“How do you pronounce your name?”

Gu-LAY-ze-in. Yes, you too can learn to say gu-LAY-ze-in, and broaden your linguistic horizons in the process. Practice saying it over and over, in the privacy of your own home. Then wait an hour, and repeat “gu-LAY-ze-in” an additional one hundred seventeen times. You should then be able to walk up to Nnamdi Asomugha and pronounce “Gulezian” with confidence. He will be impressed.

Can you name your biggest musical influences?

Keith Jarrett. James Joyce. Sun Ra. Leo Kottke. Michael Hedges. John Fahey. Sonoran desert summer monsoon thunderstorms. Son House. Paul Motian. Frank Zappa. Miles. Birds singing. Igor Stravinsky. Marc Anderson. Joni Mitchell. Billy Cobham. John Hartford. Dick Rosmini. Ralph Towner. Alan Hovaness. Kevin Gilbert. And most of all, the sound of my mom singing when I was in her womb.

Who are your favorite guitarists?

Michael Hedges. Jimi. Leo Kottke. Jeff Beck. Paco de Lucia. Andres Segovia. Ralph Towner. Daron Malakian. Steve Tibbetts. Django. Wes Montgomery. Stevie Ray Vaughn. Frank Zappa. Joe Bonamassa. Pat Metheny. Shawn Lane. John McLaughlin. Jan Akkerman. Phil Keaggy. Aaron North. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. Julian Bream. Robin Finck. Tony Rice. Joni Mitchell. Tuck Andress. Henry Kaiser. Yuri Naumov. Joe Pass. Derek Trucks. Alan Holdsworth. Fareed Haque. Joe Satriani. Preston Reed. Vernon Reid. Bill Frisell. John Abercrombie. Larry Carlton. Raul Midon. Enver Izmailov. Danny Gatton. Steve Morse. Eric Johnson. Robben Ford. Henry Frayne. Scott Henderson. Buckethead. Sonny Landreth. Dean Magraw. Richard Thompson. Charlie Hunter.

Who are your favorite acoustic guitarists?

Michael Hedges. Paco de Lucia. Leo Kottke. Ralph Towner. Erik Mongrain. Son House. John Fahey. Steve Tibbetts. Peter Lang. John McLaughlin. Dylan McKinstry. Robert Johnson. Egberto Gismonti. Tony Rice. Julian Bream. Peter Finger. Bill Mize. Jorge Strunz. Ardeshir Farah. Mississippi John Hurt. Don Ross. Pierre Bensusan. Lucas Michailidis. Preston Reed. Tony McManus. Vicki Genfan. Skip James. Jaquie Gipson. Rick Ruskin. Janet Feder. Joseph Spence. Doc Watson. Billy McLaughlin. Doug Smith. Willy Porter. Willis Alan Ramsey. Dominic Frasca. Michael Kelsey. Kelly Joe Phelps. Pino Forastiere. Adrian Legg. Bruce Cockburn. Alex DeGrassi. James Taylor. Yuri Naumov. Sharon Isbin. Robbie Basho. Peter Mulvey. Sergio Altamura. Shep Cooke. Andy McKee. Rainer Ptacek. Patty Larkin. And strictly from a technical perspective, Tommy Emmanuel. If we include dobro players, Jerry Douglas, and Rob Ickes.

Who have you performed with?

I get this question quite a bit. Click HERE for the info. It’s an interesting list of artists and performers.

Why don’t you do endorsements?

A lot of other guitarists do endorsements. I respect the reasons why some of them do it – they actually use the products they endorse, and believe in them wholeheartedly. For others, it’s a calculated and cynical career move, nothing more than an easy way to get their faces plastered in the pages of music magazines – cheap publicity. I look at endorsements as “career enhancing steroids.” There are moral and ethical implications for every choice we make. For me, music is a sacred calling; unfortunately, very few people in the business of “music marketing&rdquo understand what that means. I personally have made the choice to refuse any and all endorsements. I've also chosen never to allow any music magazine to use my name in a “reader's poll,&rdquo and I will never participate in any "competitive" music event (the presence of judges violates the highly personal experience of listening to live music, and imposes upon artists a hierarchy which is artificial and meaningless). I am sure I'd sell more CDs if I did these things, but for me, it's far more important to keep the music pure.

How do you get your tone?

High action (fret clearance), and heavy gauge strings, tuned at least a full step below concert pitch. It also helps that I play guitar a lot.

What gear do you use?

