Dubya

1 Jimi Hendrix
2 Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band
3 B.B. King
4 Eric Clapton
5 Robert Johnson
6 Chuck Berry
7 Stevie Ray Vaughan
8 Ry Cooder
9 Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin
10 Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones
11Kirk Hammett of Metallica
12 Kurt Cobain of Nirvana
13 Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead
14 Jeff Beck
15 Carlos Santana
16 Johnny Ramone of the Ramones
17 Jack White of the White Stripes
18 John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
19 Richard Thompson
20 James Burton
21 George Harrison
22 Mike Bloomfield
23 Warren Haynes
24 The Edge of U2
25 Freddy King
26 Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave
27 Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits
28 Stephen Stills
29 Ron Asheton of the Stooges
30 Buddy Guy
31 Dick Dale
32 John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service
33 & 34 Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth
35 John Fahey
36 Steve Cropper of Booker T. and the MG's
37 Bod Diddley
38 Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac
39 Brian May of Qeen
40 John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival
41 Clarence White of the Byrds
42 Robert Fripp of King Crimson
43 Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic
44 Scotty Moore
45 Frank Zappa
46 Les Paul
47 T-Bone Walker
48 Joe Perry of Aerosmith
49 John McLaughlin
50 Pete Townshend
51 Paul Kossoff of Free
52 Lou Reed
53 Mickey Baker
54 Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane
55 Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple
56 Tom Verlaine of Television
57 Roy Buchanan
58 Dickey Betts
59 & 60 Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien of Radiohead
61 Ike Turner
62 Zoot Horn Rollo of the Magic Band
63 Danny Gatton
64 Mick Ronson
65 Hubert Sumlin
66 Vernon Reid of Living Colour
67 Link Wray
68 Jerry Miller of Moby Grape
69 Steve Howe of Yes
70 Eddie Van Halen
71 Lightnin' Hopkins
72 Joni Mitchell
73 Trey Anastasio of Phish
74 Johnny Winter
75 Adam Jones of Tool
76 Ali Farka Toure
77 Henry Vestine of Canned Heat
78 Robbie Robertson of the Band
79 Cliff Gallup of the Blue Caps (1997)
80 Robert Quine of the Voidoids
81 Derek Trucks
82 David Gilmour of Pink Floyd
83 Neil Young
84 Eddie Cochran
85 Randy Rhoads
86 Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath
87 Joan Jett
88 Dave Davies of the Kinks
89 D. Boon of the Minutemen
90 Glen Buxton of Alice Cooper
91 Robby Krieger of the Doors
92 & 93 Fred "Sonic" Smith, Wayne Kramer of the MC5
94 Bert Jansch
95 Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine
96 Angus Young of AC/DC
97 Robert Randolph
98 Leigh Stephens of Blue Cheer
99 Greg Ginn of Black Flag
100 Kim Thayil of Soundgarden

Eddie Van Halen at #70? What a joke!

LiquidSky

I'm surprised Ashton, the American Idols and the Olsen Twins are not on this list.

Hollowgen

where's Slash?

Rogue588

REFUSE to get riled up about another "Best Of/Top Blah, Blah, Blah" list..

Geofferson

Eddie Van Halen #70 and Angus Young #96?

evenflow

Woo hoo, Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien!

palebluedot

How do these guitar hacks make it on the list and Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, the list goes...on don't even make the list?

cdollaz

Is there any Kurt Cobain recording of him playing anything other than chords?

B.A.

surely that list isn't in the right order? Oh, that's right - it's freaking Rolling Stone.

cdollaz

I can respect a guitar player that may not be as talented but comes up with his own sound, like Morello and Edge, but someone of these guys have little originality or talent.

Also, I think Hetfield has more to do with the Metallica sound than Hammett. Hammett is just a bunch of metal solos. Very well done, but still nothing that many other metal guitarists do. Hetfield's rhythm riffs make Metallica for me.

B.A.

I think Clapton would be disappointed to see he's ranked ahead of SRV - considering he publicly said that SRV was the greatest guitar player he had ever seen.

speaking of the women - Joan Jett but no Lita Ford? And where the hell is Nancy Wilson?

Where's Peter Frampton and Stevie "Guitar" Miller? - they're both excellent guitar players, iirc.

Randy Rhoads at 85? Eddie Van Halen at 70?

What the hell are Cobain and Jack White doing in the top 20?

I guessed quite a few of the top ten, but I didn't know some of the blues guitarists up there (like Ry Cooder)...

Definitely thought Brian May, Mark Knopfler, Pete Townsend, Van Halen, Rhoads, and freaking Vernon Reid would have been ranked much higher. Of course I would think David Gilmour would be, too.

Rolling Stone is full of a bunch of fluctating, time-warped jack-sticked magpies...

Doug Schiller

No Mick Taylor? I think there are about 20 guitarists on that list that he could their lunch.
Oh well, I guess they make these lists to generate discussion.

Doug

TeeSeeJay

No Michael Gurley? what a waste.

grunter

What? No Ashanti?

Last time she showed up in Rolling Stone, she was playing a "gee-tar."

cdollaz

Umm, who?

Hollowgen

haha yeah kurt cobain was a talentless hack.

TeeSeeJay

Yeah, that's why I linked his name. He's the best guitarist no-one's heard of. Plays for dada and butterfly jones.

TeeSeeJay

Certainly not, but he wasn't all-time top-20 material, either.

bardevious

Hahahaha!~

This reminds me of when I was in the fourth grade, and Dynamite magazine came out with their list of the top 100 Scooby-Doo guest stars, and The Globetrotters came out on top! What a sham!





Actually, upon reflection, this really bears no resemblance to Dynamite magazine's list, because Dynamite's list was actually meaningful.


Rolling Stone. Dammit, merge with "Teen People" already!

Giantrobo

Utter BS!

It's a popularity list witha few notables thrown in for good measure.

Where's Alex Lifeson of RUSH??? A man who always makes top guitarist lists.

woofman

All you can do is shake your head and laugh.

Drexl

Eric Johnson isn't on there either.

I would've liked to have seen Lindsey Buckingham on there too, but I'm not as surprised he was omitted as I am about Eric Johnson.

Meatpants

50 Pete Townshend

No love for Mike McCready either

KnightLerxst

No Alex Lifeson?
David Gilmour at 82?
No Andy Summers?

Jason

Jack White a better guitarist than Frank Zappa

No Alex Lifeson

No Yngwie Malmsteen

No Ace Frehley

More Cobain stroking (he's dead guys, you don't have to kiss his ass anymore).

I'm completely surprised they remembered Les Paul.