INTERVIEW
Carl
VERHEYEN
BY OSCAR JORDAN
I can’t imagine a guitarist more bonafide
than Carl Verheyen. Sure, there’s a boatload
of badass guitarists out there, but few of
them can nail such a broad variety of styles
like they were born to it. On top of that, he
gets paid for it! Despite Verheyen’s freakish
ability to effortlessly bust out be-bop, blues,
country, classical, bluegrass, metal and good
ol’ rock n’ roll, Verheyen retains his own
inimitable signature sound. Don’t you just
hate guys like that?
Then there’s the resume. He’s played on a
bazillion sessions with such diverse artists as
Dolly Parton, Little Richard, Stanley Clarke,
Christine Aguilera, The Bee Gees and Allan
Holdsworth, to name a few. He’s played
on film and TV soundtracks like Samantha
Who?, The Crow, The Usual Suspects,
Scrubs, Ratatouille and Moscow on The
Hudson. That’s the short list. He even played
guitar on the iconic sitcom Happy Days.
His resume goes on and on. Solo records,
instructional books, videos, DVDs, gigs
galore and he’s the touring guitarist for the
band Supertramp.
I caught his gig at Hollywood’s legendary
fusion hang, The Baked Potato. I heard an
eye-bulging fusion of great tunes and styles
and that made me want to run home and
practice. Verheyen uses the kind of gear that
makes guitar freaks need a drool bucket.
He uses a mix of vintage amps and guitars
married with modern technology—to great
effect. Verheyen has the coolest toys. When
he agreed to this interview, I knew this was
going to be the perfect opportunity to pick
the brain of a great virtuoso. He also turned
out to be one hell of a nice guy.
