Blues
Tracii Guns says Eric Clapton is overrated
The L.A. Guns co-founder and guitarist Tracii Guns said in an interview with Dee Snider on the Shout it Out Loudcast, that the legendary guitarist Eric Clapton is actually overrated. He also said that in his opinion, the late Jeff Beck was always the best one in The Yardbirds.
Advertisement
Tracii Guns says Eric Clapton is overrated
(Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar) “Cream, for me, cream would be Clapton’s pinnacle. It’s like, dirty guitar sounds, wah-wah pedal, man, fuckin’ going for it. But after that, he didn’t do that. But when he was in the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck, man — he’s got the fuzz pedal, he’s got the wah-wah pedal. He was moving forward, and then this excuse [for Clapton], ‘Well, yeah, but he’s a blues guy.’ Everybody’s a fucking blues guy!”
“I’m not trying to bang on Clapton… But, you know, you talk about underrated guys. What about the fucking overrated guys? You’re gonna put Clapton with Jeff Beck? In what reality? I could do without Clapton, you know? I could do without his personality, but the Yardbirds are my second favorite band, because that’s the precursor to Zeppelin. Also, I have everything they ever recorded, demo tapes, everything. Clapton ain’t the guy, man, Beck’s the guy,” Tracii Guns said.
Tracii Guns was born in Los Angeles, California in 1966 and besides being the founding member of L.A. Guns, is also one of the co-founders of Guns N’ Roses. But he left the Axl Rose group shortly after the band was formed and was replaced by Slash.
L.A. Guns had already released 14 studio albums, the most recent one being “Black Diamonds” in 2023. Besides him, the band’s current line-up has Phil Lewis (Vocals), Adam Hamilton (Drums), Johnny Martin (Bass), Ace Von Johnson (Guitar) and Shawn Duncan (Drums).
Tracii was also part of supergroups like Brides of Destruction and Contraband.
