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I am glad you remembered Randy California. He taught EVH how to tap on the fretboard on the guitar. At 17 he played nightly with Jimi Hendrix and Hendrix named him California. Randy was responsible for the chord progression and inspiration for Jimmy Page's song, Stairway to Heaven. Randy showed Page the song, Taurus, while Led Zepplin was the opening band for Spirit in the early 1970's and they were touring together. Randy and his bandmates of Spirit were real trailblazers. God bless him and John Locke.

My other favourites are Nina Gerber, Brian Setzer, Junior Brown, Tommy Immanuel, and Steve King(champion picker). I sat next to Tommy and Chet Atkins practicing for a gig at the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society the summer of 1998. There were only about seven of us in the room and it had to be one of the most extraordinary experiences I have ever had. God Bless Chet...it was his last performance for the CAAS...