The 4 guitarists Paul McCartney said he likes

Besides being one of the most influential songwriters, bassists and singers of all time, Paul McCartney is also a great guitarist. He played the electric guitar in many Beatles songs, including the guitar solo in Harrison’s track “Taxman”, for example. The bass guitar continued to be his primary instrument on his career with The Wings and solo but he also played the guitar, including during his live concerts.

So he knows what he is actually saying when praising a guitar player and over the decades he talked about many of them. In an interview with Guitar Player magazine in 1990 he mentioned four guitarists that he liked and Rock and Roll Garage selected what he said about them and his connection with some of them.

The 4 guitarists that Paul McCartney said he likes

Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen might be the most surprising name mentioned by Paul McCartney but he was certainly the guitarist who caused the biggest impact in the music scene, especially in Hard Rock in the late 70s and early 80s. Talking with Guitar Player magazine, McCartney revealed that he actually liked many Heavy Metal players. They were usually what he loved in Metal groups.

“I like Eddie Van Halen as a player. He gets it right quite often. I like a lot of heavy metal guys because they wind it up. What I usually like in a heavy metal band is the guitar player. But when it’s just miles of scales, I lose interest. I like some of the hot sounds,” Paul McCartney said.

It’s really interesting that Paul McCartney was aware of Eddie Van Halen and was interested in what he was doing back then. The Dutch-American guitarist was part of almost the second generation of players after Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison and John Lennon. So he was an evolution of what they have done in the 60s and what other legendary guitarists created in the early 70s, since Van Halen was formed in 1972 and only had the chance to release their debut album in 1977.

McCartney had already praised Eddie four years before the Guitar Player interview. It was in a conversation with Rolling Stone magazine in 1986, where he said Van Halen was great but he thought Jimi Hendrix was really the best. “I have very fond memories of Jimi. I mean, Van Halen’s great, I love Eddie Van Halen, But I still think Jimi was the best,” Paul McCartney said.

David Gilmour

Paul McCartney also said he liked the legendary Pink Floyd guitarist and singer David Gilmour, who worked with him in the 80s in the track “No More Lonely Nights”. That song was released on McCartney’s “Give My Regards to Broad Street” fifth solo studio album, which was actually the soundtrack of the movie of the same name, which was written by the Beatle.

He continues to like David Gilmour since he praised him in his book “The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present” released in 2021, calling him a genius. “David Gilmour plays the solo on the record (No More Lonely Nights). I’ve known him since the early days of Pink Floyd.”

“Dave is a genius of sorts, so I was pulling out all the stops. I admired his playing so much, I’d seen him around. I think he’d just done his solo ‘About Face’ album. So I rang him up and said, ‘Would you play on this?’ It sounded like his kind of thing,” Paul McCartney said.

Gilmour had the chance to perform with Paul McCartney at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. It was a really important place for The Beatles since it represented the early days of the band. That special concert happened in 1999 and besides the Pink Floyd guitarist there were many other great musicians. Were also part of the band the Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, guitarist Mick Green, keyboardist Pete Wingfield and Chris Hall who played the accordion.

Eric Clapton

“I think Clapton is real good, particularly these days,” Paul McCartney told Guitar Player magazine in 1990. It’s curious that he said “particularly these days”, because Clapton was already considered “God” by his fans for decades at the time. The musician had been a member of The Yardbirds, John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith and Derek & The Dominos, besides having a successful solo career.

The guitarist was a good friend of George Harrison and it was the only one who was not a member of The Beatles and ended up playing a guitar solo in one of their songs. Clapton was invited to do the solo in the Harrison track “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” back in 1968.

McCartney had the chance to share the stage with Eric Clapton in 2002, in the “Concert For George”. It was a tribute show that happened at the Royal Albert Hall in London, since the Beatle passed away one year earlier at the age of 58.

He considered starting a supergroup with Eric Clapton

In an interview with Mojo in 2024, Paul McCartney said that one of the possibilities he had in mind after the Beatles came to an end was to form a supergroup. One of the names he mentioned in the conversation was Eric Clapton.

“After the end of The Beatles I was faced with certain alternatives. One was to give up music entirely and do God knows what. Another was to start a super-band with very famous people, Eric Clapton and so on. I didn’t like either. So I thought: How did The Beatles start? It was a bunch of mates who didn’t know what they were doing.”

“That’s when I realized maybe there is a third alternative: to get a band that isn’t massively famous. To not worry if we don’t know what we’re doing. Because we would form our character by learning along the way. It was a real act of faith. It was crazy, actually,” Paul McCartney said.

Jimi Hendrix

Probably the obvious name in almost all the lists of favorite guitarists, Jimi Hendrix was also mentioned by Paul McCartney. But he is not only one of his favorites, the Beatle already said he is the best of all time.

McCartney was one of the few lucky people on earth who were able to see Jimi Hendrix live. He recalled that moment in a TV interview back in the 80s. “Jimi Hendrix, it’s gotta be Jimi (The best guitarist of all time). Oh man, great guy. I knew him a little bit because he kind of got discovered over here (In the UK) really, even though he’d been working a long time in America.”

“I think I was possibly at one of his first gigs down a place called The Bag of Nails. (Which) is a club I used to go to. Actually it’s where I met Linda (McCartney). He just sort of shambled on stage one night. We never really used to bother with the live acts. We used to be more interested in the records.”

He continued:

“The live acts weren’t always that good but he had these very big amps. We were wondering what he was going to do with them. So suddenly this (big noise starts) and we just (were amazed). There were not many people there that night. But a couple of nights later he played again and everyone was there. It was like me, (Pete) Townshend, (Eric) Clapton, all like paying homage already to this man,” Paul McCartney said.

Even more than five decades after Hendrix’s death and with a huge catalog of songs that can be played in his shows, McCartney pays tribute to Hendrix. During his tours he often performs an excerpt of “Foxy Lady” in every show. It was played right after the Wings hit “Let Me Roll It”.