“As a guitar player, you’re only as good as your influences”: Dave Mustaine names one key lesson he took from Jimmy Page’s playing
Every great guitarist starts somewhere — often not with their own sound, but someone else’s. And according to Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, the foundation of any musician’s style is built on who they looked up to early on.
Speaking in a recent interview with music journalist Steve Rosen, the Megadeth frontman points to one iconic player in particular as a major source of inspiration.
“I think that as a musician, as a guitar player, you’re only as good as your influences,” he says [via Ultimate Guitar]. “I’m a rhythm guitar player who sings and plays lead. So, if you want something that’s really rhythmic, you want something that’s smooth and doesn’t have any sharp corners. When you start getting into music [and] you’re a rhythm player… if you can’t keep the beat to the song with your foot, it starts getting too weird.”
READ MORE: Dave Mustaine says nu-metal guitar players “didn’t do any solos” because they “couldn’t do any solos”
When asked whether Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards ever played a role in shaping his style, Mustaine replies: “No, nothing against Keith Richards. I think he’s a very entertaining person, but his playing style, for me, just wasn’t there.”
“I was a Beatles fan, and I liked The Who more than I ever did The Stones. But I do recognise the great talent; any dude who can snort his dad’s ashes and live to tell [chuckles]… But, no, not for me, honestly.”
Instead, the guitarist says it was Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page who left a lasting impression — particularly in the way he layered guitar parts.
“I liked Jimmy Page’s playing. I love the way he approached layering. You hear any one of those guitar tracks on their own, you’ll say that sounds like… I have to be respectful, it’s one of my favorite bands,” Mustaine explains. “But when you start layering all those other things, they really start taking on a life of [their] own. And I think that, for me, is something that I really learned a lot from [Page] too.”
The musician also credits rhythm guitar powerhouses like Malcolm Young and Brian Tatler as crucial figures in his development, saying, “Now, as far as the rhythm, down-picking and stuff, [I] loved Malcolm Young… And there’s a guy named Brian Tatler from Diamond Head that’s really cool with the riffing and stuff.”
“Of course, [Judas] Priest, [Iron] Maiden, Motorhead, UFO, all those other bands in the British Invasion and the New Wave of British [Heavy Metal]. I mean, all that influenced me too, but that all goes back to Robert Johnson anyway.”
Watch the full interview below.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