I’m in complete agreement with Chris Smither, who says, “...within limits, gear is more important as a topic of conversation than as a way of making music.” Except I’m not as diplomatic. I think gear is utterly irrelevant. The people who write gear columns at the guitar magazines are idiots. Gear manufacturers spend fortunes on advertising – they want you to believe if you buy their latest digital gizmo thingy, you’re suddenly going to become a vastly improved player. Well, Robert Johnson didn’t have any “gear.” Augustin Barrios didn’t have any “gear.” Nobody needs “gear” to make great music. The only gear musicians need is imagination, passion, discipline, fearlessness, space, silence, heart, time, soul, guts, and callouses on their fingers.

What kind of strings do you use?

I use any 80/20 or 85/15 bright bronze alloy on hexagonal steel core. I’ll buy whatever is on sale. Brand names mean nothing to me. I always use a wound treble A string on the 12-string guitar. I think “coated” strings suck.

Who are your favorite bands?

Mute Math. stimmhorn. Switchfoot. Kronos Quartet. Primus. System Of A Down. Shakti. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Oregon. Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder. Rage Against the Machine. moe. Alison Krauss & Union Station. Pavement. That One Guy. Fear. Sigur Ros. tv on the radio. Helmet. Garaj Mahal. Nine Inch Nails. Any confluence where Steve Kimock and Rodney Holmes appear together. The Secret Machines. Pat Metheny Group (in any incarnation). The Bad Plus. Crooked Still. Tool. The Del McCoury Band. U2. (Yeah, yeah, I know … except for the Bluegrass players, Shakti, and Kronos, they all use a lot of gear.)

Did Leo Kottke really flush your fingerpicks down the toilet?

Yes. It happened backstagte at the World Theatre, after we both appeared on A Prairie Home Companion. I was 24 at the time. It was one of the best things any musician ever did for me. I’ll always be grateful to Leo for doing that. Ten years earlier, Leo gave me all the fruit off his deli tray at the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix. It was a very kind thing to do for a nerdy, hungry fifteen-year-old. I’ll always remember that. But I am most grateful to Leo for flushing my fingerpicks.

Leo Kottke remains our greatest living solo acoustic guitarist. He is literally a national treasure. Please do not under any circumstances miss the opportunity to see Leo if he performs a concert within 200 miles of where you live. Click HERE for Leo’s website.

Who is Michael Hedges?

Sadly, this is a question I hear more and more often. With all due respect to Leo Kottke (and Leo is due enormous respect), Michael Hedges was the most revolutionary instrumental solo acoustic guitarist who ever lived. He also was a very dear friend. Michael died tragically in an auto accident in 1997. There are tens of thousands of people – perhaps hundreds of thousands - whose lives were deeply affected by Michael’s artistry, who remember him every day – I am one among them. If you are not familiar with Michael’s music, please come back to my website later – click HERE for the link to Michael’s website.

Do you have any advice for up and coming artists, especially solo guitarists?

When I go out on tour, I’m astounded by the level of talent that I see in people much younger than myself. I make it a point to be accessible, to do workshops whenever possible, and to encourage the creative spirit – because let’s face it, the world does everything it possibly can to stifle that beautiful impulse.

Speaking of the world, the world will change things if you want to pursue art as a career. It's one thing to create for yourself, your family and friends, but, well ... let me quote from my old Takoma Records labelmate, Charles Bukowski: "If it doesn't come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don't do it. Unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth and your gut, don't do it. If you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen or hunched over your typewriter searching for words, don't do it. If you're doing it for money or fame, don't do it ..."

The next thing I would say is kill your ego. Kill it DEAD. Humble yourself before God. Music is a sacred gift - recognize the Source from Whom it comes. Nothing is more revolting than some lame ass musician with an ego. Practice imposes humility upon musicians – if we work on the things we don’t do particularly well (that’s the definition of practice), then we’ll be coming face to face with our own weaknesses every day. I am very fortunate to know some of the greatest players in existence, and they are all genuinely humble people.

Also, recognize that although art and entertainment sometimes overlap, they are at essence two completely different things. They function separately, each one serving a different social utility. Understand exactly what it is you want to do. Search your soul, because neither path is easy, and if you stay connected to the purpose that initially motivated you, you’ll suffer less heartache later on. Read. Do your homework. Understand the psychology of creativity. There’s a lot of literature on the subject – for me personally, the writings of Carl Jung are a great resource.

