Interviewer:
Do you personally think that you're under-rated as a guitarist?
Frank Zappa:
I think that I shouldn't be rated as a guitarist. I think that rating guitarists is the kind of a thing that, uh, that's a stupid hobby is rating guitar players.
Interview #1 from The Frank Zappa Interview Picture Disk, 1984
Interviewer:
And the other part of the same article is going to be your thoughts on some of your contemporaries and your people, if you don't mind. People like Chuck Berry?
Frank Zappa:
Chuck Berry? Well, I used to like Chuck Berry when I was in High School. Songs like "Havana Mill" and "Wee Wee Hours" which were the flip sides of the hits that he had - the more bluesy things. His main innovation besides that duck walk choreography was the multiple string guitar solos - the lines were harmonizing because he was playing on two strings at once. There was another guitar player who used to do that named Jimmy Nolan who I had a lot of respect for.
Interviewer:
B.B King?
Frank Zappa:
I don't like B.B. I saw him on television before I went on this tour and he was still blue.
Interviewer:
Oh yeah, I've seen him recently and I thought he was amazing. Keith Richard?
Frank Zappa:
I don't know anything about Keith Richard.
Interviewer:
Jimi Hendrix?
Frank Zappa:
I knew Jimi and I think that the best thing you could say about Jimi was: there was a person who shouldn't use drugs.
Interviewer:
John McLaughlin?
Frank Zappa:
I met John. I think he's a great guitar player and I think that he's probably done a lot to educate American audiences to some aspects of Eastern music that they wouldn't have come into contact with before. We did a tour with McLaughlin and old Mahavishnu, we did 11 concerts with them.
Interviewer:
Lowell George?
Frank Zappa:
There's another guy who shouldn't use drugs.
Interviewer:
Eric Clapton?
Frank Zappa:
I know Eric, I haven't seen him in years and years. There's another guy who shouldn't use drugs.
Interviewer:
Jeff Beck?
Frank Zappa:
One of my favorite guitar players on the planet. From a melodic standpoint and just in terms of the conception of what he plays, he's fabulous. I like Jeff.
Interviewer:
Rory Gallagher?
Frank Zappa:
We worked 2 jobs with Rory Gallagher on this tour and, uh,......[long pause]... he's still playing the blues.
Interviewer:
Jimmy Page?
Frank Zappa:
I don't know anything about Jimmy Page.
Interviewer:
Peter Green?
Frank Zappa:
I don't know him either.
Interviewer:
Jerry Garcia?
Frank Zappa:
We did one concert with Garcia on this tour but we were the opening act and I didn't see any of his set.
Interviewer:
Pete Townshend?
Frank Zappa:
I've met Pete but I don't know what I can say about his guitar playing.
Interviewer:
Robert Fripp?
Frank Zappa:
I've never heard of Robert Fripp.
Interviewer:
Ritchie Blackmore?
Frank Zappa:
I have met Ritchie too, and..... I'm not really familiar with the work of these people because you have to understand I'm not a pop consumer and I don't listen to a lot of these.
Interviewer:
[What do you listen to?]
Frank Zappa:
Well, what I do is I take cassettes with me on the road because sometimes you're sitting in the hotel room and you just want to listen to something, but what I take is not rock and roll. I like Chopin, I have Purcell, I have Webern, I have Varese, I have Bulgarian music. I don't listen to Rock and roll.
Interviewer:
Yes, um, Carlos Santana?
Frank Zappa:
We worked with Carlos Santana on Cologne in 1980 or 81 and it was a similar situation. We did two shows at the sport palace in Cologne. They opened the first show, we closed it. Then we opened the second show and they closed it so I never heard him play.
Interviewer:
As you said you don't listen to popular music so I don't expect you know Eddie Van Halen.
Frank Zappa:
I do know Eddie. He comes over to the house because he hangs out with my son.
Interviewer:
I see. But do you know him as a guitar player?
Frank Zappa:
Oh yeah. He and my son play together and he's fabulous, but there's another guy who shouldn't use drugs.
Interviewer:
I presume you don't know The Edge - from U2?
Frank Zappa:
The Edge?
Interviewer:
Yeah.
Frank Zappa:
No.
Interviewer:
[unintelligible] from Big Country?
Frank Zappa:
No.
Interviewer:
What would be your thoughts on the original guitar playing of the Mothers, i.e. yourself?
Frank Zappa:
Well, there's one other guy whose work I know who should be included in that list who I respect and that's Allan Holdsworth.
Interviewer:
I was going to ask you who was your favorite guitar player.
Frank Zappa:
Well, my original favorite guitar player was Johnny "Guitar" Watson, not from a technical standpoint but from listening to what his notes meant in the context in which they were played; and also Guitar Slim who was the first guitar player that I ever heard that had distortion - even during the 50s. In a strange way I think I probably derive more of my style from his approach to the guitar from the solos that I heard then.
Interview #2 from The Frank Zappa Interview Picture Disk, 1984
I Got a feeling the commet about
warren de martini is from
The mags from 90s some of the interviews are from the 70s 80s
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