A great solo doesn’t need speed or flash, just the right note at the right time. Here’s a countdown of ten guitar moments that burned themselves into the sound of rock forever.
10John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers) – “Scar Tissue” Minimalist poetry on six strings. Frusciante’s slide guitar work on Scar Tissue is more whispered confession than blistering shred. Every note sounds like it’s been lived, cracked open, and set free. It’s not fast, but it bleeds. A solo that knows the weight of silence and bends it to its will.
9Slash (Guns N’ Roses) – “Sweet Child O’ Mine” Swagger meets soul. Slash’s outro solo is a masterclass in build-up and release, switching from romantic to raw in a heartbeat. The Les Paul sounds like it’s running on bourbon and heartbreak. Iconic? Yes. Overplayed? Maybe. But when that final burst kicks in, you’re 12 years old again with goosebumps on your arms.
8David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) – “Comfortably Numb” This is not a solo. It’s a journey. Gilmour’s phrasing on Comfortably Numb is pure emotion, no filler. Two solos, really, but it’s the final one that ascends into rock eternity. Sustain for days. Tone like honey melting over steel. Gilmour doesn’t play notes – he paints atmospheres.
7Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine) – “Killing in the Name” Morello reinvented the electric guitar as a weapon of protest. The solo here is turntables and sirens made flesh, an anti-solo in an anti-song. It doesn’t sing – it screams. You don’t hum it. You feel it tearing something down. Radical, unorthodox, unforgettable.
6Kirk Hammett (Metallica) – “One” Shrapnel in sound form. The solo in One begins with melody and morphs into mayhem. Hammett’s fingerwork is both precise and feral – a barrage of notes that feels like war breaking out mid-song. Thrash’s high-water mark. Listen with headphones and a defibrillator nearby.
5Brian May (Queen) – “Bohemian Rhapsody” A solo that sings as much as Freddie ever did. May’s Red Special guitar finds the exact middle point between opera and arena rock. It’s short, sweet, and sculpted to perfection. As elegant as a sonnet, as punchy as a right hook. Pure tone sorcery.
4Jimi Hendrix – “All Along the Watchtower” This isn’t Dylan’s song anymore – it’s Hendrix’s sermon. The solo is molten, restless, cosmic. Hendrix shreds through the structure like he’s chasing down thunder. This is the sound of the electric guitar evolving mid-phrase. Controlled chaos, divine in every direction.
3Randy Rhoads (Ozzy Osbourne) – “Crazy Train” The solo that launched a thousand metal dreams. Rhoads was classical precision wired into a madman’s amplifier. On Crazy Train, he delivers one of the tightest, most iconic phrases in metal – a mix of harmonic flair and raw guts. And that tapping lick? Instant legacy.
2Eric Clapton (Derek and the Dominos) – “Layla” Not flashy – just devastating. Clapton’s solo in Layla is all teeth and tenderness. It’s cocaine blues turned Shakespearean tragedy. If heartbreak had strings, it would sound like this. Duane Allman joins in, and together they burn the whole place down with feeling.
1Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) – “Stairway to Heaven” Overexposed? Maybe. But still undefeated. Page’s solo is the Rosetta Stone of rock guitar – lyrical, epic, unrushed. Every note has purpose. Every bend is a statement. It builds, it breathes, then it breaks open like a sky full of fire. The blueprint for a thousand solos that followed – none of them quite as transcendent.
