Over on his YouTube channel, DragonForce guitarist Herman Li uploads a variety of metal related content; some of that content involves him providing honest critiques of other guitar players or speaking to guitar related news. In one of his more recent videos, Li brings up something that rapper turned rocker Machine Gun Kelly said about guitar playing, and he is very much a fan of what MGK had to say!
Herman pulls up a Loudwire article where, in the headline, MGK is quoted saying, “You don’t have to be technical to be good at guitar.” To this point, Herman said the following:
“Machine Gun Kelly is right about that. There’s so much shit-talking on Machine Gun Kelly by people that actually don’t play the guitar, or are not professional guitar players. So what is my opinion as a pro guitar player?
“Oh, Machine Gun Kelly is right. It’s not about playing fast and playing sweeping and playing shredding and playing jazz and playing the most complicated stuff to be a guitar player. That kind of music almost, how can I say, inspired people that already play that guitar. But sometimes, they also crush your dreams. You go ‘Oh my God, I can never play like that.’
“And it became kind of an arms race of being more progressive, more technical sometimes for people. They’re guitar players, and they’re people, they’re musicians that use the guitar to express something.”
Li continues, “To express music instead of trying to be technical. They did the right songs. They used the instrument as a tool to write and express music in their own way.”
What do you make of Herman Li and Machine Gun Kelly’s points when it comes to playing guitar? You can find the video below where the DragonForce guitarist speaks to MGK’s guitar points. In another case where Herman defended an artist – remember some months back when Dave Mustaine flipped out on a Judas Priest roadie? Well, Herman defended Mustaine regarding that matter.