The audience usually remembers Neil Young as an incredible singer and songwriter who wrote some of the greatest songs of all time. However, he is also a truly great guitar player, both on acoustic and electric guitar, something he demonstrated throughout his prolific career.
Unlike many of his peers, Young never remained stuck in the past when it comes to musical taste. He has always been interested in new bands and new sounds. During his career he had the chance to see many guitarists playing and once revealed who were the two best electric guitar players he had ever heard.
The 2 guitarists Neil Young said were the best he ever heard
J.J. Cale
The first one is J.J. Cale, the late American guitarist, who is best known for songs like “Cocaine”, “Call Me The Breeze” and “After Midnight”. “What is it about J. J. Cale’s playing? I mean, you could say Eric Clapton’s the guitar god, but what the fuck does that mean? I mean he can’t play like J.J. J.J.’s the one who played all that shit first. Most of the songs and the riffs—the way he plays the fucking guitar is so … great. I think we’d play great together. There’s no doubt, if it was just the two of us, it’d be somethin’ special.”
“And he doesn’t play very loud, either—I really like that about him. He’s so sensitive. Of all the players I ever heard, it’s gotta be Hendrix and J. J. Cale who are the best electric guitar players. J.J.’s my peer, but he doesn’t have the business acumen. He doesn’t have the idea of how to deal with the rest of the world that I do. But musically, he’s actually more than my peer, because he’s got that thing. I don’t know what it is.”
I must have it, too—but I don’t recognize it, okay? But I know J.J. has it. I’m only saying I have it because, after thirty years I must have something. I’m just doin’ what I like to do. Really, is it original? I dunno… I know it’s what I like, and I know what I like is what other people have done. I’m just doin’ my versions. My music is just a bunch of stuff that comes from other people’s music—and my life,” Neil Young said in his biography “Shakey” (2002) by Jimmy McDonough.
Neil Young said J.J. Cale was a masterful guitarist
Neil believes that the late American musician was one of the most masterful players that ever existed and that he had the “touch”, although the regular music fan probably wouldn’t know who he was. “(J.J. Cale was) one of the finest, most masterful guitar players. You can hear his influences on Clapton, Dire Straits’ Knopfler. It’s like they have obviously learned a lot from J.J. and hardly anybody know who J.J is.”
“(He) did enough songs so that musicians and people who are in the music really know who he is, but somebody may listen to (a song and don’t he wrote it). But if you’re really into music then you know who J.J. is but the normal guy in the street will know who Eric Clapton is but won’t know who J.J. Cale is. Will know who Mark Knopfler is but won’t know J.J. He is a definying influence, he really has got the touch,” Neil Young told Musicians Hall of Fame in 2005 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
As Neil said, Cale had a deep connection with Eric Clapton, who was a big fan and friend of his. Some of his biggest hits “After Midnight” and “Cocaine” were actually covers of Cale’s songs. Until his death in 2014, the American artist released 15 studio albums, one with Clapton: “Road to Escondido” (2004). He also played on Neil Young’s 1978 album “Comes a Time”.
Jimi Hendrix
The second one is Jimi Hendrix, who Neil Young praised during his entire career. He believes that the late musician was someone who changed the course of guitar playing but it was his partnership with Mitch Mitchell (Drums) and Noel Redding (Drums) that helped him to achieve that. “Hendrix was the best at being able to do his expression with his guitar. I’d say out of the 60s as far as someone taking the guitar to another place, Hendrix was number one. There was no other guitar player that came near to Hendrix in the way he handled it playing Rock and Roll as trio. A three man band, guitar, bass and drums.”
“He was so unique, he had his own place. It was the Jimi Hendrix Experience, of all the trios, there was nothing like the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The way they all played together, the bass player and the drummer, it was all three of them together that made that sound. Jimi wasn’t the same when he played with the other bands, it wasn’t the same. It was what happened when he played with those guys that made him free enough to express himself.”
Neil Young continued:
“To go to those places that he went with his echoplex and his whammy bar, the distortion and the multi-amp approach that he used, that vibrates the guitar to the point where you stand in front of it. It’s not that loud for you because it’s behind you and people in front of it get their heads blown off. So you just move the guitar a little bit and let the sound come out of the amp, hit the back of the guitar and vibrate it and don’t dampen with your body and suddenly the guitar just takes off like hell,” Neil Young said in an interview with Musicians Hall of Fame in 2005 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
Back in 1992 Neil had the pleasure to be the one to induct the Jimi Hendrix Experience into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That night he joined Redding and Mitchell on stage to perform “All Along the Watchtower”, featuring also artists like Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, John Fogerty, The Edge, Carlos Santana and Johnny Cash. During his speech, Young said that when someone plays guitar, they can either play or transcend and it was Hendrix who taught him the difference.