If I have to limit my choice to five of the guitar players that had the biggest influence on my playing it would be Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Carlos Santana, Jeff Beck and Jerry Garcia. There are many others, most notably David Lindley, Jeff Pevar, Walter Becker, Jimmy Page and Albert Collins that quickly come to mind – and there are others.

I always look for players that move me – by playing from the heart and “saying something” with their tone and choices – and I always play as if my musical heroes are in the crowd listening. I’m not looking to impress the drunk guy oblivious to what is happening…it’s the person that comes to here MUSIC that I play for.

Notes are just notes without soul and depth behind them. If you knew that tonight’s show was the last time you would ever play guitar again would you make every note mean more? Would you try to brush against the eternal and touch the timeless beauty of life with every solo, every song?