No Guitar Is Safe

More than just an interview and jam with the great guitarist DAMON WOOD (currently of SEAL PARTY), this episode is also a portal back to the amazing "thrash funk" era of San Francisco Bay Area music, an exciting time in the late '80s/early '90s when live bands pushing an infectious new genre of music ruled the Bay Area clubs. Some of the acts coming up in this scene — Primus, Limbomaniacs, and Fun...

Vic Johnson returns! The longtime lead guitarist for Sammy Hagar, Vic invites you into Hagar’s Northern California studio, where he fires up his glorious “tri-stereo” wet/dry/wet rig and demonstrates some tones, plays some riffs, takes a few solos, and relives adventures with everyone from Total Eclipse — his badass ’90s metal band — to the the Bus Boys, Eddie Murphy, Michael Anthony, Dr. Dre, Sug...

From hearing David Bowie strum a simple acoustic chord pattern while singing the words "let's dance" to transforming the sketch into the superstar singer's biggest hit, NILE RODGERS (in this flashback to Episode 125) relives step by step how he pulled off the feat. He also details meeting a new musician on the session — a future guitar hero that Bowie's "Let's Dance" album would soon introduce to...

Chicago guitar ace DAN PETERS pushes his Gretsch 6120 to new limits by playing everything from rockabilly to blues slide to shred metal on the iconic hollowbody. Dan also deconstructs the energetic music of the West Side Winders and the Dan Peters Band — his two main original projects over the years — as well as shares his approaches to playing with star singers such as DEE SNIDER, and the art of...

Folks, there is simply too much treasure in No Guitar Is Safe's ever-growing archive of back episodes not to revisit some great moments once in awhile! That is why now, between new episodes, you can expect me to hit you with short, curated, fun-size, easily digestible REWIND posts in which we "roll back the tape" and listen back to a magical moment in this show's history — like, for example, that...

Today we plug in with session king and bandleader MICHAEL THOMPSON — “MT” to his friends — who is one of the most recorded guitarists in history. Thompson has worked with everyone from Michael Jackson, Shania Twain, Phil Collins, Christina Aguilera, Ray Charles, Fleetwood Mac, and Beyoncé to Lionel Richie, Bob Seger, Neil Diamond, Michael Bublé, Whitney Houston, Madonna, Justin Bieber, Celine Dion...

Grammy-nominated funk-jazz virtuoso WILL BERNARD plugs in! Home for the holidays, the renowned New York-based ES-335 tamer invites me into the Berkeley, California, house he grew up in, where he cranks up a Carr combo, shares some funkalicious pedalboard recipes, and offers insights he's gained from releasing tons of his own solo records, working as a hired gun, learning jazz and more from the gre...

For this episode, we head out to Nashville, TN, where Smash Mouth founding guitarist GREG CAMP plugs in and shows you how he gets his magical, multi-platinum-selling "surfadelic" Jazzmaster sounds. He also details the art of writing hit songs (he wrote Smash Mouth's biggest hits, including "All-Star" and "Walkin' on the Sun"); introduces you to his new band, the Defiant; and celebrates the life an...

One of the greatest soloists in hard rock, metal, and beyond, George Lynch has a signature mojo that has earned him legions of devoted fans ever since the '80s, when he broke big as lead guitarist for the platinum selling rock band Dokken. Since then, with his own band, Lynch Mob (who have just released a new album, called Babylon), and his many other projects, Lynch has emerged as one of the most...

Mere hours after he rocked one the world's biggest arenas as part of Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival, ARIEL POSEN plugs in with us at his Los Angeles hotel room and demonstrates his singular sound, including the way he gets soaring slide notes out of a hollow, steel-bodied, Strat-shaped baritone from Mule Resophonic Guitars, and how he "tortures circuits" to make fuzz pedals sing. The Ca...

Grammy-winning solo artist and first-call session ace ANDREW SYNOWIEC plugs in several guitars, jams with us, previews his new album, FUN, more than a week before its release (it comes out September 8), and takes us on a sonic tour of his amazing Los Angeles studio. Having recorded and/or performed with everyone from the Who, Bette Midler, and Elton John to Ariana Grande, Michael Bublé, and Nick J...

Blend the playing styles of Freddie King, Allan Holdsworth, and Duane Allman, and — as you’ll hear on this episode — you’d probably get something sounds like the great ALLEN HINDS. When it comes to improvising epic solos, grooving behind world-class singers (he’s worked with everyone from Bobby Caldwell and Randy Crawford to Gino Vannelli, Roberta Flack, and Natalie Cole), building “mutt guitars”...

WAYNE C. HENDERSON is a stunning steel-string player, and he's equally known for the amazing guitars he builds. Highly sought after instruments, Wayne's handmade guitars (and mandolins) have been ordered by everyone from Vince Gill and Eric Clapton to Brad Paisley, Peter Rowan and Doc Watson. To make a Henderson, Wayne says he just gets out his pocketknife and carves away "anything that doesn't lo...

