Episode 63.5 Top 5 Guitarists Part II

🎸 Part 2 is here! On this episode of Mandatory Music, we reveal the final two picks in our Top 5 Guitarists of All Time. Narrowing it down wasn’t easy — and these top spots sparked some real soul-searching.

If you caught Part 1, you already know our #5 through #3… now it’s time to crown the ultimate guitar heroes. 🎖️

Do our top two match yours? Or did we leave out your favorite entirely? Tune in, debate us in the comments, and let us know who you’d put on your Mount Rushmore of guitar gods.

Mandatory Music is proudly hosted and produced by Michael Heide and Sebastian Kwapich

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Thanks for listening and keep on rocking

Transcript

Michael (24:39.81)
 my number two is Tony Iommi. He's the original riff master. He's the, he's the, yeah, like he basically invented a genre. He had a catastrophic hand injury, overcame that he's left handed too, which I'm a left handed, but I play right handed guitar, but

Sebastian (24:47.775)
Yes.

Sebastian (24:53.183)
Nice.

The grandfather of heavy metal, Yeah.

Michael (25:08.568)
props to anyone that plays guitar left handed because it just looks weird. And that dude.

Sebastian (25:12.116)
Yep.

Well, they make left handed guitars now, but like back in the day, you had to flip the guitar and restring it and everything was backwards or upside down, I should say. So your knobs are at the top instead of the bottom, which is really weird. How do you play with like always hitting the knob with your wrist?

Michael (25:17.036)
Back then, you know, it wasn't more or less. Yeah, there were, they were a few and far between the left-handed. Yeah.

Right? Maybe we should ask Jimmy that one day.

Sebastian (25:31.264)
That's true. Hey, Jimmy, you listening up there or down there? I don't know.

Michael (25:33.644)
Yeah, you listen to us. but just the riffs alone, like his solos, he's a great solo player, but the man could write a riff and you know, the first two albums were in standard tuning and then they dropped it to the, the black Sabbath tuning, which I want me to see here. is basically C sharp standards. it's, it's out there, but it's man, when you get the guitar tuned into the Sabbath tuning and he was like,

Sebastian (25:43.05)
Yeah.

Michael (26:00.712)
It's master reality. I think it's everything after that was was in that tuning for the most part.

Sebastian (26:06.228)
The fascinating thing about Chone Omi that people probably may not know unless you're deep dive the lore of him as a guitarist is he had to adapt his guitar playing at a very early age because he had an accident which tore off the fingertips of two of his middle, second and third finger on his fretting hand, I believe. So he has to wear like caps on it.

Michael (26:30.796)
He's got like leather caps he wears on it. It's pretty neat.

Sebastian (26:32.914)
Yes, so you had to learn how to play guitar with basically two missing fingertips or adjust. So which

Michael (26:38.382)
Yeah. Yeah. And honestly, the dude wrote iron man, paranoid and war pigs. Like, you know, or if you want to go into the, yeah, the DO, all the DO stuff. Absolutely. Um, the final heaven and hell record, which yeah, like even the final heaven and hell record that came out in 2009, before Ronnie died, I still would put any metal record up against that as actual heavy metal.

Sebastian (26:46.836)
something neonites.

Sebastian (26:51.508)
Black Sabbath, the song Black Sabbath.

arguably the most metal riff of all time.

Michael (27:08.384)
It is, man, it's heavy.

Sebastian (27:11.806)
He's definitely the grandfather of riff metal and riff rock for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. we'll go to my number two right now. And in my mind today, today, my, yeah, which will change after we get off this podcast for sure. This is the greatest in my mind, the greatest heavy metal lead guitarist of all time. Dimebag Darrell.

Michael (27:13.71)
Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. is. So yeah, for those reasons, he's my number two.

Michael (27:23.938)
Today, year number two.

Tomorrow. Yeah.

Michael (27:37.709)
All time.

Michael (27:41.24)
Yeah, that yes.

