“Chet had such facility and knowledge, and yet what he wanted to do was play two chords all morning long. He’d say to me, ‘You’re pretty good, but you’re no Mark Knopfler’”: Mark Knopfler looks back on his jams with fellow fingerstyle legend Chet Atkins

Not only is Brothers in Arms widely considered to be Dire Straits’ magnum opus, it’s also deemed to be a nine-track showcase of generational guitar playing that has since cemented Mark Knopfler’s place in the pantheon of electric guitar greats.

In fact, the hysteria surrounding Brothers in Arms was so great that Knopfler himself was soon receiving calls from the guitar world’s most respected figures, who all wanted to sit down and jam with the Strat-wielding fingerstyle player.

One of those figures, as Knopfler recalls in a new interview with Guitar World, was fellow fingerstyle hero Chet Akins. However, when the pair linked up to trade licks, it didn’t quite go as Knopfler had been expecting.

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“I remember, Chet Atkins gave me a [call],” he remembers. “Because we were both pickers in that sense – but, of course, Chet was otherworldly. I used to go round to his office and hang out, and I’ll never forget, we once played and sang the song Kentucky all morning.

“Chet had such facility and knowledge, and yet what he wanted to do was play Kentucky – which has two chords – all morning long. He’d say to me, 'You’re pretty good, but you’re no Mark Knopfler.'”

Atkins telling Mark Knopfler that he wasn’t quite as good as Mark Knopfler was part and parcel of a jam with the Country Gentleman, who was known to crack a quip every now and then.

“He always had good jokes,” Knopfler goes on. “You know, you’d get to the end of something and he’d go, ‘Very educational.’ And then he’d say, ‘A little below above average.’ Or something like that. Very dry.

“I only remember him being slightly put-out once, when [fingerstyle guitarist] John Fahey said he’d been double-tracking. Chet was not pleased by that. And he wrote to whatever magazine it was and said, ‘You can learn to do this with your own two hands; you don’t need double-tracking.’

“I mean, Chet liked multi-tracking too, of course, but only if he was doing something even more complicated. But he could play Yankee Doodle and Battle Hymn of the Republic at the same time.”

Mark Knopfler & Chet Atkins - Poor Boy Blues (Official Video) - YouTube

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Knopfler and Atkins’ friendship wouldn’t be restricted to the rehearsal room, though. In 1990, the pair released their collaborative record, Neck and Neck, and would share the stage together on numerous occasions.

Elsewhere in his Guitar World interview, Knopfler explains why he doesn't consider himself a guitar hero and discusses the treasured Gibson he received as a gift from a rock hero.