Herman Li has had his say on the whole Phoebe Bridgers guitar smash debate, explaining that the only problem he had with it was that the victim of the incident, a Danelectro Dano '56 baritone guitar, was "too cheap. It's only a $500 guitar".
Introducing the topic, Li said: "I'm taking you out of the world of Twitter and Instagram where it's like, 'Oh, I need to see this information immediately, take it out of context, and then I'm going to bitch and complain and talk shit about it.'"
After watching the riotous performance, Li simply asks: "This is the big deal people are talking about?
"I think it's really good. She tried to make something out of it," the guitar god mused. "It's not really such a big deal. Welcome to the world of music."
Like many other commentators, the metal man made links to the "rock is dead" debate, arguing: "People complain rock music is dead and metal music is dead, and you can't even do something fun anymore. People get offended by some sort of show happening.
"Imagine if Jimi Hendrix didn't set that guitar on fire," continued Li. "There's not going to be a Steve Vai, there's no Joe Satriani, there's no Yngwie Malmsteen... these guitar gods got inspired from that."
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To cap off his reaction, Li offered one piece of criticism, saying, "that guitar is too cheap. It's only $500 for that guitar. Next time she smashes up a guitar, make sure it's a $3,000 guitar."
Li even offered Bridgers a guitar from his own collection, adding, "You can take one of my signature guitars and smash that up. How about that PRS? That's a $5,000 guitar.
"Let's get you a real guitar to smash up. My last guitar sold for $16,000, so maybe one of those?"
Matt is a Senior Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World, Guitarist and Total Guitar. He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.