Sebastian (27:41.642)
from Pantera. His life is too short. But I'm telling you, you listen to the like all of Pantera's albums and listen to what he can do as a lead guitarist. And it's just there's nobody better. He's better than Dave Mustaine. He's obviously better than Kurt Camer. He's better. He's just he's he puts a solo like all of his solos for most of their songs fit perfectly for that song.

Michael (27:54.24)
No, it's, it's out of this world. yeah.

Michael (28:07.703)
Mm-hmm.

Sebastian (28:08.308)
You will never question the fact that my God, this doesn't really feel right, but you do with half of the Kirk Hammett solos and Metallica, especially off the newer albums, like 72 seasons. A lot of the riff work that he does or his lead work that he does, you're kind of like, I don't know if that was the right choice. I don't know if that really fits for the song, right? But like you look at, you know, the Cowboys from hell.

Michael (28:15.903)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Michael (28:22.658)
Right. It's. Yeah.

Sebastian (28:30.368)
the flanger at the beginning, right? The solo for that. You look at Cemetery Gates, which he wrote as well, a phenomenal song. Walk, such a simple riff, but it works so well. And, you know, his lead, what's the one song? Domination? Is that the song I'm thinking of?

Michael (28:33.133)
Yep.

Yep.

Michael (28:43.374)
where it's like this, it's like that's that one. that's domination. Well, yeah, and even this is his solo style. I always thought was so clean. Right, like his like.

Sebastian (28:47.252)
that screamy solo.

Sebastian (28:57.46)
He's very crisp for somebody that was constantly inebriated. His playing style is like what can. No.

Michael (29:01.922)
The dude, it never got sloppy. Like it was never sloppy, especially on studio records. He always came in and just played like a pro. And like you said, everything fit to a tee. Everything was crafted, well crafted.

Sebastian (29:14.088)
Yeah, you're right there. The tone, his lead tone is so good, right? And.

Michael (29:19.234)
Like, cause I understand Zach's filling his shoes right now in Pantera, but the, the distinct style or even the guitar sound, like this is, and I think a little bit. Cause it's yes. And dimes soloing or even get to five minutes alone. You for listening to that solo, it is just, it's just insane. Like what, like you could literally hear every note that is played hammered on, pulled off, picked, and it's like two,

Sebastian (29:23.456)
You

Sebastian (29:28.18)
Well, he's a sloppier player and you can tell on stage because.

Sebastian (29:42.282)
to listen to mouthful war, which, yeah. Yeah.

Michael (29:48.846)
he and there's no slop and it's just, I don't know. It's, don't know how he did it because nobody's been able to emulate it. Eddie was the only one that was close. And I think if dime would have lived longer, I think maybe he would have cemented himself onto the mantle of the Van Halen Hendrix mantle. I think.

Sebastian (29:59.24)
Yeah.

Sebastian (30:08.328)
He would have been up there. I mean, they already, there's already talk about him being like the great, like I, in my mind, he, he should have, he is in a conversation for the greatest heavy metal guitars of all time in terms of lead work and stuff. but yeah, you're right. Like when you listen to the studio albums, everything is so crisp and clean and they use mess of mega distortion too. So it's a very unique sound. Yeah.

Michael (30:16.812)
Yeah, absolutely.

Michael (30:27.444)
mega. Yeah. You just like put your hand near your guitar and it's already distorting. And it says, I don't know how he is that that right hand palm mute and those strings a bit was just, I don't know. The dude had technique for days.

Sebastian (30:39.252)
The interesting thing about him too is that like, he knows he has a good balance of like, okay, this is the time to play screamy fast licks. And then they did probably the best version of Planet Caravan I've ever heard in my life.

Michael (30:54.883)
it's way better than the original.

Sebastian (30:56.648)
And it's so haunting and slow and methodical and he he paces it properly for that song, right? So, yeah.

Michael (30:58.061)
Mm-hmm.

and clear, you can hear, yeah, yes. Absolutely wonderful, that's a great choice. That is an absolutely great choice. Whoa, way too soon. And my number one was gone way too soon as well. He died in 1990, helicopter crash, leaving a concert. had, all the greats were there at his quote unquote final show.

