Eddie Van Halen.
Randy Rhoads.
Yngwie Malmsteen.
No EVH? Major miss there. Easily the most influential guitarist from the late 70’s going forward.
Yeah, I would go with Yngwie Malmsteen as a representative of the 1980’s (and beyond) guitar heavy Hard Rock/Heavy Metal, post Zeppelin and the Southern Rock wave of the late 70’s. I would not object to Kirk Hammett replacing Malmsteen, either, if we are speaking of INFLUENCE.
Agreed. But didn’t care as much for Malmsteen, as the other two. To flashy and too many notes, in too quick succession. Not as “tasty” as Van Halen or Rhoads, my biggest influences, besides Tony Iommi and perhaps Martin Barre of Tull fame.
Duane Eddy Rebel Rouser https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS_hFfucAAs
Just because you’re a musical genius and CAN play a million notes per minute, doesn’t mean you SHOULD.
All three of the guys you name are just into musical self-gratification—getting off on how exceptional they are musically with no soul or feeling. After a few minutes of them, it’s worse than listening to a Bruce Hornsby piano concert for 3 hours. I’d rather listen to Hillary sing.
Give me Carlos Santana or Robin Trower, or so many others who are just as gifted, but actually feel the music, and express more emotion in 10 notes than the million notes those other guys play.
And then there’s Eric Clapton, who is quite probably the most overrated well-known guitar player on earth, no better than the original 1,000 blues guitar players before him, and worse than the 10,000 blues club players after him.