10 Best Rhythm Guitarists You Need To Know
5. Izzy Stradlin
When Guns N Roses dominated the rock landscape in the late 80's, Slash became everyone's new resident guitar hero, which was not unwarranted. With his trademark blues delivery and emotional solo work, Slash took the guitar back to basics and made the sound of rock and roll sound modern again. However, Izzy Stradlin was always GNR's secret weapon.
When talking about each member, Stradlin was always looked at as the guitarist in the back who played chords and smoked cigarettes, but that's not the whole story. Stradlin's work as a guitar player was in his songwriting, where he wrote many of the band's classics like the acoustic cut "Patience" and "Paradise City." The way Stradlin thought was always centered around the song rather than his playing, which worked wonders when he convinced Slash to turn his exercises into guitar riffs like on "Sweet Child O Mine."
In addition to his brilliant talent, Stradlin's quiet demeanor brought a calmness to all the chaos surrounding GNR at the time. While many point to Slash's departure as the end of the band, Stradlin stepping out of the picture in the early 90's was GNR's first great blow. A fantastic rhythm player and underrated writer.