Sebastian (31:10.174)
Gone too soon, Gone too soon.

Sebastian (31:16.394)
Go for it.

Sebastian (31:26.996)
Yeah.

Michael (31:29.146)
And Stevie Ray Vaughan got in that chopper and he crashed and he passed away. And since for me, Stevie, there's just, I don't, I don't even know how to explain it. It's just.

Sebastian (31:40.99)
Dude, he took a Jimi Hendrix song and arguably made it better.

Michael (31:44.586)
He took, yeah, he was Jimi Hendrix reincarnated with just way more talent and the blues and a voice that could, you know, was just awesome. But his guitar playing that dude, even watching him live, there was a video on YouTube of him. He broke a string and he's in the middle of the solo. Have you seen that where he's, he's still playing the solo in like one and the dude, his guitar tech comes out and these, they're taking the string off, putting the new one in.

Sebastian (31:50.3)
and a blues feel to it. Yeah.

Sebastian (31:56.724)
Yeah.

Sebastian (32:03.496)
I've seen it. I've seen it. Like nothing's wrong.

Michael (32:13.406)
And he just, he, Stevie just gives it a couple of twists and it's in tune and he just keeps going. And you're like, what? Like, come on. Like I urge anyone out there to look up Steve Ray Vaughan broken string solo or whatever it's called and just, my God. But this and yeah.

Sebastian (32:22.984)
Yeah, it's... it's pretty.

It's pretty hilarious how you can just, without missing a beat, how you can just like switch what he's playing that still fit, whatever.

Michael (32:35.774)
And he made the blues cool because in the eighties, the blues weren't cool. Like no one cared about the blues. It was all like post-punk. was glam. was, you know, all this, all the stuff, the big hair, you know, what's that band I'm thinking of, whatever those, those bands and, all flock of seagulls. That's what I'm thinking of. But it was all that style of music. And Stevie was able to bring a three piece band when he started guitar, bass and drums and make a traditional.

Sebastian (32:48.084)
Yeah.

Sebastian (33:04.179)
Yeah.

Michael (33:05.614)
blues band be popular, right? And I still like, hasn't obviously, there has been no new music in a long time. His music still sounds fresh to me. I listen to it all the time and I have, you know, I have my favorite records. I think so. Like sure, you could say BB King, but Stevie, that dude, even just watching him jam, it was just like, what? Effortless, just, and apparently his strings.

Sebastian (33:06.826)
That's a good one, Mike, Stevie Rayvon, yeah.

Sebastian (33:19.54)
He's definitely the best blues guitarist ever. you know, he's for sure.

Sebastian (33:31.1)
Effortless. Yeah.

Michael (33:35.32)
were so thick, because that's how he got that meaty sound. Yeah, they were psycho heavy. Yeah, apparently normal people couldn't, I don't think his brother could play his guitar. It was like, I can't play it.

Sebastian (33:37.822)
Really? So he used like really thick strings. Wow.

Sebastian (33:49.524)
Dude, I can't imagine how many strings he broke though trying to bend those strings.

Michael (33:52.716)
Right? I don't know what the gauges of the strings were, but apparently near the end of his life, he was like, I need to, I'm getting older. My hands are starting to hurt from playing this, playing these strings. Like he was having to dial it, starting to think about dialing it back.

Sebastian (34:06.4)
Yeah, I can't imagine like playing all this lead work with like a 12 gauge first string, you know, normally they're like lead guitarists usually use like a nine or sometimes even an eight, whereas like rhythm guitarists will use like a 10 or 11. So but yeah, that's

Michael (34:16.514)
Right? Yeah. Oops.

I'm just quickly trying to look it up. yeah, he played, okay, so he played 12. So that was the high E string was a 12.

Sebastian (34:27.668)
That's like an acoustic guitar string. That's what usually used for acoustic guitar. So for those that don't know, the different strings have gauges on them anywhere from like an eighth to like a 50, I think. So usually your first string, which is your highest string, it's the E string will play mostly guitars. An electric guitar will use an eight or a nine because it's easier to bend because it's lighter and you can bend it quicker. The heavier the string is, the harder it is to bend.

