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BiTS: Ain’t that the truth. One of the sadnesses of my life is that I never got to see Albert Collins

play live, but one of my favourites. Absolutely magnificent musician.

RDP: Yeah, well, he had charisma, didn't he? I love Albert Collins because he wasn't like super
flash, but he had so much soul and he was a really precise player and there was a lot of fire in his
playing, and it was a really sort of funky, aggressive Telecaster-style picking. And yeah, I really
miss Albert Collins. He was one of my favourite guitar players.

BiTS: Apart from the Telecasters, have you got lots of other guitars?

RDP: Well, there's seven Telecasters and one Grand auditorium.

BiTS: Oh, is that all?

RDP: That’s it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

DS: Don't encourage him [laughing].

RDP: I used to play Eko guitars, and they were fantastic acoustics, but I wore them all out. I mean,
it's a good job I've got so many Telecasters because I put
10-gauge strings on them and I use Jazz plectrums, but I
have a very hard attack. I play hard like Stevie Ray
Vaughan. So I’ve a naturally hard attack and I can actually
wear out the fret boards of guitars quite, quite quickly.

BiTS: Oh really?

RDP: Yeah.

BiTS: When was the last time you broke a string, though?
RDP: Oh, the last time I broke a string was probably about
six months ago. That long ago.

BiTS: When you get skilled like you are, breaking a string
is always an unusual occurrence.

RDP: It's really rare. I think the last time I broke one, I
was actually uploading a video of an idea, and that's
another one we haven't completed yet, which was very
sort of Hendrix-y, Stevie Ray Vaughan kind of riff and I
was so into it and I played it so hard that I did break the string. But even to this day, I mean, I've
tried getting into a lot of modern players, Ian, but for me, maybe it's my age, maybe it's my
generation, but for me, I would say Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Carlos Santana,
Johnny Winter, those are the guys that influenced me and my guitar playing the most, and Page
will always have a special place in my heart because Jimmy Page was so brilliant on acoustic and
electric.

BiTS: I'm tempted to say that most of them are dead [laughing].

RDP: That’s right. Well, it’s true, yeah. It is. It is. I mean, like Eric Clapton was great. I mean, Eric
Clapton did some really great solos and things. It's just that I'm not going to say Eric Clapton
influenced me because he didn't. Oh, I forgot to mention Jeff Beck. I've always been a Jeff Beck fan
and Jeff Beck's been a big influence on me as well, especially The Jeff Beck Group because The Jeff
Beck Group was kind of like a prototype Led Zeppelin, really. Except Rod Stewart was the singer

instead of Robert Plant. But I really miss Jeff Beck. He was one of my favourite guitar players. I
thought he was fantastic.