Steve Stevens (Billy Idol) guitar lesson & interview

Steve Stevens, the guitarist of Billy Idol, talks about his influences and gives an insight on his song writing process, style and playing technique.

He also shows how to play the basic chords of "Rebel Yell", "White Wedding", "Eyes Without A Face", "Dancing With Myself" and "Rat Race". Wonderful guy, great rock composer, amazing guitarist. Enjoy!


PS. If you look very carefully, you can see the letters of those Bare Knuckle pickups on his gorgeous Les Paul. They must be the Mules (according to him, he was using them in the past) because I think the Rebel Yells did not exist at the time this video was made. (Don't take their sound as a characteristic "Mule" sound though - they put him to play through a Fender G Dec)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Steve
• Stevens
• Billy
• Idol
• Rebel
• Yell
• White
• Wedding
• Eyes
• Face
• Rat
• Race
• Bare
• Knuckle
• Mule
• rock
• electric
• guitar
• lesson

[scolgo]

Thanks for posting this! And thanks to Steve Stevens for sharing! I'm currently learning Rebel Yell for a cover project & this is very helpful. No pick on the intro - but if you look closely, he has it tucked away between his fingers and pulls it out for the next part. The song is not all that difficult - the hardest thing for me is smoothly putting the pick away when returning to the intro piece right before the solo & at the end of the song. Hah!! Guess I'll stop posting & keep practicing!!

[bloodySunday77]

@scolgo I agree 100%! The pick trick is a bit difficult... check out some videos by Brian Setzer, he is a master of that. I do it as well, but synchronizing it with quick picking is the hard part. Good luck!

[marcelosunako]

Wow....i came here many times just to hear that guitar and amp. I think this sound is very impressive too.

[bloodySunday77]

@marcelosunako ??!??!??

[miezulet]

he,like many other good guitarist,doesn't get the praise he should get

[Fyneparent22]

God I love this guy! He's obviously an incredible and talented guitar genius... you go Steve you go... mwah!

[CthulhuForCocoaPuffs]

@scolgo I know a trick for that. In fact, it looks like he's doing it the same as I do. You simply tuck it between the joints on your middle finger. Then you just use your thumb to slide it back and forth. I got the trick from a Bruce Kulick lesson video I had when I was first learning how to play. I don't know if it's in this particular clip. But this is from that very lesson.

watch?v=JWxz1H10_fk

[musiclover3928]

Steve Stevens is a guitar God! keep rocking steve!!!!

[devilparrot]

what's his tunning?

[bieglers5]

I have been a big a big fan of Billy Idol and Steve Stevens for a few decades now. Thanks for sharing this video!

[bloodySunday77]

@robertjelic No, I didn't mean it like that, it is entirely subjective... and the video quality is indeed poor...