The guitarist David Byrne knew he could never be: “We had a few rules”

The guitarist David Byrne knew he could never be: “We had a few rules”The 1970s were all about the virtuosic guitar player. There is simply no doubt that the ‘70s were the premier decade for the rock and roll guitarist. He explained, “Our record collection was a mix of things like Roxy Music, Iggy Pop, James Brown and Hamilton Bohannon, O’Jays. Perhaps more crucially, though, it allowed Byrne to focus on rhythm equally to melody. For rock and roll, and what many people would dub as ‘traditional guitar music’, to move forward, it needed someone like Byrne, who could barely master the instrument at all.