one time, just very briefly at the Miami Pop Festival in the late ’60s when Procol Harum was on the same bill. His Live at the Regal is still one of my favorite albums. Every one of them was something you could sing. That was the main thing about his lead work. was a huge influence on me because everything he played had a great melody. King, who got his unique sound just by shaking his left wrist, not relying on any electronic effects. GM: Let’s talk about some of the American guitarists who had the most influence on you, like B.B. I used to really like his guitar playing on those records, particularly Ricky’s version of “My Babe.” GM: Hank told me he couldn’t originally figure out how James Burton was able to bend strings the way he did on those early Ricky Nelson records like “Believe What You Say” and “It’s Late.” He was unaware at the time that James was using really light-gauge strings, and jokingly said he thought it had something to do with the American diet of cheeseburgers and Coca-Cola. That was one of first Strats I’d ever seen, although I think the first one I remember seeing was when Buddy Holly came to London and played one on a British television show. GM: But even years before getting your first Stratocaster, you must have been aware of Cliff’s great guitarist Hank Marvin, who played a Fiesta Red Strat with a tremolo bar. King and Howlin’ Wolf, stuff like that, and never really looked back. I really got into black music, people like B.B. I was always very much into American music right from the go and never really changed. GM: Were you influenced at all by any of the early British rock stars like Cliff Richard, Marty Wilde, Billy Fury or any others who were popular at the time? I tried plugging the guitar in the back of a radio just to see if I could get it amplified, but eventually I got my first real amplifier. I think my dad must have bought it for me. RT: It was a cello-bodied acoustic guitar with F-holes made by a company called Rosetti, but after a few months I decided I needed to electrify and got a pickup for it. GM: What was the first guitar you started out on? RT: That’s probably true of a lot of guitar players, especially ones around my age. GM: Your admiration of Scotty reminds me of a famous quote of Keith Richards who said, “I never wanted to be Elvis. RT: Yeah, that’s right, but he got a great tone. GM: Scotty had to work a lot harder than a lot of other guitarists because he was using heavier strings at the time. RT: Well, things like “Mystery Train,” “Hound Dog.” They had fantastic guitar playing on them… not only that, but what a great sound it was. RT: Well, it’s because of Scotty Moore that I wanted to play guitar because I just loved the sound of the guitar on the early Elvis records, and that was my main inspiration to pick up the instrument. GM: So how influential was someone like Scotty Moore to you as an aspiring guitarist? It was just mainly my brother’s record collection. They weren’t getting a lot of airplay on the BBC. GM: Were you also hearing these records on Radio Luxembourg or the BBC? I really liked Gene’s guitarist Cliff Gallup, especially on “Race With the Devil,” “Bluejean Bop.” All that stuff was great. So those were sort of the first of rock and roll records I was starting to get interested in. RT: It was quite a few of the early rock and roll people because I had an elder brother who was bringing in records by people like Gene Vincent, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. GM: When you were growing up in England, who were some of the very first performers you heard that made a real impression on you? The next day I went out and bought one, and haven’t looked back since then. So one day at a soundcheck, I picked up his Strat, very rudely without asking permission (laughs) and thought, “I’ll give it a try to see what it sounds like.” I plugged it in and immediately responded to it. Their guitar player, Martin Barre, was using his Gibson as his main guitar, but he also played a Strat for certain things. RT: It was back when Procol Harum was opening for Jethro Tull. GM: At what point had you decided to switch from a Les Paul to your now very famous Stratocaster? It gives me a much heavier sound that I prefer. It enabled me to still be a vibrato and bend the strings, even though I use much thicker strings than most guitarists, especially on the low E string. RT: I had heard that Albert King used to tune his guitar down quite a bit, so I thought it was something I should try. GM: What was the initial inspiration for your readily identifiable guitar sound?
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