I was always more influenced by his songs than his playing. I mean, his playing was phenomenal. He was a primary architect of modern rock guitar. Clearly, the “Machine Gun” solo. . . no other guitarist has made an equivalent long statement like that, I feel. But compo-sitionally, he brought something really new. He injected new ideas into it and opened up new vistas. . . . Hendrix definitely has been an influence on me, but not to the degree where I'll copy every little phrase. It's an overall feeling of what he did. There's Jimi's influence and then there's his image looming over. It's sort of a Janus face. He's one of the most important American musicians, certainly one of the most important contemporary musicians.

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