Joe Bosso

Joe Bosso

Joe is a freelance journalist who has, over the past few decades, interviewed hundreds of guitarists for Guitar World, Guitar Player, MusicRadar and Classic Rock. He is also a former editor of Guitar World, contributing writer for Guitar Aficionado and VP of A&R for Island Records. He’s an enthusiastic guitarist, but he’s nowhere near the likes of the people he interviews. Surprisingly, his skills are more suited to the drums. If you need a drummer for your Beatles tribute band, look him up.

Articles by: Joe Bosso

Pat Travers and Eddie Van Halen playing guitar in the 1980s

“Ed Van Halen was a lot more than his tapping solo. Unfortunately, all the other players in LA thought it was all tapping and dive bombs, and they became cartoon versions of Eddie”: Pat Travers recalls how EVH gave rise to caricature impersonators

By Matt Owen published

Travers witnessed Van Halen at the peak of his powers, but was able to appreciate aspects of his trailblazing playing style that often went under-appreciated by Eddie's peers

The Warning's Daniela and Ale Villarreal Velez onstage with a purple PRS guitar and blue bass respectively

“We don’t want to use guitar solos as a crutch. You know – ‘after the bridge, solo!’ When I do play a solo, I want it to stand out”: Following mega-tours with Muse and Royal Blood, sister act The Warning are riff rock’s next big success story

By Joe Bosso published

From Metallica covers to U.S. network television and a searing third album powered by the creative heat of fuzz and distortion, Daniela and Alejandra Villarreal Vélez are going places fast, and hungry for more

Eric Bazillian of the Hooters plays a Les Paul Junior Doublecut onstage in Germany 2024

“Mick Jagger was moving around like a marionette, responding to every squeak coming out of my guitar”: Eric Bazillian on playing with a Rolling Stone, writing Joan Osborne’s One of Us – and helping Cyndi Lauper find a career-defining hit

By Joe Bosso published

The Hooters frontman/guitarist has had a career like no other, scoring hit after hit as a session player, nailing solos in one take. This is how it all went down...

McKinley James plays his '59 Gibson ES-335 reissue with his fist in the air against a red background

“I always wanted to play with my fingers, but now I was forced to”: When his keys player quit, McKinley James had to rethink his playing style to play in a duo – and he did it without turning to pedals, because “none of my heroes did”

By Joe Bosso published

Now touring as a father-and-son duo, the Dan Auerbach-championed blues rocker just keeps on rolling…

Mark Tremonti

“Kim Thayil is one of the coolest and most inventive guitar players ever… Chris Cornell is definitely in my Mount Rushmore of singers”: Mark Tremonti weighs in on the biggest bands of the ’90s (including Creed)

By Joe Bosso published

As Creed return, Tremonti shares his thoughts on Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and a host of other ’90s icons

Jamie West-Oram onstage playing a green Stratocaster

“Mick Ronson was the guitarist prior to me. He was one of my heroes, so when I joined that band I had some pretty big shoes to fill”: The Fixx’s Jamie West-Oram on his journey from distorted rocker to new wave guitar hero – and why he's big on Suhr

By Joe Bosso published

West-Oram's guitar tone is reference for a whole generation. Here we discusses its evolution from mono to stereo, and the songwriting approach behind his new solo album, Skeleton Key

Scott Stapp and Mark Tremonti of Creed

“The first three records of our career, everybody was talking about how we were going to fail. Each next step was going to be a disaster”: Mark Tremonti and Scott Stapp on the unlikely rebirth of Creed – and why they’ve always been cool

By Joe Bosso published

Thanks to a pair of sports franchises, a bizarre Super Bowl commercial and some shows that sold out in record time, Creed are back. Here, Stapp and Tremonti tell us how it all went down

Top 30 New Jersey Guitarists: Al Di Meola, Richie Sambora, Bruce Springsteen, Zakk Wylde and Les Paul

