Adele, apparently, “is not really into wah”

If you’re looking to kill a day, or week, or a month, we couldn’t recommend a better way to do it then to get sucked down the rabbit hole of Rick Beato’s YouTube channel.

The electric guitar player, writer and producer’s demos, interviews, music discussions, tutorials and more are endlessly interesting and entertaining deep dives into various subjects.

Take, for one, Beato’s recent sit-down with session guitar legend Tim Pierce to discuss session playing from the ‘70s to the present.

Among other gems, Pierce revealed singer Adele’s strong feelings about wah.

“I remember I did a session with Adele that was going to be on her most recent record but she didn’t end up using,” Pierce said. “And, god, I think I turned on my wah-wah pedal. And she told me, ‘You know, I’m not really into wah.’ ”

Asked Beato, “What do you do when Adele says that to you?”

“You turn it off and start over,” responded Pierce simply. But, he added, “She’s not really a guitar lover so much.”

The lesson here, according to Pierce, is an essential one when it comes to being a successful session musician. 

“For her to participate and let me know… whatever I need to do to survive in the session and survive and stay on the song and not get muted (is what I’ll do),” he said.

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Richard Bienstock

Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.