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Rolling Stone's 100 greatest guitarists of all time
Rolling Stone's The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time is a published list of experienced guitarists who were rated as the top one hundred by Rolling Stone magazine. The list was released in August 2003, and each musician was given his or her own description page, as well as an accompanying photo.
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Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is often considered to be the greatest electric guitarist in the history of rock music by other...
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Duane Allman
Howard Duane Allman (November 20, 1946 – October 29, 1971) was an American lead guitarist, co-founder of the Southern rock group The Allman Brothers Band, and respected session musician. He is best remembered for his brief but influential tenure in...
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B.B. King
Riley B. King (born September 16, 1925), known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter acclaimed for his expressive singing and guitar playing.
Critical acclaim and widespread popularity have cemented his...
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Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE (born 30 March 1945) is an English blues-rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Clapton has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Yardbirds, of Cream, and as a solo performer, being...
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Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician, among the most famous of Delta blues musicians. His landmark recordings from 1936–1937 display a remarkable combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting...
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Chuck Berry
Charles Edward "Chuck" Berry (born October 18, 1926) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter.
Chuck Berry is one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's website, "While no individual can be said...
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Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan (born Stephen Ray Vaughan; October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Eighteen albums of Vaughan's work have been released. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Stevie Ray Vaughan #7 in...
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Ry Cooder
Ryland "Ry" Peter Cooder (born 15 March 1947, in Los Angeles, California) is an American guitarist, singer and composer.
He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in blues-rock, roots music from his native North America, and, more recently...
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Jimmy Page
James Patrick Page OBE (born 9 January 1944) is an English guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he...
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Keith Richards
Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943) is an English guitarist, songwriter, singer, record producer and a founding member of The Rolling Stones. As a guitarist, Richards is mostly known for his innovative rhythm playing. In 2003 he was ranked 10th...
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Kirk Hammett
Kirk Lee Hammett (born November 18, 1962) is the lead guitarist and a songwriter in the band Metallica and has been a member of the band since 1983. Before joining Metallica he formed and named the band Exodus. In 2003 Hammett was ranked 11th in...
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Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – c. April 5, 1994) was an American musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of the rock band Nirvana.
With the lead single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from Nirvana's second album...
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Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for his work with the band the Grateful Dead. Though he vehemently disavowed the role, Garcia was viewed by many as the leader or "spokesman" of the...
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Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He was one of the three noted guitarists — the others being Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page — to have played with The Yardbirds. He was ranked 14th in Rolling Stone Magazine's...
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Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana (born July 20, 1947) is a Mexican-born American Grammy Award-winning rock musician and guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered a blend of rock, salsa and...
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Johnny Ramone
John William Cummings (October 8, 1948 – September 15, 2004), better known by the stage name Johnny Ramone, was the guitarist for the seminal punk rock group The Ramones. He was a founding member of the band, and along with vocalist Jeffrey Hyman,...
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Jack White
Jack White (born John Anthony Gillis; July 9, 1975), often credited as Jack White III, is an American musician, record producer, and occasional actor, best known as the guitarist and lead vocalist for The White Stripes.
During the 1990s, White was a...
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John Frusciante
John Anthony Frusciante (pronounced [fruːˈʃɑːnteɪ] (help·info)) (born March 5, 1970) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the guitarist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he has...
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Richard Thompson
Richard John Thompson (born 3 April 1949 in Notting Hill, West London) is a British songwriter, guitar player and recording and performing musician.
Thompson is especially well regarded as a guitar player. In 1991 he was awarded the Orville H....
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James Burton
James Burton (born August 21, 1939, in Minden, Louisiana) is an American guitarist. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2001 (his induction speech was given by longtime fan Keith Richards), Burton has also been recognized by the...
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George Harrison
George Harrison MBE (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English rock guitarist, singer-songwriter and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist in The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced...
