Buddy Guy

Originally learning his fretting skills on a homemade, two string "diddly-bow", Buddy Guy went on to become one the most revered blues guitarists in the world, playing alongside Eric Clapton, B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Leaving behind rural Louisiana and a life of sharecropping, Guy became a regular on the 1950s Baton Rouge Blues scene before moving to Chicago where he was mentored by Muddy Waters as a session musician for the legendary Chess Records. Label founder Leonard Chess dismissed Guy's raucous, flamboyant, high energy style as "noise" and only allowed him to record one album before he left the label in 1967. Despite a lack of commercial success Guy came to have a big influence on young electric guitarists like Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and - most notably - Jimi Hendrix, who Guy taught to play with his teeth and behind his head. His career was revived when Clapton (who described Guy as "the best guitar player alive") invited him to play his 24 Nights shows at the Royal Albert Hall alongside an all-star line-up of guitar greats in 1990. The shows led to him signing a deal with Silvertone Records and the release of Grammy-winning comeback album Damn Right, I've Got The Blues (1991). Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, Guy is recognised as one of the pioneers of feedback, distortion and hard rock with his influence living on in the likes of the Rolling Stones, ZZ Top and Slash.