David Lee Roth’s favorite Rolling Stones guitarist

One of the most influential bands of all time, The Rolling Stones is often divided by fans in the eras of three guitarists who were part of the group: Brian Jones (1962 to 1969), Mick Taylor (1969 to 1974) and Ronnie Wood (1975 – present). The American Hard Rock band Van Halen was influenced by the Stones and even used to cover some of their songs in the early days when they were still playing in the bar circuit. David Lee Roth, the classic vocalist of the band revealed in a conversation with Jay Mohr back in 2014 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), which was his favorite Rolling Stones guitarist besides Keith Richards.

David Lee Roth’s favorite Stones guitarist

“That’s an interesting call. I’m gonna say overall the most memorable stuff is gonna be Mick Taylor. That is song-wise, is more Blues oriented, so you could say that. In terms of succint three minutes and 28 seconds that might be somebody else. But the most popular, most famous material I think, coming from the Stones was his time period. This is the stuff you say ‘Sing me a Stones song!’ (Somebody will sing a song from his era).”

“He was very young when he started off on that. So they were adventurous, they were taking chances. (Something) that doesn’t happen a whole lotta time now. A double album in itself is an adventurous concept that we don’t think of a lot of time. When you say it, everybody knows what you mean like quicksand in a movie. There used to be a lot of quicksand in adventure movies. Somebody in the jungle would be sinking. The double album, we don’t see a lot of that anymore. The live album (or) the live double-album with the book littering. We don’t see these things very often anymore,” David Lee Roth said.

Mick Taylor was a member of The Rolling Stones from 1969 to 1974 until he decide to leave the band. He was part of classic albums like: “Let It Bleed” (1969), “Sticky Fingers” (1971), “Exile on Main St.” (1972) and It’s “Only Rock ‘n Roll” (1974).

Those records had many classic songs like: “Gimme Shelter”, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, “Brown Sugar”, “Wild Horses”, “Tumbling Dice”, “Shine a Light”, “Angie”and “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It)”.

Mick Jagger wasn’t a big influence for Roth

Even though many people compared David Lee Roth in the early days with Mick Jagger, the musician said in a video of The Roth Show, his show on Youtube, back in 2014 that he wasn’t a big influence compared to other musicians: “It always makes me smile when people assume I’m imitating Mick Jagger and the fellow who sang for Led Zeppelin.”

“When I was jumping off the drum riser and touching my toes, I was imitating the Berry Brothers (1930s acrobatic and soft-shoe dancers) launching themselves over an invariable number of balcony railings and stairwells,” David Lee Roth said.