Many times the most technically accomplished guitarists, although acknowledged as musical virtuosos, really don’t become true superstars in terms of mass popularity. Which musical superstars were also technically accomplished guitar “wizards”?
Sérgio Mendes comes to mind. And George Segal on banjo
Not sure of his overall popularity but I believe he does very well is Tommy Emmanuel from Australia
George Benson?
Another person I thought of was Carlos Santana. Is that the type of commercial success you are thinking OP?
Eddie Van Halen
Stevie Ray Vaughn (although he didn’t do much for me personally)
Dave Gilmour
Alex Lifeson
I don’t know if the last two had superstar status like Kiss had it, but their respective bands pack/packed them in.
I think Steve Vai and Joe Satriani have pretty high profiles as largely solo guitar virtuosoes, especially Vai in the 1980s.
But he is not someone I would characterize as a technical virtuoso - he, like say, David Gilmour, is incredibly tasteful with what they do - but the basic notes/chords they are playing are not all that tough.
- Jeff Beck (for those of you that know me, you know I had to start with him ;))
- George Benson
- Steve Vai
- Joe Satriani
- Steve Howe of Yes
- Brian Setzer of the Stray Cats/BSOrchestra - he had his days of superstardom and is totally a virtuoso
- Mark Knopfler - hey, his no-pick style can be very hard to do
- Chet Atkins - should probably be at the top of this list
- Lindsey Buckingham
- Eddie Van Halen - but in a very different way than, say, Vai and Satch - all three can shred, but EVH is self-taught and follows no set technique, whereas the other two are totally schooled
- Stevie Ray Vaughn
- Jimi Hendrix - okay, some slop in his playing, but he innovated on so many guitar techniques that are standard today…
- Vince Gill
- Brad Paisley
Okay, maybe Vai and Satriani aren’t “hugely popular musical superstars” but they have been very popular and have reps for being virtuosos…and while I love Jimmy Page, he is more of an innovator, songwriter and riff master than he is a technical virtuoso…
'sall I got for now…
WordMan: I own a couple of Steve Howe albums, and yet find it hard to think of him even remotely being a ‘superstar’. My guess is that he’s generally unfamiliar outside the old fart community. On the other hand, though I find the OP’s criteria unclear, I like your mention of Vince Gill, who probably would be a big star even without his amazing guitar playing
A wide band “superstar” as in be able to fill stadiums, have platinum albums, and have fairly high levels of name recognition among the general music listening public of either their name or the name of group they play with. Not just a “star” within a narrow cohort of dedicated fans or sophisticated music aficionados.
Les Paul. He wasn’t all electronics.
Jimi Hendrix
EVH
SRV
Santana
Jimmy Page
Eric Clapton
All filled arenas.
Keith Urban
It might be easier to ask the question in reverse. Which hugely popular musical superstars are also very technically accomplished guitar players? You still have to define your terms, though.
I’ve known for years that truly accomplished musicians are rarely known as such by the vast majority of non-musicians. Even in this thread people are naming people like David Gilmour and Alex Lifeson. I love both Rush and Pink Floyd, but virtuosos? Not even close (and they would both agree).
The actual virtuoso guitarists are, for the most part, not well known enough to be considered “superstars”. Al DiMeola? John McLaughlin? Steve Morse? John Petrucci? Larry Coryell? Larry Carlton? Earl Klugh? Jimmy Herring? (off the top of my head) Virtuosos, all IMO. But how many of their names are household words?
Even the better known guitarists (some already mentioned) like Jeff Beck, Tommy Emmanuel, Kaki King, Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes are hardly as well known as Madonna or Elvis (although they would be in a better world).
People like what they like. Nothing wrong with that, but your favorite guitarist isn’t a virtuoso simply because you like their music or because your “friend who plays guitar” can’t figure out their licks.
There are a lot of really (really, really) good guitarists named in this thread, but I think only EVH and SRV (and maybe Jimi would have) fit both categories. And even them, just barely. (Innovation? Hell, yeah, but virtuosity? Not so sure. Define the term.)
It seems kind of odd to me. Why are Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma - both virtuosos in their respective instruments - household names, but these “virtuoso guitarists” aren’t?
Yes was big in their day - certainly anyone tapped into music knew of them and knew their work. And Howe was the Poster Child for Guitar Player’s Guitarist of the Year (or whatever its called) award; he won it, like, one million times. I kid you not ;).
Vince Gill was a session ace well before he broke out as a performer, so he earned his chops the hard way. Which means I should probably also mention Glen Campbell, who was also a session ace and could play just about freakin’ anything, even if he does [guitar snob] favor Ovations [/guitar snob].
And **Keith Urban **is a great player, but not a virtuoso - not up there with Paisley, say, who knows his way around a Telecaster.
And as for why some of these virtuosos - folks like Roy Buchanan and Danny The Humbler Gatton or Ry Cooder, for instance - are not well known vs., say Yo Yo Ma. Well, you have room in your brain for one, maybe two good cellist’s names, so Ma stuck. Same with Violinists, jazz trumpeters, blues pianists, etc. - for your average, reasonably well-informed music fan. You could probably squeeze out a few dozen guitarist’s name easily, and if you are remotely geeky about guitar (and there are more guitar geeks than there are jazz trumpeter geeks) you could probably name a few hundred. So I guess its a traffic / volume issue. You can get your sense of expertise from enough other folks that you don’t need to seek out the smaller players…
Absolutely…they packed arenas through the 1970s. And, when Howe left Yes in the early 80s, his next group, Asia, was also huge for its first few years (at least, their first two albums).
He may not have as much recognition today, but for about 10-15 years, he was the guitarist for some pretty big bands…and, as WordMan noted, he won that Guitar Player of the Year award consistently.
Would Prince qualify as a virtuoso? All I know is he’s a hell of a guitar player.
How about Robin Trower?
Derek Trucks
Warren Haynes
Yes, I did in fact see the Allman Brothers (and WSP) last night. Woot!