, ‘Play the solo for the song.’ He didn’t tell me that, but it was there, like, ‘Play for the song.'”
As many others have done since his sad passing last October, Bettencourt discussed the inspiration that Eddie Van Halen provided: Even Eddie, for a time there was a, ‘What the fuck is going on?’, technically,” he stated.
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“But when you really break down Eddie and listen to it, it was his rhythm playing for me, it was what made me feel like, and even though he bent a note, it went right through me, where I watch people play Eddie’s solo exactly, maybe better than him, but it’s not the same because only he could speak that way and make it go through me.
Check out ‘More Than Words’ by Extreme:
