“I was just sick of the white blues rock thing. The whole mentality seemed stupid”: Why The Edge was always destined to become a different kind of guitar hero

The Edge has never been one to try and fit in with the crowd.

Rather, over the course of multiple U2 albums, The Edge has carved out his own stylistic path – one that has always sought to differentiate itself from the delay-doting guitar hero’s contemporaries.

That much has always been clear in The Edge’s music, and way back in 1996, during an interview with Guitar World a year before the release of U2’s most experimental album to date, Pop, the Irish guitar hero looked back on what shaped him as a guitar player.

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“When I was growing up, I wanted to be Rory Gallagher, because he was the guitar player in Ireland,” The Edge remembered. “When I got to 16 or 17 it was Tom Verlaine and Television, and I loved what was going on in Patti Smith's Horses – that really opened things up for me.

“John McGeogh from [the early-’80s post-punk band] Magazine was doing some very interesting things. Stuart Adamson, too; the first Skids album had some really new sounds on it.”

There was a common theme linking The Edge’s inspirations. They weren’t strictly by the book. Loose, jagged, gritty, with a distinct (ahem) edge that prioritized personality and the song over anything too glossy.

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The Edge’s personal tastes came from his own desire to be a song-first kind of player, one that wasn’t afraid to take risks and make mistakes. It all had to serve the wider picture – and that meant The Edge simply had no time for the over-indulgence of traditional guitar-led music.

“I guess I was just sick of the white blues rock thing; it was just anathema,” he continued of his tastes. “To me, it was just a pub rock thing, and the whole mentality seemed just stupid… in a bad way. Rock and roll should be a bit stupid but that was just... I dunno. Be stupid but don't be dumb? That's it!

“I always thought the whole 15-minute guitar solo thing was such a load of wank. I was attracted to people who really played the songs. But it's the hardest thing – to have a really good song with interesting and unique guitar playing. Maybe one day, I'll do it.”

The Edge’s disillusionment with the guitar scene was clear back in 1996. Traditional guitar and echoes of the ‘shred guitar hero’ scene from the previous decade weren’t moving him. He felt more at home listening to guitar players who weren’t behaving like regular guitar players.

“There hasn't been a new guitar player for a long time that I've really gotten into,” The Edge admitted. “It's a shame because for a while I was feeling really bad about being a guitar player. That's with the exception of Neil Young, who is still incredible.

“To me it's interesting that he's essentially a songwriter and a singer who's obviously using guitar in a different way from a lot of "straight" guitar players. I enjoy some of the young English players, as well.

“I like what Noel Gallagher of Oasis does – it's all attitude, he's not afraid to play some lead licks that border on tacky. But they're not. And they're not, because he's got that spirit. A lot of guitar players have everything except it!”

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With such an outlook on the guitar scene, it's no wonder that The Edge managed to carve out a style that helped him become a different kind of guitar hero.

That ethos was particularly apparent back in '96/'97. Pop showed The Edge at his most experimental, foregoing regular fretboard theatrics and incorporating elements of alt-rock, techno, and dance.

It was yet more evidence that The Edge was cut from a different cloth – and always destined to be a different kind of guitar hero.