“Had he recorded nothing but the 10-minute Maggot Brain solo, Eddie Hazel’s place in guitar history would be complete”: The 30 best guitarists from New Jersey – from Al Di Meola and Richie Sambora to Gibson's best-selling signature artist

By Joe Bosso published

We gone and made a list of our favorite Garden State guitar heroes... Do write in for which state you'd like to read about next. One way or another, it won't have better pizza

Tristan Auman of Sometimes In February

“We’re trying to be adventurous. I don’t want to write songs that are just excuses for me to play mindless solos”: Meet Tristan Auman, the wildly inventive guitarist who went from gospel to gonzo shred with Sometime In February

By Joe Bosso published

Ambient beauty abuts technical excellence in the South Carolina prog outfit, but founder Tristan Auman promises us that no matter how crazy the musical ideas the song comes first

Bryan Adams and Keith Scott

“We cobbled together the Everything I Do solo in 20 minutes. Mutt Lange said ‘Eh, not bad.’ And that was it… We had no clue”: Bryan Adams guitarist Keith Scott on being a low-profile multi-platinum guitar hero – and the hits no one saw coming

By Joe Bosso published

From Cuts Like a Knife to Summer of ’69, the Canadian guitar great discusses the gear and solos that have fueled Bryan Adams’ music for more than 40 years

Larissa Liveir

“That’s the great thing about making my videos – they’re like demo tapes. They show off my range and versatility”: Larissa Liveir on her journey from engineering student to guitar’s TikTok role model

By Joe Bosso published

The Brazilian guitarist is every inch the modern guitar hero – and hopes that other players will follow in her footsteps

Mark Tremonti

“He would put the band on the spot and say, ‘We’re going to write a song.’ I would just start riffing… in front of a live group of people”: Mark Tremonti reveals one of Creed’s biggest hits was spontaneously written in front of 4,000 people

By Matt Owen published

The track has helped spearhead Creed’s resurgence in recent years, and is used as a rallying anthem by two major sporting institutions

Earl Slick onstage at a David Bowie tribute in 2019

“Once in a while, we would start playing a Beatles song, and John would go, ‘Cut that out!’” Session guitar legend Earl Slick on fast times with John Lennon and David Bowie – and saying no to Whitesnake

By Joe Bosso published

The venerable session ace has lived a life less ordinary and has the discography to show for it. Earl Slick tells us what it was like to share the stage and studio with music legends

Frank Infante, then of Blondie, backstage in 1980 holding a Fender Stratocaster

“I saw this video of somebody breaking down Heart of Glass. The guy said, ‘Here’s Chris Stein’s guitar part.’ I was like, ‘No, that’s my guitar part’”: Frank Infante sets the record straight on his iconic Blondie riffs and solos

By Joe Bosso published

From One Way or Another to Atomic, the former Blondie guitarist looks back on his time with the new wave sensations: the triumphs, the turbulence, the tones, and why he always has to set the record straight on who played what

John Lennon and Earl Slick

“I thought, ‘Oh, God, this could go really bad…’ I’m telling him that I can’t remember playing with him on a No. 1 record”: Earl Slick says he was too high to remember meeting John Lennon during David Bowie’s Fame recording session

By Matt Parker published

The guitarist and session man met The Beatle while recording David Bowie’s Young Americans and was invited to play on Double Fantasy

Mick Mars

“Mötley Crüe was a whole different animal from what I’m doing. Writing the anthems was what the band was all about. Then it got a little sideways…” Mick Mars opens up on the highs and lows of life in Mötley Crüe – and his solo rebirth

By Joe Bosso published

The legendary Crüe guitarist looks back on the good times and bad times with the world’s most outrageous band, how he knew it was time to retire from the road (but not the group), and why his hard-hitting new solo album is and isn’t a blues record

