Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens joined The Eddie Trunk Podcast for an interview during which he talked about the way Jimmy Page has improved guitar playing techniques, unlike Eric Clapton.
Undoubtedly, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton are among the greatest guitarists of all time in the rock music scene. Ever since they stepped into the music industry, they have both made great contributions with their distinctive guitar playing styles and talented musicianship.
The award-winning musician and guitarist Eric Clapton highly impacted guitar-playing and recording techniques. At the beginning of his career, Clapton mainly tried to create a ‘woman tone,’ as he described it during an interview with Beat Instrumental in August 1967. According to the guitarist, his classic ‘woman tone’ is a sweet sound, overdriven but still smooth.
On the other hand, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs, involving various alternate guitar tunings, melodic and technical solos, and aggressive and distorted tones. As a multi-instrumentalist, session musician, and record producer, Page has an experimentalist approach towards guitar playing.
According to the guitarist Steve Stevens, there is a difference between the two. During an interview with The Eddie Trunk Podcast, Stevens argued that there are two schools in guitar playing, Clapton’s and Page’s. He then claimed that Clapton plays one guitar track, and that’s it for him, while Page thinks more like a producer or director with a creative approach.
During the conversation with The Eddie Trunk Podcast, Steve Stevens said the following:
“I think there are two schools. There’s the Eric Clapton school where he is brilliant, and he plays one guitar track basically, and that’s it. Then, there are other guys like Page, who orchestrates the music, thinks more like a producer or director, and uses more different colors on the guitar.
I always liked that aspect of it. To me, when writing a song or collaborating, I’m looking at it like ‘How can I elaborate, how can I make the verse different?’ Then the chorus explodes with a heavy guitar, and then there is a clean guitar. That’s just always stuck with me, the ‘painting with sound’ thing.”
Although both Page and Eric Clapton’s approach to guitar playing seems different, they are still among the most influential guitarists in rock music history. Moreover, Steve Stevens appears to be leaning more into Jimmy Page’s side as he is more enthusiastic about creating something different and going beyond his limits.