Listen to as much music as you possibly can. Broaden the scope of your influences. Respect artists from other traditions, with a completely different point of view. I love how musical extremes stir up the internal dialectic of our world view. When people tell me they’re into Steve Earle, I’ll tell them to listen to 2Pac. If someone’s into Robert Randolph, I’ll turn them onto Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. I’ve told Faith Hill fans to listen to Trent Reznor. I’ve directed non-improvising classical players to David Darling. I’ve turned Mozart fans onto Helmet and Tool, and Henry Rollins fans onto Stravinsky … Keith Jarrett fans onto Conlon Nancarrow. The list goes on and on. Music is a unified field of human expression; in this age of instant info, there’s no excuse for any serious musician to be closed off from any other musicians, from any other culture, tradition, or genre.

Work hard. Practice consistently over time. When the practice stops being fun, go do something else. But come back to it the minute that voice starts whispering to you again. And don't be afraid to sound like YOURSELF. It usually takes years to get there – it’s perfectly fine to show your influences, acknowledge them, and celebrate them, but the whole idea is to get on a path toward a place where the music that comes through you is immediately recognizable as YOUR music. When people see your face they know it's you. Strive to make your music as unique and recognizable as your face.

Be fearless. Express the truth, as you see it, as ugly as the truth may sometimes be. To the extent that you can, express the truth in the context of beauty. This quote from James Baldwin appears elsewhere on my website, but it’s worth repeating: “Societies never know it, but the war of an artist with his society is a lover's war, and he does, at his best, what lovers do, which is to reveal the beloved to himself and, with that revelation, to make freedom real.”

All this is based on the assumption that we’re looking at music as art. I have nothing intelligent to say about becoming a professional entertainer. The last thing the world needs is more ass wigglers. If you want to be an entertainer, let me know how that works out for ya.

If you intend to make music your career, if you absolutely can’t imagine any other purpose in life, and you intend to pursue your career as an independent artist, I would strongly urge you to buy and read “A Music Business Primer,” by Diane Sward Rapaport. It's a great resource. Click here for more info.

What are your all-time favorite recordings?

There are far too many to list here, and I'm sure I'll be adding to this periodically, but the following immediately spring to mind:

"Exploded View," Steve Tibbetts :: "Life in the Foodchain," Tonio K :: "Aerial Boundaries," Michael Hedges :: "A Love Supreme" John Coltrane :: "6- and 12-String Guitar," Leo Kottke :: "Oracle," Michael Hedges :: "The Beautiful Letdown," Switchfoot :: "Apricots From Eden," Djivan Gasparian :: "The Good Things," Jill Phillips :: "Amerika," Tonio K :: "Solstice," Ralph Towner :: "One Size Fits All," Frank Zappa :: "Steady On," Shawn Colvin :: "Thonk," Michael Manring :: "Willis Alan Ramsey," Willis Alan Ramsey :: "Bone Machine," Tom Waits :: "Reset," Mute Math; "Temporal Analogues of Paradise," Shawn Lane, Jonas Hellborg and Apt. Q-258 :: "Medicine Music," Bobby McFerrin :: "The Koln Concert," Keith Jarrett :: "The Shaming of the True," Kevin Gilbert :: "You Had It Coming," Jeff Beck :: "The Downward Spiral," Nine Inch Nails :: "I Will Not Be Sad In This World," Djivan Gasparyan :: "Takk ...," Sigur Ros :: "The Record," Fear :: "Synchronicity," The Police :: "Chant," The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos :: "The Rite of Spring; Symphony of Psalms," Igor Stravinsky

What’s the deal with your dad, Ry Cooder, and the ancient Egyptian music manuscripts?

This is the best reconstruction I can offer (I wasn’t there when any of this happened). My dad was in his mid 90s at the time. I had spoken to Kavi Alexander at Water Lily Acoustics about my dad’s background as an ethnomusicologist, and his groundbreaking research on ancient Pharonic and Coptic Egyptian music. Kavi in turn passed that info along to Ry Cooder. It’s hard enough to understand the Ptolemaic cosmological paradigm, but coming from my blissfully cantankeros father (who is steeped in the erudition of a bygone era), somehow the wires got crossed, and Ry wound up flying out to meet with my dad thinking it would be an opportunity to produce another Buena Vista Social Club, but with Biblical implications. The project mired down in confusion, miscommunication, and unrealistic expectations – it never went any further (although the local newspaper descended on the meeting and published some really funny photos of my dad, Kavi, and Ry).

Inexplicably, a CD of ancient Coptic chants was released under my dad’s name shortly thereafter, on the Global Village label. CMJ was effusive in its praise, naming the CD their “Weird Record of the Month” (it was the issue with Marilyn Manson on the cover).