I love all my guitar solos.
To me, you had to have a least a couple of ugly guys in the band. That's why Saxon was great.
My guitar playing was born from playing in my teenage heavy rock bands.
I think all of The Beatles were from an era when certainly playing was important to them, and they were cutting edge. But for all time, they're master composers.
Two words: Kasim Sulton. I've been a Utopia fan for a long, long time, and Kasim's a pop hero of mine. I have to hold myself back from asking him a million Utopia questions.
Seriously, though, I think the only musical term that's ever put a bee in my bonnet is 'shred.' I tried to peddle the term 'Terrifying Guitar' to the world, but it just didn't stick. Now we've got 'shred.'
It's amazing how a lot of the metal guys have never strummed! And it's not that challenging, but it really opens up a lot of doors in ways they might not have imagined.
Philosophically, I think riffs that start with E repeating itself are almost guaranteed to be great.
When it comes to songwriting, I grew up in the Seventies listening to AM radio. So I've all these pop songs running through my head from Paul McCartney and Elton John, and a lot of stuff that was written on piano.
Scotty Johnson is a guy who I've worked with on a lot of my tours and albums, and I'm always blown away by his musical knowledge and playing.
Of course, I'm a guitar player, so I'm thinking as a guitarist. I have to work within my physical limitations as to what my hands will do, and also the patterns I'm familiar with, and the places that my fingers are used to going.
Mimi Fox is one of the most exciting contemporary jazz guitarists I've heard.
I'm not a reader myself, so I don't expect anyone else to be.
In my daily life, I tend to be very literal and unsuperstitious. But music gives me an outlet to be very emotional.
It's so satisfying as a guitar player to play stuff that's related to the blues.
After 35 years of bone-crushing rock guitar playing, I'm finally starting to get my head out of the harmonic sand and learning how to play over chord changes.
I'm Not Afraid of the Police' is the first song I wrote and recorded since moving back to Los Angeles. It's a loud-pop, crazy-guitar, big-harmony song with all the police sirens created by guitars and ADA flangers.
I lived in Los Angeles for around 20 years. I love the place, but the driving can wear thin.
There is a basic language of music that I think is important for communicating with other musicians - just the kind of terminology that might make it easier to describe your ideas to the other guys in your band.
I worked out the keyboard parts on the progressive rock classic 'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway' and somehow managed to play it all on acoustic guitar.
