10 Greatest Rhythm Guitarists In Rock Music History

10. Izzy Stradlin - Guns N Roses

During the era of glamorous rock stars strutting their stuff across the Sunset Strip, Guns N Roses were something much different. Those were the pretty boys of California, and GNR carried themselves like a street gang, always looking out for each other while behaving like a pack of dogs whenever they tore it up onstage. Every band needs their mellow side though, and Izzy Stradlin was practically the peacekeeper during the prime era of Guns.

While Slash may be the most reserved and quiet out of the main members of Guns, Izzy may have been the quiet genius behind it all, being involved in some of the greatest songs the band ever made like Patience and Think About You. Always hiding in the background, his different fills playing off of Slash were a lot more common of someone like Ronnie Wood out of the Rolling Stones, having just the right simple lick to tie things together like the little lick that comes at the very beginning of Welcome to the Jungle before Axl Rose makes his real entrance.

Once things got out of control during the Use Your Illusion era, almost half of the band has said that Izzy leaving was the moment where nothing was going to be the same, with Gilby Clarke doing his job phenomenally well but not having the same type of dynamic that Slash had with Izzy in the early days. There were already millions of guitar players up and down Sunset that wanted to be the next Eddie Van Halen, but Izzy was the one guy who wasn't afraid to follow in Joe Perry's footsteps either.