Michael (34:30.349)
Yeah.

Sebastian (34:56.17)
Like putting a 12 gauge on your first string. God, can't imagine how many times he broke a string.

Michael (35:00.334)
This is contrary, this, okay, this is news. E, E played 13. 13, so the high E was 13, the B string was 15, the G was 19, the D was 28, the A was 38, and the E was a whopping 58.

Sebastian (35:05.668)
my god.

Sebastian (35:16.692)
Wow.

Michael (35:17.154)
So like you said, I can barely, I can't bend 10s. Like 10s are insane, even nines, especially when you haven't played in a while and you got no calisthenics in your hands, man. Even just, I couldn't imagine, cause...

Sebastian (35:21.735)
It takes,

Sebastian (35:27.52)
Yeah, whenever I don't play for a while and I pick up my guitar and I start playing like I gotta take a break after like 30 minutes and like they're like bleeding my hands. Yeah.

Michael (35:31.694)
Yeah. My head really hurts. Yeah. And even his vibrato, his bending skills, everything. Like his hands, he probably could have like, you could have moved walls or mountains with those hands. were so strong because I just, I don't get it. And a tour and play nonstop on that, on those gauges strings. Anyways, we don't even talk about the strings, but, he's, he's just so good. Like you say, he's, he's Jimmy Hendrix 2.0, but

Sebastian (35:49.609)
Yeah, that's a

Sebastian (35:55.647)
Yeah.

Michael (36:01.142)
like the upgraded version, it's like going from a 486 to, we're gonna talk computers now, from a 486 Pentium to what we have today. And you know, Henry, right? That's an interesting, dumb way to look at it, but it's true. Like you say, Jimmy was kind of sloppy and Stevie just kind of like dime bag, just took it and made it just incredibly clean and classy and just awesome. Anyways, Stevie Ray.

Sebastian (36:03.541)
Yeah.

Sebastian (36:11.481)
man, that's a, yeah.

Sebastian (36:16.518)
No, it makes sense to me. Yeah.

Sebastian (36:24.19)
Yeah.

Sebastian (36:27.592)
Yeah, that's a great one.

Michael (36:29.058)
He will always, and honestly, he will always be my number one. And that will never change for me, ever.

Sebastian (36:34.962)
Yeah, I will all say I'm more the traditionalist in terms of guitarist, whereas like Mike will branch out into like blues and jazz and bluegrass maybe slide. Yeah. And I'm like, give me the hard rock and metal. That's kind of where I fit. But I also listen to a lot of EDM. So but anyways, my number one guitarist currently. Really? Yeah, you'll make sense to you when I explain it. So we've seen him live before.

Michael (36:42.752)
Yeah, I like, I love me some slide and stuff like that and just, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Michael (36:53.326)
Number one, I have no idea where you're going with this either. Not a clue. No.

Sebastian (37:02.976)
And in my mind, he's one of the cleanest live guitarists I've ever seen play. His stuff that he does on stage is like this guy, sounds like we're listening to a record here. Like he's flawless. He's also most famously taught some of the greatest guitarists of all time. He's a graduate of Berkeley, I believe. Just to name a few people that he's been a guitar teacher for, Alex Skolnick, Steve Vai,

Michael (37:13.261)
Yes.

Michael (37:17.901)
He has.

Michael (37:28.792)
Yeah.

Sebastian (37:29.414)
and Kirk Hammett. So I'm talking about The Nun Other by Joe Satriani.

Michael (37:32.846)
He was gonna be on my list, but I left him off because I knew I had an inkling he was gonna be on yours.

Sebastian (37:37.195)
it's yeah, I don't listen to him as much as I would listen to like Metallica or Pantera or Megadeth, you know, like he comes. He comes sometimes, but he's at this point in his life, he's strictly an instrumental guitarist. And it's a lot of it is like, well, back when he became famous for that was like the late 80s, early 90s. And it was very like, super shreddy.

Michael (37:52.803)
Yes.

