Guitar World Engineers The Ultimate Guitar Summit
We would like to say they were lured to our photo shoot because they wanted to honor Guitar World on our 25th birthday, but that would be stretching it. Truth be told, Daron Malakian, Zakk Wylde, Slash, John Frusciante, Munky, Tom Morello and Dean DeLeo gathered for this month’s incredible cover just to be in the same room with their heroes, the immortal Jimmy Page and Joe Perry.
“I was honored,” says System of a Down’s Malakian. “There’s no other way I can say it. When Guitar World told me they wanted me for the group shot, all I could say was ‘thank you’. You’re looking at Jimmy Page, Joe Perry, Slash, John Frusciante… all these people I grew up watching and idolizing, man. So to be in the same room with them, I was speechless, I didn’t feel worthy to be there, honestly.”
It all started last winter when we asked Joe and Jimmy to meet in L.A. for a roundtable chat about the blues. Soon, word got out that the two towering giants of rock guitar were in town, and before we knew it, the cream of the West Coast guitar community wanted to come down and pay their respects.
The scene was fascinating: Morello’s knees buckled under the weight of Wylde’s bull’s-eye Les Paul and its chain strap as he tried it on for size. Page shared a smoke with Slash and spoke with Malakian about Aleister Crowley, Perry chatted quietly with Frusciante and DeLeo.
“I never met Slash before,” says Malakian, “and I walked into the place and he’s like, ‘Hey man, how’s it going?’ Like he knew me already. It was like a wild dream. We were all saying, ‘Would we all get along like this if we were a bunch of lead singers?’ I think everybody was amazed at how cool the vibe was. How friendly everybody was. I didn’t get any feelings like, ‘Hey, I want to be in front.’ Everybody was so humble and cool.”
The party continued until late into the night, when Page, Perry and Slash decided to go to the House of Blues and see James Brown. Page, for his part, seemed to enjoy his admirers. “What a great group of talented players,” he said afterward. “It was an amazing night.”
