The guitar has been pretty good to Joe Walsh over the years and Walsh has responded in kind with a number of memorable licks that stand with the best in rock history. Walsh took a few moments with Guitar World to reflect on the instrument that’s given him so much and what got him started in the first place.

Joe explains, “I had first played other instruments growing up. I had lessons on several instruments, and I knew I was musical because I heard music in my head a lot. But the guitar was the first instrument that I could really express myself with. I found that it was the best vehicle I had to get what was inside my head out of it and into somebody’s ears.”

Walsh says that like many kids of his era, once he heard the Beatles in high school it was all over. “It was inspirational to me,” says the singer. “I wanted to be like them, so I took up the guitar as well.”

Walsh says his first instrument his family purchased was a Silvertone acoustic from Sears Roebuck catalog that set them back about $30. He recalls, “When that thing finally arrived in the mail, after waiting for it for three weeks, I was on top of the world. And though I couldn’t yet play anything, it was the coolest thing.”

Years later, Joe still thinks the guitar is “the coolest thing,” and he has a few favorites in his collection. Walsh cites his 1958 Les Paul Goldtop and his 1956 Fender Stratocaster among his favorites, as they were among the original models of electric guitar. He adds, “I am not sure anybody has topped them in all these years.”

For more of Joe’s thoughts on the guitar, read on here.

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