Michael (37:59.416)
Super shreddy. Yeah.

Sebastian (38:03.142)
Arguably the greatest wop pedal user in the history of music like it makes it sound When you listen to her Kirk Hammett use a wop pedal I'm like, yeah, he's using a wop pedal when you listen to Josie at so Joe Satriana use a wop pedal you forget he's using a wop pedal because it sounds so smooth and effortless if you need proof of that listen to surfing with the alien and I'll guarantee you you'll be like, yeah, he's using a wop pedal, but it doesn't sound like it

Michael (38:06.335)
I would agree with that.

Michael (38:25.39)
Yeah. Or I'll give you a better example of his wah work. It's on Strange Beautiful Music. It's the last song. It's You Save My Life. There's a real tender solo and it's just, it's super simple, but the wah work is just, the wah makes it, the wah work, the, um, this is use of the pedal just accentuates the solo and puts so much feel through his foot into his guitar, if that makes any sense.

Sebastian (38:36.01)
There you go.

The wall work. The wall work.

Sebastian (38:51.146)
Yeah. He's amazing.

Michael (38:52.798)
And in his music changed and like once the mid nineties came, he kind of started getting a little more melodic that the shred was leaving. And then he had a spell for me. Like he's one of my favorite guitar players of all time. And I didn't put them on the list just because like I said, cause I knew you would, like from crystal planet all the way from, so there was like a five album span, crystal planet, engines of creation, which was like a electronic record. So, and then there's more different. So he goes super melodic than he goes electronic.

Sebastian (39:05.888)
because you knew I would put them on the list.

Michael (39:21.228)
and then Strange Beautiful Music, Is There Love In Space, and am I missing one? then, my God. Yeah, anyways.

Sebastian (39:26.834)
Yeah, you make a good point there, Mike, that he does like have some growth in his style of music. Like if you listen to stuff in the 80s and 90s, it's so different than what he's doing now. Right. So

Michael (39:31.138)
Yeah, like.

Michael (39:37.042)
without a doubt. now it's even his more current music. I don't really dig it anymore. It's just, I don't know. I'd rather see him do other things than, I don't know, it's just, how many songs, how many can you write that sound different? But we're not talking about that. We're talking about the greatness. And that dude is a complete, he's like the grand master of the guitar.

Sebastian (39:55.518)
Yeah.

Sebastian (40:03.134)
That guy knows more about the guitar and like music theory than any human being I've probably like. Yeah, he knows like what works with this and what will sound like he could probably write a guitar solo without even touching the guitar. And it would be like a 10 out of 10 guitar solo. He's like Beethoven in this. Well, I don't want to compare to Beethoven because Beethoven is a one in a billion person like he's a special talent in terms of his music knowledge. yeah.

Michael (40:05.634)
Everything.

Like I swear to God, he knows everything about the guitar.

Michael (40:18.107)
yeah. Yes.

Michael (40:26.094)
But I think with the guitar, Satch is kind of that one, one in a million to have that much dedication to learn the instrument, make it sound, to be able to pull all the sounds you can possibly pull out of that guitar without really doing anything other than standard tuning for the most part. He always plays in E standard for the most part. So, right? So he's not having to experiment with open tunings or...

Sebastian (40:32.819)
Yeah.

Sebastian (40:49.344)
Yeah, it's true. Yeah.

Michael (40:54.35)
dropping this or going low, it's always just straight across the board, E standard.

Sebastian (40:58.964)
He also has that patented silver surfer reflective. I've been is, like the mirror guitar. Yeah.

Michael (41:03.95)
does. Well, that guitar is so cool. Like I'm not a big Ibanez fan in terms of if we go at like, if we ever do a list of like our top five, what our favorite guitars are. Um, and Ibanez would not be at probably even in my top 10 to be perfectly honest, but he makes that guitar look cool. And it's got like one pickup. It's super simple. There's nothing flashy about it. And it just, does the job for him. And it's just, it's awesome.

Sebastian (41:13.568)
Tune in next week where we our top five guitarists.

Sebastian (41:23.434)
Yeah.

