Compiled by Andrew Daly, Joe Bosso and Damian Fanelli
GUITAR WORLD SPECIAL ISSUE
A horde of guitar stars — including Dave Mustaine, Marty Friedman, Scott Ian, Joe Bonamassa, Paul Gilbert and Nita Strauss (not to mention Blackbyrd McKnight, Steve Stevens, Gavin Rossdale, Nancy Wilson and K.K. Downing) choose the Nineties’ best stuff
WHAT WAS THE greatest guitar solo of the Nineties? How about the best riff? The ultimate guitar album? The decade’s most underappreciated player? Was Seinfeld really better than Beavis and Butt-Head? Burning questions, all of them. But instead of answering them ourselves, we decided to open things up to a mess of guitar stars, some of whom were already doing their thing 28 years ago, and some who weren’t even born yet. We asked them to answer these nine questions about the Nineties — and to elaborate whenever/wherever they deemed it necessary:
1. Guitarist of the decade
2. Ultimate guitar album
3. Greatest guitar solo
4. Best riff
5. Best TV show
6. Underappreciated guitar hero
7. Piece of gear that screams “Nineties”
8. Doc Martens or Converse?
9. Pop-song guilty pleasure.
And now, let us kick things off with…
DAVE MUSTAINE
GUITARIST OF THE DECADE:
“Dimebag” Darrell Abbott
GUITAR ALBUM: Pantera, Cowboys from Hell SOLO: Marty Friedman, “Tornado of Souls” RIFF: Kurt Cobain, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” TV SHOW: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit UNDERAPPRECIATED HERO: Yngwie Malmsteen GEAR: Marshall JCM800 DOCS OR CONVERSE: Converse GUILTY PLEASURE: No guilt here.
MARTY FRIEDMAN
GUITARIST OF THE DECADE: All the guys who were great then are even better now, so it would do them a disservice to relegate them to one decade in the past. How’s that for an evasive answer?
GUITAR ALBUM: Trouble’s Manic Frustration. Check it out!
SOLO: Jason Becker on David Lee Roth’s “It’s Showtime”
RIFF: “It Ain’t Like That” by Alice in Chains — or anything played by anyone on the Clash of the Titans tour
TV SHOW: The Wonder Years
UNDERAPPRECIATED HERO: I sat in at this blues bar in Texas, and every single guitar player there wiped the floor with me. There are seriously great players everywhere. It’s probably safe to say that whoever your favorite guitar player is, he or she is underappreciated.
DOCS OR CONVERSE: Docs, but only because the heels are slightly higher.
