Michael Angelo Batio

Michael Angelo Batio (pronounced /'be?ti.o?/, also known as Mike Batio or MAB (born February 23rd, 1956) is a Progressive Rock, Heavy Metal guitarist and columnist from Chicago, Illinois. Batio was voted the "No. 1 Shredder of All Time" by Guitar One Magazine in 2003. He was also listed as one of the "Top 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists of All Time" by Guitar World Magazine, for which he wrote the column Time to Burn, and one of the "20 Greatest Shredders of All Time" by Total Guitar Magazine, both in April 2008. Batio also won the 2009 Guitar World Magazine Readers Choice award in the "Best Shredder" category. Biography Early life and career MAB started playing the piano and composing music at the age of five, and first played guitar at the...

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Marty Friedman

Marty Friedman (born Martin Adam Friedman, December 8, 1962) is an American guitarist, most widely recognized and best known for his tenure as lead/rhythm guitarist for thrash metal band Megadeth, which lasted close to ten years. He has resided in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan since 2003, and has hosted his own television programs, Rock Fujiyama and Jukebox English on Japanese television. Early career (1982–1989) Friedman is a largely self-taught guitarist known for his improvisation and for fusing an Eastern musical feel with Western musical styles, such as neo-classical, thrash metal and later into progressive rock. When playing, Friedman often uses arpeggiated chords and various customized scales. He also occasionally uses sweep picking. He...

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Martin Barre

Martin Lancelot Barre (born 17 November 1946, Kings Heath, Birmingham, West Midlands, England) is an English rock musician. Barre has been the guitarist for rock band Jethro Tull since 1969. He has appeared on every Jethro Tull album except This Was. His sound has been marked by a blend of Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton style blues with the baroque complexities of early 1970s progressive rock and traditional European folk music sounds. He has also acted as a flautist both on-stage for Tull, and in his solo work. Early career Barre began his career playing saxophone with the Birmingham band, The Moonrakers, in the early 1960s. During July 1966, he joined Beau Brummell's former backing band, The Noblemen, with fellow ex-Moonraker, Chris Rodger,...

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Mark Knopfler

Mark Freuder Knopfler OBE (born 12 August 1949) is a Scottish 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 Straits, which he co-founded in 1977 with his brother David. After Dire Straits disbanded in 1995, Knopfler continued to record and produce albums as a solo artist under his own name. Knopfler has played in other groups occasionally, such as The Notting Hillbillies, and has guested on works by other artists, including Joan Armatrading, Chet Atkins, the Chieftains, Eric Clapton, The Dandy Warhols, Bob Dylan, Bryan Ferry, John Fogerty, Emmylou Harris, Jeff Healey, Jools Holland, Sonny Landreth, Phil Lynott,...

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Mark Kendall

Mark Kendall (born April 29, 1957) is a lead guitarist born in Loma Linda, California. He is best known for being a founding member and lead guitar player of the blues-based hard rock band Great White. Biography Mark Kendall grew up in Huntington Beach, California. He came from a musically talented family, with his mother belting out smoky tunes as a jazz singer, his father playing jazz trumpet, and his grandfather, a classically trained pianist from the age of thirteen. As such, Mark developed a good ear for melody early on, and has never lost sight of where his ability came from and the musical gifts he netted through his DNA. He received his first guitar at the age of nine after watching a local band rehearse in a neighbor's garage. His...

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Lita Ford

Add caption Lita Ford (born 19 September 1958) is a British-born, American rock musician and singer who was the lead guitarist for The Runaways and achieved popularity for her solo career between the 1980s and late 2000s. Early life Lita Ford was born to a British father and an Italian mother in London, England. She moved with her family to the United States at the age of 4 and began playing the guitar at the age of 11. Her vocal range is mezzo-soprano. In 1975 at the age of 16 she joined the all-female rock band The Runaways, for whom she played lead guitar. They would score a record deal and have their first album released in 1976. The Runaways It was not long before the all-girl formation caught the eye of the media. Lita Ford's guitar...

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Link Wray

Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr (May 2, 1929 – November 5, 2005) was an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and occasional singer. Wray was noted for pioneering a new sound for electric guitars, as exemplified in his hit 1958 instrumental "Rumble", by Link Wray and his Ray Men, which pioneered an overdriven, distorted electric guitar sound, and also for having "invented the power chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarist," "and in doing so fathering," or making possible, "punk and heavy rock". Rolling Stone included Link at number 67 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. Early life Wray was born in Dunn, North Carolina to Lillian M. Coats and Fred Lincoln Wray. It was there that Link first heard slide...

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Lindsey Buckingham

Lindsey Adams Buckingham (born October 3, 1949) is an American guitarist, singer, composer and producer, most notable for being the guitarist and male lead singer of the musical group Fleetwood Mac. Aside from his tenure with Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham has also released five solo albums and a live album. As a member of Fleetwood Mac, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Early years Born in Palo Alto, California, Buckingham was the third and youngest child of Rutheda (née Elliott) and Morris Bialecke. He had two older brothers, Jeff and Greg. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area community of Atherton, Buckingham and his brothers were encouraged to swim competitively. Though Buckingham dropped out of athletics to...

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