When the interviewer asked whether he thinks Clapton, Page, and Jeff Beck are among the best guitarists of our time, the singer replied:
“I’d put 100 guys in the top 10 [laughs]. Those three are obviously top dogs. But they’re no better than Jim McCarty from Cactus and Mitch Ryder And The Detroit Wheels. Listen to ‘Parchman Farm’ – you’ve never heard or felt anything like it.”
Nugent further talked about his thoughts on the three famous guitarists:
“Beck, Clapton and Page are okay. The Yardbirds were intensely influential to any guitarist who’s ever lived. But they’re no Jimi Hendrix or Eddie Van Halen. Even as subtle as Billy Gibbons [ZZ Top] is, he does Beck, Clapton and Page better than Beck, Clapton and Page, as far as I’m concerned.”
Ted once called Eddie Van Halen the greatest guitar player ever on a 2022 episode of The Nightly Nuge. He praised Eddie for his versatile style and amazing rhythm. When asked about the best guitarists for him, the singer responded:
“There are so many. I’m going to go ahead and give it to Eddie Van Halen because he was so diverse, not only in his histrionics, but he had an unbelievable organic sense of rhythm in his delivery of not just exciting lead guitar parts but his grind of a grooving rhythm as a white kid.”
“He really defied the history of who can groove like that because I come from the world of the Funk Brothers of Motown, so I know what the Gods of groove sound like. In Eddie Van Halen, the times I jammed with him and listened to their records, you can tell he had an unbelievable, uncanny superman sense of rhythm beyond just his outrageous athleticism on the guitar.”
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