Blues-rock guitar hero Marcus King has been going from strength to strength since the release of Soul Insight in 2014.
Since then, the guitar-slinger has worked with lauded names such as Rick Rubin and Dan Auerbach, and has even recently been entrusted to wield Rory Gallagher’s famed white Fender Telecaster and Jeff Beck’s iconic Yardburst Les Paul at recent shows.
He's also been playing some impressive vintage guitars of his own recently, one of which he actually forget he bought...
“I've been playing a ’66 Esquire,” he tells Guitar World in a new interview. “I was drinking a lot and forgot that I bought it. The folks at Carter Vintage called me and were like, ‘You gonna come get this guitar?’ It's probably the only good thing that ever came from my drinking."
King also admits that, “When I'm at home, I don't like to touch the guitar” – preferring instead to play the piano, pedal steel, fiddle, banjo, ukulele... basically, anything but the guitar.
“The guitar is something that I'm so familiar with,” he says of his philosophy, matter-of-factly. “It's like riding a bike or speaking the English language. If I moved abroad and only spoke Spanish for six months, it's not like I will forget how to speak English.
“Guitar is so deeply rooted in me. I like to play different instruments, and it helps my playing when I go back to the guitar. I read Victor Wooten's book [The Music Lesson], and he harped on the importance of being a musician, not a bass player, and I have always been influenced by that idea. It’s a holy experience to be able to sit at a guitar and say exactly what I have on my mind.”
Aside from wielding some pretty historic guitars, King has recently delivered an ES-345 signature model with Gibson. Moreover, he’s recently announced his much-anticipated new album, Darling Blue, with the Marcus King Band.
