“At the end of the service, they would just shred, and I would sit there and watch with my jaw to the floor, not moving”: Steve Lacy reflects on his guitar origins – and how it all goes back to church and Guitar Hero

Since earning his first Grammy nomination while he was still in high school with the genre-blending avant-garde outfit The Internet, it's safe to say that Steve Lacy has gone from strength to strength.

Now, with the upcoming release of Oh Yeah?, his first album since 2022’s highly lauded Gemini Rights, he’s indisputably at the forefront of a new type of guitar hero – one defined by an off-kilter, homespun playing style, a strong production sensibility, and a keen eye for collaborators.

Looking back on his humble beginnings in Compton, Lacy recalls how he started playing guitar – crediting his church band with inspiring him to pick up the instrument in the first place.

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“At the end of the service, they would just shred, and I would sit there and watch with my jaw to the floor, not moving,” he tells Rolling Stone. By then, he had already become enamored with the concept of playing guitar, thanks to hours spent with Guitar Hero.

“When I was 10, I was obsessed with the instrument. I wanted to touch it. I wanted to be around it. I wanted to hear it,” he says matter-of-factly.

Fast forward to 2023, and Lacy's status as a Gen Z Stratocaster icon earned him a signature model with Fender – the Steve Lacy “People Pleaser” Strat.

Speaking about his penchant for the model in an interview with Guitar World, Lacy said, “I think the Strat is a good representation of my roots as a guitarist. When I think back to the people that I loved and looked up to when I was starting out, they were all rocking the Strats.

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“Jimi Hendrix was one of the biggest influences on me back then. I was a young Black kid watching Hendrix rocking the hell out of his Strat and thought ‘Damn!’ I started out on a Squier, too, so it was only right that I’d end up working with Fender to have my own signature.”

Elsewhere in the GW interview, Lacy revealed how he ended up co-writing and co-producing a Kendrick Lamar track and working with Thundercat.