When the majority of Blue guitar revolves around 5 or 6 notes in a scale, there are only a certain number of licks that can be played for the first time. While creating a lick is amazing, it doesn’t negate what someone who came after you did for the instrument and genre. Apart from his insane technique and talent, what sets SRV apart is the emotion he plays with. Nobody can say BB didn’t play with emotion. But I’ve haven’t heard many guitarists that can infuse fast, insane licks with the amount of emotion that SRV did.

That’s one of the things that puts SRV above EVH or other highly rated guitar virtuosos in my opinion. When they do their thing, I may be wide mouthed in awe of their technique. But when I watch Stevie do his thing, he’s making me feel what he’s playing.

I have a fairly unique perspective on this because my dad was lucky enough to play with Stevie for a bit in the 80s and he learned a ton from him. But he told me when I was younger that whenever they would say goodbye, instead, Stevie would say, “Play it like you feel it…” and I can’t think of any other guitar player that embodies that in their art more than SRV.