St. Vincent, the acclaimed singer and guitarist, recently revealed on the Broken Records podcast that Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready gifted her one of his signature guitars, leading to a shift in her approach to playing.
During the conversation, St. Vincent shared that McCready, who is both a friend and a “lovely human being,” gave her one of his signature Stratocasters. She admitted that she had never played a Strat before, explaining, “I’ve never played a Strat before not because I don’t like Strats. Strats are cool. I’ve never played a Strat because every time I pick up a Strat, I play Jimi Hendrix poorly.”
She went on to explain her hesitation: “A Strat has so much history I don’t know how to approach. But Mike gave me one, and it was great. And it was, ‘Now I get why people love Strats.’” She even mentioned using it on her track “All Born Screaming,” saying, “I played it on the end of ‘Broken Man,’ that’s a Strat.”
Reflecting on her decision to incorporate the Strat into her music, St. Vincent acknowledged that she would never have chosen to play one if McCready hadn’t given it to her. “I never ever would have picked up the Strat if Mike hadn’t given me the guitar,” she confessed in a separate interview with Guitar magazine.
The singer also explained why she had always avoided Leo Fender’s most iconic electric guitar. She felt that playing a Strat came with the “cultural baggage” tied to legendary artists like Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. “They’re some of the greatest guitar players of all time, of course, but there’s history to Strats,” she said. “And there’s also a history of people trying to play like Jimi Hendrix and sucking.”
St. Vincent released her seventh studio album, “All Born Screaming”, in April of last year.
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