Sebastian (41:27.498)
Yeah.

Sebastian (41:31.348)
He does use like a Gibson sometimes too, I think, but like that's like what he's known for is playing that mirror that certain silver surfer mirrored guitar. So, but yeah, so how do you not like put one of the greatest guitar teachers that taught Kirk Hammett and arguably should I do? I'm not putting, I cannot justify putting Kirk Hammett on a top five list because I don't think he's that good. I shouldn't say that, but

Michael (41:39.747)
Yeah.

Michael (41:54.624)
I don't think he put himself on a top five list, there's no way.

Sebastian (41:58.988)
he yeah, he wouldn't put himself on there. I think he has deficiencies in his ability to play. We've seen him play live a couple times and he makes mistakes. He makes mistakes, which is fine. You're allowed to but you can't tell me he's better than Joe Saturani. You can't tell me he's better. Yeah. Yeah. And just to just to talk about Joe Saturani again, really quickly, you've already highlighted this but his his his yes, he's a shredder. But his melodic work

Michael (42:00.236)
No!

Michael (42:06.606)
Sure he does. Yeah.

Yeah, you're 60 years old. You've done a lot of drugs. You're allowed to make mistakes because your brain goes foggy.

Michael (42:21.218)
Mm-hmm.

Sebastian (42:29.854)
that he does, like he makes the, like, you don't need a singer when you listen to Joe Satriani because he makes quite literally the guitar sing. They sing, yeah. It's like, I think I'm hearing words, but you're not actually, it's a guitar. It's amazing, right?

Michael (42:33.302)
You don't, because he-

his melodies sing and you can actually like, can, you can, yeah. And it's just the guitar. And like I put them off my wife, she can't stand it. Cause there's no singing. I'm like, yes, but there is. Mike, listen to the melody of the guitar. She's like, I just, can't hear that. I just, I just, she's like, I don't hear it. I'm like, well, whatever. And I don't think a lot of people do, which is a real shame because it's, because instrumental music is definitely not cool. Like it's really not cool. Like it's a very niche.

Sebastian (42:49.78)
But there is, the guitar is singing, yeah.

Sebastian (42:56.031)
Yeah.

Sebastian (43:03.881)
Yeah.

Michael (43:05.966)
It's a niche thing. It's yeah.

Sebastian (43:06.528)
If you want like a subdued version of like his solo work where it's all melody, listen to Sahara, the song Sahara from the Elephants of Mars. That's his newest album. I think it was two, three years ago maybe. It's very chill. It's like lounge music basically, but it works for the song. Yeah, but it works for the song.

Michael (43:18.134)
newer too, okay. Okay. Yeah.

Michael (43:27.365)
the opening track. Okay. Okay. I need to give his newer stuff a real shot because I just...

Sebastian (43:34.74)
That's all like melodic and stuff. There's nothing really that flashy about the song. It's just a nice little soft song. Why don't we take like a couple, like a minute or two to talk about some honorable mentions that you had if you had any that you were like, yeah, they didn't quite make a list, but I want to give them props anyways. I have three.

Michael (43:50.604)
okay. I'll go with the one that's coming to the top of my head. James Hadfield. He's, he's a riff master. He's Tony, I owe me 2.0. He, that dude can, that dude can write a riff. That dude has the fastest right hand in the world to play all.

Sebastian (43:55.112)
Okay, go. Yeah, that's one of mine too.

Sebastian (44:08.592)
his constitution in his downward stroking is like, I'm watching him play master puppets down stroke. I'm like, what, what is going on here? Yeah.

Michael (44:10.654)
The downward picking is, is obviously now it's getting, he's, you he learned he can take a few breaks in there, but back in the day, like in the nineties and before that, that risk was always thundering straight down and where everybody else would have to alternate pick, he was doing it all. I don't understand. just, right.

Sebastian (44:28.762)
I, I can't understand how you can sing at the same time and play some of these more like, like playing like damage incorporated and singing at the same time, although they don't do that live, but you know, like playing master, like some of his riffs are complicated. Yeah. Yeah. So that he was going to be on mine. have two, one, because I want to, I wanted to say Randy Rhodes, but his body of work is so small as I, only did two. Yeah.

