![]() ![]() ![]() “It wasn’t the iconic James Dean look that was drawing me, it was more just the overall presence of what it seemed to represent: the freedom, the possibility, the freshness. “I wasn’t looking at Elvis like ‘I wanna be that’,” says the guitarist. Then came Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Johnny Cash and more, and a chord book that allowed Buckingham to work out their music, spending hours in Jeff’s room with his singles and turntable. Having only heard his parents’ music – the South Pacific soundtrack and the Nutcracker Suite were two regularly-spun records at home – this new style was a revelation for the young Lindsey. At six years old, I wasn’t in any position to be buying hundreds of 45s, but my brother, who was seven years older, came home one day and said, ‘Hey, there’s this new singer out there named Elvis Presley and he’s really cool.’ The deep meaning of rock ’n’ roll was suddenly that young people had their own music, so to hear this guy singing, and to see what it looked like, it was just mind-blowing.” It’s hard to even characterise how impactful that was. “I was only six when Elvis Presley came on the scene with Heartbreak Hotel. “Without him, I probably wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing,” says Buckingham. Growing up in the Bay Area, he was blown away by the first flush of rock’n’roll, courtesy of his older brother Jeff’s expanding record collection. Lindsey Buckingham has always been more fascinated by songs and records than by guitar style. Yet the guitarist’s ambivalence to these in-storage treasures isn’t the jaded response of a man who can afford anything – rather, Buckingham’s always been a guitarist happy with a sparse set of tools, who makes magic with technique more than gear. It turns out that Buckingham’s stash also includes a rare Alembic 12-string, a 60s Gibson J-200 and an Epiphone Airscreamer, built to resemble an Airstream trailer, according to his long-time tech Stanley Lamendola. I haven’t even seen it for years, but I know it’s there!” I think probably the most valuable guitar I have there is a ’59 Les Paul. I don’t have a collection for the sake of a collection – it’s just something that I ended up with for some reason. “Oh, good question,” he says, on the phone from his home in California. READ MORE: “Where else are you going to wear a 50-foot cape except when opening for Prince?”: Andy McKee on playing with the Purple One.There’s little point asking Buckingham himself what’s in there, though. Somewhere in Los Angeles, there’s a warehouse – probably climate-controlled, certainly high-security – that houses some of Lindsey Buckingham’s rarer guitars. ![]()
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