As if playing the famous “More Cowbell” episode of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE wasn’t cool enough, rock/fusion (emphasis on the ROCK) virtuoso RAFAEL MOREIRA — who invites us into his home studio for this epic jam and guitar hang/interview — has also worked with superstar singers such as P!NK and CHRISTINA AGUILERA, his hero PAUL STANLEY, and played huge guitar moments in the house band of such hit televi...

From his years touring, recording, and songwriting with MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD to his runs with BILLY PRESTON, SLY AND ROBBIE, OZOMATLI, BUSK!, P!NK, and other headliners, San Francisco guitar ace DAVE SHUL has been in demand for over three decades — especially by bandleaders who want some serious FUNK guitar in their ensemble. Inviting us into his San Francisco recording studio — which he sha...

Guitar virtuoso PRASHANT ASWANI has worked with everyone from HERBIE HANCOCK to JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, but it's on his solo material (you'll hear TWO brand-new singles from Prashant on this episode — BEFORE they're released!) that Prashant's guitar personality really comes through. For this episode, host JUDE GOLD "flies the 'copter" up to Prashant's badass guitar lair in the San Francisco Bay Area, w...

From high-profile tours with DAVID LEE ROTH and WINGER to studio dates with platinum pop acts such as SELENA GOMEZ and DNCE, U.K.-bred guitarist JAKE FAUN is already in high demand -- and he only arrived in Los Angeles about four years ago! On this episode, Jake plugs in various guitars, jams with host JUDE GOLD, and demonstrates the approaches that have helped him forge his style. He also dives d...

For fans of guitar, it’s hard to imagine a world without JEFF BECK. To help us process this unfathomable musical loss, we “land the ‘copter” in front of STEVE LUKATHER’s house, where we go inside and join the Toto/Ringo Starr guitar ace by a warm fire and get his take on his friend Jeff Beck’s life, legacy, and music, as well as his thoughts on the profound influence Beck has had on how most of us...

The lead guitarist of UFO since 2003, renowned guitar virtuoso VINNIE MOORE plugs in one of his new Kramers, runs it through a great sounding old Marshall, and shares the licks and approaches he employs on his new solo album, DOUBLE EXPOSURE, and also with UFO. Presented by Guitar Player magazine and guitarplayer.com. Hosted by JUDE GOLD.

Ready to “fly the ‘copter” all the way to Germany? Well, being that I was just on tour opening shows for Deep Purple all over Europe (so cool!), you know there was NO WAY I was not going to land an interview with their brilliant new guitarist, Simon McBride. This exciting episode takes us all the way to the KP Arena in Oberhausen, for an inspiring backstage guitar hang with the Irish 6-string virt...

From his own solo tunes to his guitar and bass work for the English Beat, the Uptones, Sacrilege B.C., and other headliners, Musashi Lethridge -- "Moose" to his friends and fans -- is a soulful guitarist/bassist/singer/one-man band. In this epic guitar hang with his longtime friend — your host, Jude Gold — Musashi plugs a steel-string into his P.A. system (he even adds a wah pedal!) and chronicles...

From what makes a metal concert transcendent to the shocking things people throw on stage to his gear of choice to his love for Jackson guitars — including the brand new Jackson American Series Soloist SL3 just released today — Anthrax founding member Scott Ian sits down with Jude Gold and a Slime Green (Jackson's color name) SL3 for a heavy discussion about heavy guitar. The talk even covers Ian'...

New guitar hero alert! Virtuoso steel-string fingerstylist and composer YASMIN WILLIAMS is a guitar star on the rise. In this exclusive interview, the young Washington D.C.-based guitarist performs her solo pieces and riffs for you, and demonstrates the techniques and inspirations that are the hallmarks of her captivating style — a shimmering sound that has landed her appearances everywhere from N...

Playing and deconstructing several of his hit songs for you, JIM PETERIK — who you might know from such radio smashes as Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger,” 38 Special’s “Hold On Loosely,” and Ides of March’s “Vehicle” (a number one song Peterik wrote when he was just 18) — is on the show! He’s one of rock’s most successful songwriters. Today, we’re “flyin’ the ‘copter” over to Peterik’s Chicago-area r...

Demonstrating and deconstructing the riffs behind the Fixx’s greatest hits, JAMIE WEST-ORAM plugs in and lets your ears revel in his famous stereo sound. Deconstructing smash singles such as “One Thing Leads to Another” and “Red Skies,” Jamie also shares guitar parts from the Fixx’s new album, Every Five Seconds, as well as takes you on a tour of his pedalboard and reminisces on the famous “blizza...