During a new chat with 107.7 The Bone’s Nikki Blakk, Zakk Wylde addressed the ‘guitar is dead’ debate.
“Well I mean, you got father Richie Faulkner, Jared James Nichols, my one son who really digs,” the guitarist replied when asked which new guitar players he thinks are worth watching, and which classic ones should kids rediscover. “Tim Henson, he’s like insane and then it truly is awesome how many great guitar players even on Instagram and stuff like that.”
Wylde continued, “I think it’s… Remember a while ago somebody was like, ‘Oh, guitar is dead.’ I was like, ‘What? What are you living.’ I was just like you apparently, you’re not on Instagram or any social media where you’re seeing any of these younger guys playing.”
“It is a really an awesome thing because I mean some of these guys have just absolutely mind-blown technique and everything like that. So, they’re putting the work in and it’s awesome to see,” the musician added.
Wylde believes people should support social media guitarists. “But no, I think it’s a great platform because back in the day if you didn’t have a record deal by the time you were 30, the dream is over, man,” he previously told Ultimate Guitar about social media. “You gotta sell all your gear and get a normal crappy job that you can’t stand and give up.”
“Today, you can build your band like a mom-and-pop shop and be your own boss and dictate your life to it, which I think is awesome. It’s the best, because this way you’re not at the mercy of somebody else. You don’t need anybody,” Zakk further shared.
Dragonforce’s Herman Li also agrees with Wylde as he says, “You’ve got to be smart and think where you want to go in terms of direction. If you just want to do what you want to do and don’t care about anything else, which is just keep doing social media stuff. But you’ve got to work the ‘influencer route’ because that’ll pay better than a record label a lot of the time.”
Wylde will perform with Zakk Sabbath on December 1 in San Francisco, California.
