When I got to New York and found all these guys
with all this fabulous technique—Pat Martino
and Grant Green and a few others—I said,“Man,
I’m not gonna be able to make it here.” I knew I
couldn’t match those guys. So I started devising
my own method and reexamined the fingerboard.
Well, first of all, I’ve got Irish
and Welsh blood in me. My
grandfather told me, “Yeah,
yeah, boy, you’re Irish and
Welsh.” That was my attempt
at creating some bagpipes, or
at least the vibe from bagpipes.
It worked very well because,
with some audiences, we see
people with tears in their eyes.
They must be Irish or Scottish
[laughs]. And when we play
in Ireland, people love us over
there. I played “Danny Boy”
over there for the first time a
few years ago, and I couldn’t
believe the response I got. It
was the best song in the show.
Mike Stern once told me,
“George Benson is the best
jazz guitar player alive.” Even
though you’re essentially a
pop star, this seems to be the
general consensus among
jazz guitarists.
Mike Stern’s a good cat, man. I
love him. I remember when he
came to New York, my man-
ager said, “Man, there’s a kid
in town—you gotta hear him
play.” So we went down and it
was Mike Stern. He bounced
off the wall—he took all the
paint off the wall in the place
that night! So I knew we had a
new star on our hands. He’s a
wonderful cat and he plays the
crap out of the guitar. You can’t
ask for more than that.