Bruce Springsteen (left) and Blondie perform onstage

“Bruce Springsteen was in the next studio… He had a Gretsch Country Gentleman, and I asked him if I could borrow it”: How a loaner from The Boss powered the iconic spaghetti western line in Blondie’s Atomic

By Matt Parker published

Former Blondie guitarist Frank Infante has revealed that he recorded the twanging lick using a Gretsch belonging to the blue collar rock icon

Eddie Martinez

“Rod Stewart wooed me to come out on tour and I agreed – then I decided not to do it. He said, ‘Oh, I bet you’re going out on tour with Robert’”: Eddie Martinez on playing with Blondie, Run-D.M.C. and that solo in Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love

By Joe Bosso published

Martinez is a bona-fide session guitar legend with more hits than Ty Cobb. Here he looks back at some of his biggest tracks, working with “solid cat” David Lee Roth, and saying no to Rod Stewart

Cobra Spell's Sonia Anubis

“Nobody in my school listened to bands like Cacophony. They were into emo and goth, but I became obsessed with metal and shred guitar”: How Cobra Spell’s Sonia Anubis is keeping the L.A. ‘80s metal guitar flag flying high

By Joe Bosso published

Cobra Spell are turning the clock back to a decade of technical excess and we are right there for it. But is this the year the Dutch metallers finally get to California?

Dethklok

“I think about Van Halen a lot. I have to play some treacherous licks, so I need the right kind of inspiration. I’m overplaying to an extent – it’s gotta be huge and bombastic”: Brendon Small on writing Dethklok’s brutal final act

By Joe Bosso published

You can cancel Dethklok but you can't kill them. As the world's biggest fictional metal band return, Small reveals how he takes inspiration from Reb Beach and Eddie Van Halen, why stand-up comedy helped his guitar performance, and what he hopes to learn from Nili Brosh

Jon Dretto

“10 years ago, I would need a record deal. But because of my social media following, I don’t need a label’s capital to fund my music”: Meet Jon Dretto – the online shred star whose guitar playing pranks have helped him clock up a billion views

By Joe Bosso published

Dretto is the guitarist everyone’s watching on YouTube – and his army of online followers has given him the independence to take his career wherever he likes

Dave Meniketti performs onstage

“When Van Halen’s first record came out, I was so proud of them – it was awesome. But did Eddie Van Halen affect my playing style? No”: Dave Meniketti on turning down Frampton, and how Y&T might’ve been bigger if they’d opened for themselves

By Joe Bosso published

Everyone who opened for Y&T made it big. Y&T sort of did too, but if superstardom eluded Meniketti, he's totally cool with that. Here, he talks about the evolution of the band and getting his dues as a guitarist

Danni Stefanetti

“The riffs are crazy. If I had to describe the songs, they’re like Bonnie Raitt meets Sheryl Crow meets Joe Walsh meets the Stones – with hints of INXS”: Introducing Danni Stefanetti, the Silver Sky-toting graduate of the PRS Pulse program

By Joe Bosso published

The Clapton and SRV-schooled Aussie-turned-LA songstress promises a rocking, riff-packed about-face on her upcoming studio outing

Annie Shred

“Because I started on the piano, my dexterity was already developed. I loved playing scales, so it was fun to whip my fingers all over the neck of the guitar”: Meet Annie Shred, the former pianist who’s revolutionizing guitar

By Joe Bosso published

How the irresistible world of shred guitar claimed yet another former piano player in Annie Grunwald, the Berklee-trained virtuoso behind Shadow Cliq’s “future metal” sound

Dirty Honey

“I always get compliments on my tone. It’s become a running joke: ‘Aren’t they gonna say I’m awesome? Is it all about my tone?!’”: Dirty Honey’s John Notto is back in the studio – and he’s still in search of “that great, elusive riff”

By Joe Bosso published

The classic-rocker checks in to give us an album update, tells us what it's like to support Guns N' Roses, and reveals the secret behind his praise-worthy live sound