Perfect 10

He’s the son of Beatle George with an impressive track record of his own, but will he need any help with the 10 questions we ask everyone?

1 What was your first guitar and when did you get it? “The first guitar I played was a Yamaha red Flying V copy, but that wasn’t mine. My dad gave me a ‘56 Fender Mustang, candy apple red with the matching headstock and the triple stripe – the big thick stripe with the two little stripes either side going across – that was the coolest thing. I still have it; it’s 3/4 scale and so good for a small person. Not sure how old I was – probably about 10.” 2 Suppose the building’s burning down, what one guitar from your collection would you save? “From my father’s collection or from mine? If it was my dad’s collection I would take ‘Rocky’, obviously; the psychedelic Strat. But if it was my little collection I think it would have to be a 1954 single cutaway Gibson tenor hollowbody – I don’t know the model number. It’s a two-tone sunburst and I’ve used it on every single soundtrack I’ve ever done. It’s one of those guitars that you sit down with and it just writes songs.” 3 When was the last time you practised and what did you play? “Just about two minutes ago I was playing a 335 and trying to work out the chords to this cover version. I’m doing some radio stuff and they always say, ‘Hey, can you do two of your songs and a cover as well?’ Great; I’ll just learn it in the taxi on the way over, shall I? [laughs] So I was playing the song 2HB by Roxy Music, which is quite an early Ferry vibe.” 4 When was the last time you changed your own strings? “All the time. Unless I’m in the middle of playing another guitar and I break one and someone’s standing there like, ‘Oh, just stick one on this…’ I’m usually the guy who goes around and someone’s got a guitar that’s all knackered and I’ll just change their strings as well. I like nice strings.” 5 What are you doing five minutes before you go on stage and five minutes afterwards? “Five minutes before I’m usually standing by the side of the stage with my in-ears in going, ‘Can I hear anything?’ Usually we do a little stand around and I read this thing about Brian Wilson who said before they did God Only Knows he got the band to stand around and pray for maximum love vibes to go into the music. I thought that was such a sweet thing; it doesn’t matter what you believe in, but obviously putting maximum love vibes into a song is going to get something like God Only Knows – and they did it first take. So we do maximum love vibes before and then afterwards, probably drink a beer.” 6 What’s the worst thing that’s happened to you onstage? “I was playing at Stubb’s Bar-B-Q in Austin, Texas and we did a soundcheck and everything was great. Then we went away and came back and I’m not sure if it was sabotage or the universe but all of the soldering inside my Fender Strat went. It created this awful buzz and no one could work out what it was – we thought it was the pedalboard, the amp, the mixer and, in the end it turned out to be the guitar, which very rarely ever happens. Everyone was so bummed out and it buggered up our set.” 7 Which song would you play on an acoustic around a campfire? “I always play He Was A Friend Of Mine by Bob Dylan, about Woody Guthrie dying on the road. I used to have a dog called Woody Guthrie and my dad loved that song. It’s one of those songs that’s very campfire-y but it always makes everyone cry so I try not to play it too much!” 8 What aspect of playing guitar would you like to be better at? “Shredding. I never really put much value on shredding; it’s not really about the pick work, it’s more that there’s some really oblique scales. I see some of my friends who are incredible shredders, but I probably wouldn’t shred as hard as them – but I’d probably find a few notes in there that would be good ones to use later.” 9 What advice would you give your younger self about the guitar if you had the chance? “Don’t ever take a break from it. There was a point where, for three or four years, I just lost interest and I was doing other things as a kid, you know? And in that’s when I would have been shredding! I wouldn’t do anything different, just stick with it.” 10 Is there a myth about you or your playing that you’d like to set the record straight on? “Sometimes the word ‘psychedelic’ is thrown around. If that’s the worst myth to be perpetuated then I’ll take that!” [DM]

“I play He Was A Friend Of Mine, about Woody Guthrie. I used to have a dog called Woody Guthrie and my dad loved that song”