Let’s Talk About That Rolling Stone ‘Greatest Guitarists Of All Time’ List, Shall We?

Listen, I haven’t been an avid reader of Rolling Stone magazine in 30 years. It was my go-to music rag in high school when I wanted to read interviews with my favorite artists. I also was an avid reader of the album reviews and current events stuff. But they changed. They became more of a pop culture magazine, cutting reviews and album deep dives down in favor of getting into more politics and clickbait-y articles before clickbait was a thing.

Bottom line: Music felt like an afterthought.

So when I heard about their 250 greatest guitarists of all time list I didn’t think much of it. I figured it’d be the usual suspects interspersed with indie rock stalwarts, new blood, and cowtowing to an audience that really doesn’t know what a “great guitarist” is. After watching Rick Beato’s post on his Youtube channel about the list and his utter shock at both who was left off and who was included I wanted to give it a look. I did. It was as bad as I figured, and even a little worse.

In my opinion, a list of the world’s greatest guitarists of all time needs to include technically proficient, melodically brilliant ,and just plain mind-blowingly skilled musicians. If this was a list of the greatest artists…that play guitar…well, then this list would be far more accurate. Or, the world’s most innovative guitar players. Or guitarists that changed what it means to be a guitarist. Those stipulations would make this list far more palpable and understandable. But it’s not. It’s 250 of the greatest guitarists of ALL TIME. The Dessner brothers from The National are at 243. Allan Holdsworth is at…oh wait, he’s NOT on this list at all. Leslie West is at 245. I LOVE The National as an indie rock band that write intellectual adult alternative music. The Dessners write amazing songs. They’re not better guitarists than Leslie West.

That’s just an example.

Lita Ford is ranked higher that Nuno Bettencourt. What? Once again, great songwriter and performer…but a better guitar player than the guy that wrote “Play With Me” and “Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee”? No way.

Here’s another head scratcher, John Mayer is ranked at 61. Steve Vai is 127, Adrian Belew is 118, Nels Cline is 115, Joe Satriani is 94, Ritchie Blackmore is 75, and John McLaughlin is 72. That seems completely insane to me. Mayer is a great guitar player, I’m not saying he’s not. But do his skills surpass Steve Vai or Ritchie Blackmore? Has his playing had a bigger mark on the world of guitar playing more than Adrian Belew and John McLaughlin? Sorry, but no way.

Taste and opinion are subjective, but a list like this needs to be objective. Put aside your opinions on hair metal, prog, and jazz and look purely at skill. So many of these choices are objectively mute. You can objectively figure out that Neil Young is not as great of a guitarist as someone like Allan Holdsworth or UFO’s Michael Schenker(not on the list.) Neil Young is a legendary songwriter and performer, but his guitar skills are limited. He’s amazing at what he does. But what he doesn’t do is play mind-blowing riffs.

Kurt Cobain, Doug Gillard(Guided By Voices), and Steve Jones(Sex Pistols)? C’mon. These choices are pandering to a crowd that could give two shits about the art of guitar playing. I love Nirvana as much as the next guy that graduated high school in 1992, but Cobain admitted he had no idea what the names of the chords were.

I think everyone on this list are talented. St. Vincent, Mary Timony, Carrie Brownstein, Robert Fripp, Marnie Stern, Duane Allman? Yes. They’ve contributed to the world of guitar playing in a significant way, and are all amazing players. Has John Frusciante and Tom Morello contributed more to the guitar than Paul Gilbert? Yeah, I don’t think so. If popularity and culture were the main factors then I guess that would be different. But greatest guitarists of all time should be based on what the player does with a guitar and their hands, not cultural relevance.

I feel like RS figured they’d throw us a bone by putting Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck in the top ten. And of course Hendrix at number one. Hendrix should most definitely be in the top ten, but number one? Ehh.

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Here’s a list of guitar players that were left off this list and should have been included, IMO. I feel maybe some were honestly overlooked, while others weren’t included because they came out of the 80s metal scene and not seen as “cool”.

I’m curious, who do you think should have been on this list? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Uli Roth(Scorpions/Solo)
Matt Sweeney(Chavez, Superwolf)
Josh Homme(Queens of the Stone Age)
Billy Corgan(Smashing Pumpkins)
Ash Bowe/Dave Brylawski(Polvo)
Vito Bratta(White Lion)
Paul Gilbert(Racer X/Mr. Big)
Robin Trower(Procol Harum/Solo)
Vinnie Moore(Solo)
Allan Holdsworth
John Scofield
Kenny Burrell
Greg Howe(Solo)
Michael Schenker(UFO/Michael Schenker Group)
Marty Friedman(Solo/Megadeth)
Jason Becker(Solo/David Lee Roth)
Yngwie Malmsteen
Brad Gillis(Night Ranger)
Neal Schon(Journey/Bad English)
James Mankey(Concrete Blonde)
John Norum(Europe/Solo)

And also, these folks:

John 5, Buckethead, Gary Moore, Dave Pajo, Terry Kath, Alvin Lee, Dweezil Zappa, Vivian Campbell, John Sykes, Adrian Vandenberg, Stanley Jordan, Reeves Gabrels.