WOODSHED
V O L . 3 7 | N O . 5 | MAY 2016
YOU ’ LL RARELY HEAR me complain about this job . No social media posts about how “ utterly stressed out ” I am and in desperate need of virtual hugs from people I barely know — because , at the end of every day , I ’ m fully aware of how fortunate I am to have made this my career for 25 years . But that isn ’ t to say that there ’ s not a high level of stress associated with putting out a magazine every four weeks ( not to mention the DVDs , Buyer ’ s Guides and online endeavors that the entire staff works hard to produce every day ).
And if you read this publication regularly , there ’ s something we do from time to time that you will surely recognize , and it ’ s the one thing that causes the most stress for the editorial team — and I ’ m talking about the kind of stress where I sometimes want to rip the hair out of my head , if I had any hair left . What ’ s that , you ask ? It ’ s the joint interview , my friends — where we get two world-famous guitarists in the same room at the same time to have their pictures taken and spend a little time with one of our writers . Setting up an interview and photo shoot with one guitar-playing legend can often be stressful enough — now multiply that by two and factor in a writer , photographer , managers and publicists and dealing with everyone ’ s schedules , travel arrangements , egos and grooming requirements , and you have a guaranteed recipe for hair loss .
However , even though these editorial endeavors can , at times , make you regret your very existence , the truth is that these are always the most rewarding of anything we do . Case in point , the issue you hold in your very hands . We first had the idea of doing a joint cover with Zakk Wylde and Buddy Guy when the Experience Hendrix 2016 tour was announced late last year — and up until six days before this issue went to the printer , we didn ’ t even know if it was going to happen ( nothing stressful about that !). But with fingers crossed , we sent our crew to one of the early dates on the tour , in Jacksonville , Florida , and hoped for the best . Prayed , more like it . I think the results speak for themselves , and I couldn ’ t be more appreciative of both camps working with us to pull off this pretty special cover story .
And how are we going to follow this one up , you ask ? Easy … by doing it all over again , stress be damned . Two days from now we are scheduled to bring together two other six-string superheroes for the June issue cover — two legends of the Les Paul , both of whom go by iconic , single-word nicknames . Can you guess who they are ? Find out next month .
— Junebug Peanut Butter Executive Content Director june
EDITORIAL EXECUTIVE CONTENT DIRECTOR Jeff Kitts EXECUTIVE EDITOR Brad Angle TECH EDITOR Paul Riario ASSOCIATE EDITORS Andy Aledort , Richard Bienstock , Alan di Perna , Chris Gill CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Joe Bosso , Dan Epstein , Greg Evans , Randy Harward , Peter Hodgson , Mark Holcomb , Tommy Emmanuel , Joel Hoekstra , Joshua Rothkopf , Dale Turner , Jon Wiederhorn SENIOR VIDEO PRODUCER Mark Nuñez
MUSIC SENIOR MUSIC EDITOR Jimmy Brown MUSIC TRANSCRIPTIONIST Jeff Perrin MUSIC ENGRAVER Patricia Corcoran
ART ART DIRECTOR Mixie von Bormann CONTRIBUTING ART DIRECTOR Sandie Burke ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Natalie Skopelja
ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR Damian Fanelli EDITORS Brad Angle , Jeff Kitts
PRODUCTION PRODUCTION MANAGER Nicole Schilling
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8 GUITAR PLANET | MAY 2016