Birthdays | Remembering Scotty Moore (December 27, 1931 – June 28, 2016)

Long before there was rock ‘n’ roll, Scotty Moore was a rock ‘n’ roll guitar player.

As Elvis Presley's first guitarist, every note the young man played – including such groundbreaking classics as "Hound Dog,“ "Don't Be Cruel“ and “Heartbreak Hotel" – was memorized by countless budding guitar players (many of whom have gone on to become legends themselves.)

Moore was among the handful of musicians in the early ‘50s of whom it can be said, “They invented rock ‘n’ roll.“

How did you get a rock ‘n’ roll sound out of a hollowbody?

That's hard to say, because there wasn't any rock ‘n’ roll before. So that was it! We couldn't get the highs or bend the strings as far as many players do now, because we didn‘t use light gauge. We just had to work harder.

The Gretsch Chet Atkins strings were the only ones that would hold up on that particular guitar.

On a couple of earlier guitars, I'd used different ones though. I still use the same Atkins strings now by today's standards they‘re like rope, they‘re so big.

Interview August 1974 Guitar Player

Photo: Michael Ochs Archives