Jeff “Skunk” Baxter looks back on his experience playing alongside Les Paul

[L-R] Jeff “Skunk” Baxter and Les Paul
(Image credit: Getty Images)

“There are guitar owners, there are guitar players, and then there are guitarists. Les was a guitarist. The man was the personification of excellence,” Jeff “Skunk” Baxter says, with some authority.  

A founding member of Steely Dan and a session ace with a list of credits any player would envy, Baxter is one of the most respected players in the world. Indeed, his solos on tracks such as Steely Dan’s Bodhisattva and My Old School gave the band a reputation for hot playing. 

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Jamie Dickson

Jamie Dickson is Editor-in-Chief of Guitarist magazine, Britain's best-selling and longest-running monthly for guitar players. He started his career at the Daily Telegraph in London, where his first assignment was interviewing blue-eyed soul legend Robert Palmer, going on to become a full-time author on music, writing for benchmark references such as 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die and Dorling Kindersley's How To Play Guitar Step By Step. He joined Guitarist in 2011 and since then it has been his privilege to interview everyone from B.B. King to St. Vincent for Guitarist's readers, while sharing insights into scores of historic guitars, from Rory Gallagher's '61 Strat to the first Martin D-28 ever made.