100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time ( 25 - 1 )

#22

"When I was learning how to play guitar, I was obsessed with that album," Phish's Trey Anastasio said in 2005 of Frank Zappa's 1981 collection of intricate and blistering solos, Shut Up 'n' Play Yer Guitar. "Every boundary that was possible on the guitar," Anastasio said, "was examined by him in ways that other people didn't." As the absolute boss of his bands, including the legendary lineups of the Mothers of Invention, Zappa fused doo-wop, urban blues, big-band jazz and orchestral modernism with an iron hand. As a guitarist, he drew from all of those sources, then improvised with a furious and genuine delight. His soloing on "Willie the Pimp," on 1969's Hot Rats, is an extended studio party of greasy distortion, chomping wah-wah and agitatedblues slaloms. In concert, Zappa would "walk around, doing his thing, conducting," Anastasio recalled. But when he picked up his guitar for a solo, "he was completely in communion with his instrument... It just became soul music."

Key Tracks: "Willie the Pimp," "In-a-Gadda-Stravinsky"

#23

Buddy Guy got used to people calling his guitar style a bunch of noise – from his family back in rural Louisiana, who chased him out of the house for making a racket, to Chess Records heads Phil and Leonard Chess, who, he says, "wouldn't let me get loose like I wanted" on sessions with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter. But as a new generation of rockers discovered the blues, Guy's fretwork became a major influence on titans from Jimi Hendrix to Jimmy Page. Guy's flamboyant playing – huge bends, prominent distortion, frenetic licks – on such classics as "Stone Crazy" and "First Time I Met the Blues," and his collaborations with the late harp master Junior Wells, raised the standard for six-string fury. His showmanship, complete with midsolo strolls through the audience, remains electrifying at age 75. "He was for me what Elvis was probably like for other people," said Eric Clapton at Guy's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2005. "My course was set, and he was my pilot."

Key Tracks: "Stone Crazy," "First Time I Met the Blues"

#24

"I don't regard myself as a soloist," AC/DC's lead guitarist has said of his manic style. "It's a color; I put it in for excitement." Alice in Chains' Jerry Cantrell called him "the absolute god of blues-rock guitar." The approach that Angus Young and his rhythm-guitar-playing brother, Malcolm, developed in AC/DC's early years – high-speed pentatonic runs over thunderous power-chord licks – became a hard-rock tradition, and millions of guitarists the world over have his "Back in Black" and "Highway to Hell" licks imprinted on their brains. "Malcolm and Angus have done more with three chords than any other human being," said Slash. Angus Young's onstage persona –l schoolboy outfits, duckwalking like a pint-size Chuck Berry – is as colorful as his playing. "He's like Clark fucking Kent!" AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson told Rolling Stone in 2008. "He goes into a phone booth and comes out as the 14-year-old imp, ready to rock!"

Key Tracks: "Highway to Hell," "Bad Boy Boogie"

#25

I remember the first time I heard Black Sabbath. My older brother got their album Master of Reality from a kid who lived next door, and we'd been passing it around like it was crack. We were playing it with the lights down and a candle burning, when my dad burst into the room. He was like, "What is this shit?" Then he broke the record right in front of us. But the music had just struck me like lightning. I truly enter the Iommi-sphere every time I put a guitar on. Tony is a metal pioneer, but there's a real finesse to his playing; it's not all that fast. His phrasing has such a classic vibe, and I draw a lot of inspiration from Tony's trilling.

I injured myself at a Black Sabbath reunion concert in 1999. During "Snowblind," we were all holding each other, and then we fell over and I hit a chair and broke my ribs. I was like, "Fuck, it hurts so bad, but I don't want to leave. I have to keep watching Tony play!"

Key Tracks: "Iron Man," "Sabbra Cadabra," "Children of the Grave"