Michael (44:37.878)
Yeah. Sure. Even just playing master of puppets live. it's that song's hard, man. That song ain't easy.

Michael (44:46.69)
Yeah, sure.

Michael (44:53.024)
Mm-hmm. So small, but so impactful, right? Two records and that dude is as famous. Yeah, pretty much. It's like him and Tony are right there.

Sebastian (45:00.904)
the greatest guitarist Ozzy Osbourne's ever had, pretty much.

Yeah, but his body of work isn't big enough to you know, and he he was touted as being the best like this, the great this next great heavy metal guitarist to bring us into the 90s basically, but he died in the 80s. The plane crash was with all these plane crashes. So he's on there. And then my other honorable mention and I know a lot of people don't enjoy him because most of his songs are crap. And really out there and really weird but Buckethead

Michael (45:24.397)
Yeah, right.

Sebastian (45:35.404)
some of his melodic lead work stuff is amazing. Like just listen to soup sayer, for example, which is such a heartfelt song. So I don't know you listen to a lot of Buckethead.

Michael (45:50.624)
no, I definitely do not.

Sebastian (45:54.218)
So like Soothsayer, for example, is a great song. Magellan's Maze is another good song. But he's, he just, he doesn't care about being famous. He doesn't care about making money. He doesn't care about like being a famous rock star. He sits in his basement and just records drum tracks with rhythm guitars and puts lead work over top of it and just puts it out on Spotify.

just because he just cares about the product of the music. He doesn't care about any of stuff. Famously, he helped do a lot of the guitar work for Chinese democracy, which is the Guns N' Roses latest album. And he was in Guns N' Roses for a period in the 2000s. And then I'm not really sure what happened, but you know, but he has, he has, if you ever watch his live work on YouTube, for example, he has the longest fingers I've seen on a human being, which is...

Michael (46:47.086)
I'm gonna have to check that out.

Sebastian (46:48.748)
so advantageous as a guitarist. Like he can do spreads on the guitar that most human guitarists can't do because his fingers are just so long. And just, you know, if you do get a chance to watch any of his live work, just watch his fingers. It just they just dance all over the so effortlessly on the on the fretboard, man. So Buckethead. And I understand that he's a polarizing individual. He wears a KFC bucket on his head. You know, you never see his face. He comes as like

Michael (46:56.92)
That helps.

Michael (47:04.365)
Okay.

Sebastian (47:17.92)
you know, this hidden person, but he's a very weird dude. But, you know, most, I will be honest, most of the songs are very strange and some are a little squeaky and not for everybody. But, you know, just listen to Suitsare, which I think is his best work. And that is just screams so much emotion in his solo work in there. Like you feel it through, you have, like guaranteed you have.

Michael (47:19.394)
He's a strange cat, he's a strange cat, right?

Michael (47:42.744)
think I've heard that song.

I think you might have sent it to me. And then I went down this little rabbit hole of bucket head. He had all these EPs of weird noise and I'm like, this is cool.

Sebastian (47:52.714)
Dude, he's he's released like 100 albums in one calendar year before.

So figure I mean more of the they're like small albums like some of them only have like two or three songs on it, but but Jordan is also another good song

Michael (47:59.522)
That's crazy.

Michael (48:06.51)
Yeah, there was one where it was like three songs and it was like an hour. Every song was like 20 minutes. I'm like, okay.

Sebastian (48:11.764)
He did this one set of seven albums that all sound really weird, but the whole concept of the album is supposed to play all seven albums at the same time. And then it has like this mega sound that comes through. So you can listen to them individually. like, yeah, I guess. And then you put all of them together and you're like, I get it.

Michael (48:23.374)
Okay.

Michael (48:29.89)
That is bizarre. Yeah.

