In this new interview Steve Howe of Yes explains how he came to play the famous flamenco solo on Queen’s ‘Innuendo’. Read about this and more in Jason Barnard’s career spanning chat with Steve:
“They set me up to just sort of just improvise across the beautiful structure that Brian May had played. But what happened was they turned and there were three guitars, called Gibson Chet Atkins models and they’re a Spanish guitar, the first ever solid body Spanish guitar. So they have a very unique sound. It’s kind of nicely plonky. It’s not like your classical sound but wow it’s great for playing single lines on. So they said, ‘Choose one of those, plug you in, and off you go’. So, we did a few takes and we didn’t really know what was there.
Freddie said, ‘Let’s go to dinner.’ We went to dinner. ‘Don’t go to Mexico. They threw bottles at us.’ I said, ‘Really? I haven’t been there yet.’ So we come back from dinner and he says, ‘Well, let’s comp this.’ So basically we listen to two or three takes and just created the best version of those bits. So, I left really on an up. This was great. Playing with Queen? Give me a break, this was fantastic. So, when it came out, I got a thank-you letter and a credit and I was in heaven. Great.”
Read more at: thestrangebrew.co.uk/articles/steve-howe-yes