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Mike Bloomfield
Michael Bernard Bloomfield (July 28, 1943 – February 15, 1981) was an American musician, guitarist, and composer, born in Chicago, Illinois, who became one of the first popular music superstars of the 1960s to earn his reputation entirely on his...
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Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes (born April 6, 1960) is an American rock and blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter of Gov't Mule and long time member of the Allman Brothers Band. Haynes also founded and runs Evil Teen Records, and is a member of the Dead.
Haynes...
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The Edge
David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), more widely known by his nickname and stage name The Edge (or simply just Edge), is an Irish musician known best as the guitarist, keyboardist, and main backing vocalist for the Irish rock band U2. His...
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Freddie King
Freddie King also known as Freddy King and "The Texas Cannonball" (born September 3, 1934, Died December 28, 1976), was an influential Afro-American blues guitarist and singer. He perfected his own guitar style based on Texas and Chicago influences...
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Tom Morello
The Nightwatchman is the alter-ego and solo act of Rage Against the Machine, ex-Audioslave and Street Sweeper Social Club guitarist Tom Morello, which he created in 2003 as an outlet for his political views while playing non-political music with...
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Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler OBE (born 12 August 1949, Glasgow, Scotland) is a British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer.
Mark Knopfler is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for the British rock band Dire...
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Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills (born January 3, 1945, Dallas, Texas) is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young). He has performed on a professional level in several...
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Ron Asheton
Ronald Frank Asheton (July 17, 1948 – c. January 6, 2009) was an American guitarist and co-songwriter with Iggy Pop for the rock band The Stooges.
Asheton is ranked as number 29 on Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.
Asheton...
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Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936) is a five-time Grammy Award-winning American blues guitarist and singer. Known as an inspiration to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and many other guitarists, Guy is considered an important...
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Dick Dale
Dick Dale (born Richard Anthony Monsour on May 4, 1937, in Boston, Massachusetts) is a surf-rock guitarist, known as "The King Of The Surf Guitar". He experimented with reverberation and made use of custom made Fender amplifiers, including the first...
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John Cipollina
John Cipollina (August 24, 1943 - May 29, 1989) was a guitarist best known for his role as a founder and the lead guitarist of the San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service.
Born in Berkeley, California, he attended Tamalpais High School...
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Thurston Moore
Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958 in Coral Gables, Florida) is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as...
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Lee Ranaldo
Lee M. Ranaldo (born February 3, 1956) is an American singer, guitarist, writer and record producer, best known as a co-founder of the rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Ranaldo and Thurston Moore, of Sonic Youth, the 33rd and 34th...
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John Fahey
John Fahey (February 28, 1939 – February 22, 2001) was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who pioneered the steel-string guitar as a solo instrument. His style has been greatly influential and has been described as American Primitivism,...
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Steve Cropper
Steve "The Colonel" Cropper (born October 21, 1941) is an American guitarist, songwriter and producer. As part of the Stax Records house band Booker T. & The MG's, he played on hundreds of recordings by Stax artists such as Otis Redding, Sam & Dave,...
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Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley (December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), born Ellas Otha Bates, was an American rock & roll singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He was known as "The Originator" because of his key role in the transition from blues music to rock & roll,...
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Peter Green
Peter Green (born Peter Allen Greenbaum, 29 October 1946, in Bethnal Green, London) is a British blues-rock guitarist and founder of the band Fleetwood Mac.
A figurehead in the "second great epoch" of the British blues movement, Green inspired B. B....
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Brian May
Brian Harold May, CBE, (born 19 July 1947 in London, England) is an English musician and astrophysicist most widely known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen. As a guitarist he uses his home built guitar, "Red Special", and has composed...
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John Fogerty
John Cameron Fogerty (born May 28, 1945) is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock/roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival and as a #1 solo recording artist. He was born in Berkeley,...
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Clarence White
Clarence White (born Clarence LeBlanc) (June 7, 1944 – July 15, 1973) was a guitar player for Nashville West, The Byrds, Muleskinner, and the Kentucky Colonels. His parents were French-Canadians from New Brunswick, Canada. The father, Eric LeBlanc,...
