Brian May has no doubt in his mind when naming the greatest guitarist of all time. As he says in a new interview: “Jimi Hendrix, for me, will always be the ultimate guitar god.”
Speaking on BBC2’s The Rock Show with Shaun Keaveny, the Queen legend recalls the impact that Hendrix had on him as a young hopeful.
He tells Keaveny he was, and remains, “completely a fan of Jimi”.
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May says of the moment when he first heard Hendrix: “It blew me away so badly I remember thinking to myself, ‘Either I have to give up guitar playing or really take this a bit more seriously.’ Because he just changed the vocabulary of the guitar. Made it a different instrument.”
May has frequently hailed Hendrix as one his key influences. As reported by Guitar Player, May described the experience of witnessing Hendrix perform live as humbling and awe-inspiring.
He recalled: “When I saw Hendrix, I thought, ‘Oh my God. This guy is doing everything that I was trying to do.’ He just made me feel like I couldn’t play. It makes you feel very uncomfortable when you thought you knew everything that was going on, and then suddenly somebody comes along who seems to be doing all sorts of things you hadn’t even thought of.”
In 2020, May said in an interview with Total Guitar editor Chris Bird that he continued to find new inspiration whenever he returned to Hendrix’s music.
He stated: “Jimi is, of course, my number one. And I’ve always said that. To me, he’s still something superhuman. It’s like he really did come from an alien planet, and I will never know quite how he did what he did.
“And every time I go back to Hendrix, I’m thrilled and stunned, and I get that feeling all over again, like either I’m going to give up playing guitar, because I can’t face up to this, or I’m gonna really have to get into it in a big way and try and do what is in my own body and soul.”
He concluded: “I never stop learning from Jimi. Strangely enough, these days I very seldom play his stuff but it’s kind of inside me anyway.”
