I love Dick Dale. His speed and his choice of notes are very tasty. He just rocks me. It's so turbocharged, it just sends you to the moon. I tried to do some of his moves on a song a few years back called "Mr. Integrity," a kind of surfy song of ours. I just totally fudged my way through it. He would probably listen to that and hear nothing in there that sounded like him. But I was trying.
And I love Les Paul when he gets really out there and really goofy. He, to me, was just extremely ahead of his time, extremely unconventional. He doesn't look like the hippest cat on the block, you know, and yet he's playing this amazing stuff.
And then, of course, I love Johnny Ramone. He's so simple and so great. I was taking guitar lessons, and once my teacher showed me how to do a bar chord, I could play the Ramones. And so that was it: I stopped my formal education. My sister brought home the Ramones' Rocket to Russia. And I had to buy her a new record because I wore it out. You know, I love the Stones and stuff, too, but the Ramones have this special place in my heart as the band that changed my life.