Sebastian (48:32.786)
Yeah, he's an odd dude. I'm telling you, he's an odd individual, but what he can do on the guitar electronically, it's he can create so many sounds just out of like, you know, volume switching where you like turn the volume on and off. He's just he's a unique, unique guitarist, man, for sure. Yeah, but I don't have anything else.

Michael (48:43.144)
yeah.

Michael (48:51.406)
Absolutely. Okay. No, that's, uh, I think that's it for this week. Next week, uh, we are going to celebrate the re-release of load the box set and we're going to dive into, we're going to do a little Metallica talk next week. I don't really care about the remaster or the live stuff because we lived it. It's for me, it's all about the demos, alternate takes, and we'll maybe we'll highlight a couple.

Sebastian (48:57.546)
That's it for me.

Sebastian (49:06.077)
Metallica!

Michael (49:20.45)
We'll give it a listen, comes out on Friday. We'll give you all the alternate take ones that interest us a listen, because I'm sure some are going to sound mostly the same. I'm not, no, there's not even, it's not even, no, I'm not sorry. 10 years ago, sure, but not now. I'm good. No. You know, if honestly, if when they do say an anger, if they put the Presidio album out on that, I'll buy it.

Sebastian (49:28.572)
Mike is still on the fence about ordering it, but I think he should.

Sebastian (49:35.284)
he's going to, don't worry. Check in next week when Mike does his unboxing live on Twitch.

Sebastian (49:46.228)
But then that wouldn't be that wouldn't be St. Anger then. Cause the Presidio sessions. So here we'll close with this. So a lot of people, and I know we're running along here, but a lot of people don't not know that Metallica did the St. Anger album. was all new material. They scrapped the majority of the album of the songs they working on because they did, they did the Presidio sessions and then James literally left the band to go to rehab.

Michael (49:50.102)
No, it would be whatever garbage that was made before that, so.

Yes, we are.

Sebastian (50:14.248)
and they closed it all down and they came back and they started writing new material. I mean, I'm assuming some of the riffs probably translated, but there's an entire body of work that no one's ever listened to, which we're just like salivating to get our hands on.

Michael (50:18.125)
New material.

Michael (50:23.15)
There is, yes. Yeah, and I don't think any of it's any good. If they didn't use it, can't be that good.

Sebastian (50:30.644)
Well, you can hear the one song on the on the some kind of monster documentary and the whole delete that comment, the meme from his. Delete that this isn't you delete it. Dude, what a humbling thing. You know, you're coming off of the black album load reload. You're like up here, you're the best metal album or best metal band of all time in the history of metal. You rule the 90s and your dad goes, this is shit. You're like,

Michael (50:34.797)
Yes.

Yeah, when Lars's dad said, yeah, this, this ain't good, man. Just delete it. So, right.

You imagine?

Michael (50:52.514)
Yep. You ruled the nineties. You absolutely ruled the nineties. This sucks. And it's well, I think even Lars's reaction was like, okay. Yeah. I'm like, all right, we were trying something different. I guess don't, but yeah, that's okay. So yeah, so next week it's going to be lots of load talk and, hopefully there's something alternate takes and the demos. So I've heard some of the demos over the years.

Sebastian (51:00.157)
You

He's priceless. Yeah. He's like, is it really that bad? He's thinking his head.

Sebastian (51:10.784)
I went too far off, honestly. So yeah.

Sebastian (51:20.766)
We shall see. Yeah.

Michael (51:22.25)
I'm just looking for all the different takes and something different. we'll, we'll, we'll scan through it and highlight a few things and, yeah, cause I'm not spending $460 to buy that. No, I'm not to buy that box set. It's just, it's ridiculous. I got kids to feed. that's just the way that goes. Yes. Anyways. And my son has guys wisdom teeth out and that ain't free.

Sebastian (51:28.842)
Yes.

Sebastian (51:33.192)
Yes, he is. Just wait.

That's true. Yeah.

Sebastian (51:44.198)
No, it's not.

Michael (51:44.918)
No. So, yay. Anyways, we'll be back next week. Everybody have a great week. We will talk to you soon.

Sebastian (51:47.613)
EYF

Sebastian (51:52.458)
See you, bye.