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Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946 in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England) is a guitarist, composer and a record producer best known for being the guitarist for, and only constant member of, the progressive rock band King Crimson. His work, spanning five...
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Eddie Hazel
Edward Earl "Eddie" Hazel (April 10, 1950 – December 23, 1992) was a pioneering and influential guitarist in early funk music in the United States, most famous for his lead guitar work with Parliament-Funkadelic. Hazel is a member of the Rock and...
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Scotty Moore
Winfield Scott "Scotty" Moore III (born December 27, 1931 near Gadsden, Tennessee) is an American guitarist. He is best known for his backing of Elvis Presley in the first part of his career, between 1954 and the beginning of Elvis' Hollywood years....
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Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, electronic, orchestral, and musique concrète...
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Les Paul
Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009) — known as Les Paul — was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which "made the sound of rock...
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T-Bone Walker
T-Bone Walker (May 28, 1910 — March 16, 1975) was an American blues guitarist, singer, pianist and songwriter who was one of the most important pioneers of the electric guitar. His electric guitar solos were among the first heard on modern blues...
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Joe Perry
Anthony Joseph Perry (born September 10, 1950, Lawrence, Massachusetts) is the lead guitarist, backing and occasional lead vocalist, and contributing songwriter for the rock band Aerosmith. He was ranked 48th in the Rolling Stone's list - The 100...
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Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend (pronounced /ˈtaʊnzənd/; born 19 May, 1945) is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for The Who, as well as for his own solo career. His...
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Paul Kossoff
Paul Francis Kossoff (14 September 1950 – 19 March 1976) was a rock guitarist best known as a member of the band Free.
Kossoff was ranked 51st in Rolling Stone magazine list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time"
Kossoff—son of the noted...
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Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed (born March 2, 1942) is an American rock musician best known as the guitarist, vocalist and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground as well as a successful solo artist whose career has spanned several decades. The...
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Mickey Baker
Mickey Baker, also known as Mickey "Guitar" Baker (born MacHouston Baker, October 15, 1925, Louisville, Kentucky) is an American guitarist. He is widely held to be a critical force in the bridging of rhythm and blues and rock and roll, along with Bo...
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Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr. (born December 23, 1940 in Washington, D.C.) is an American blues, folk and rock guitarist.
Born to a Finnish American father and a Jewish American mother, employed by the U.S. foreign service, Kaukonen was a founding...
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Ritchie Blackmore
Richard Hugh "Ritchie" Blackmore (born 14 April 1945 in Weston-super-Mare, UK) is an English guitarist, who was a founding member of hard rock bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. He left Deep Purple in 1993 due to a growing rift between Blackmore and...
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Tom Verlaine
Tom Verlaine (born Thomas Miller, December 13, 1949, in Morristown, New Jersey) is a singer, songwriter and guitarist, best-known as the frontman for the New York rock band Television.
Tom Verlaine began his life as Thomas Miller. He began studying...
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Roy Buchanan
Roy Buchanan (September 23, 1939 - August 14, 1988) was an American guitarist and blues musician. A pioneer of the Telecaster sound, Buchanan was a sideman and solo artist, with two gold albums early in his career, and two later solo albums charting...
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Richard Betts
Forrest Richard "Dickey" Betts (born December 12, 1943) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, most known for his work as a founding member, with Duane Allman, of the southern blues/rock group The Allman Brothers Band. Dickey Betts was...
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Ed O'Brien
Edward John O'Brien (born 15 April 1968, in Oxford, England) is a member of Radiohead. He plays guitar and is responsible for harmony vocals during live concerts and on many tracks from the band's albums (with drummer Phil Selway). He has also...
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Jonny Greenwood
Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood (born 5 November 1971) is a BAFTA and Grammy-nominated musician and composer-in-residence for the BBC, best known as a member of English alternative rock group Radiohead. Greenwood is a multi-instrumentalist, but...
