Blabbermouth — During yesterday’s (Tuesday, May 3) edition of “The Nightly Nuge”, a news-style clip in which legendary rocker Ted Nugent offers his take on the news of our world every night, he was asked to name the best guitar player he has ever seen. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “There’s so many. I’m gonna go ahead and give it to Eddie Van Halen because he was so diverse in not only his histrionics but his groove. He had an unbelievable organic sense of rhythm in his delivery of not just exciting lead guitar parts but his grind of a grooving rhythm as a white kid. He really defied the history of who can groove like that. ‘Cause I come from the world of The Funk Brothers of Motown, so I know what the gods of groove look and sound like. And Eddie Van Halen, the times I jammed with him, and just listening to the records, you can tell he had an unbelievable, uncannySuperman sense of rhythm beyond just his outrageous athleticism on the guitar neck.”

Two years ago, when Nugent was asked in an interview with Bushnell to name the greatest guitar player of all time, he said: “There are so many miracle workers on the guitar, and I’ve jammed with the best. I got to jam with B.B. King. I played bass with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. I got to jam with Steve Winwood. I played with Stevie Ray Vaughan. I jammed with Eddie Van Halen and Billy Gibbons. I’ve been on stage with AEROSMITH, with Brad [Whitford] and Joe [Perry]. I’ve been on stage with HEART and played with those guys. I jammed for an hour with John Entwistle at the NAMM show in California years ago. I played with Brian May. There’s so many gifted virtuosos. Derek St. Holmes, who was with me for years, is one of the greatest guitar players that ever lived. Rickey Medlocke, who was with BLACKFOOT, created incredible music with BLACKFOOT and now with LYNYRD SKYNYRD. Tommy Shaw, my fellow Damn Yankee, is just an unbelievable guitar virtuoso.

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