The Guitar World Inquirer with Al Di Meola

I interviewed guitar great Al Di Meola for the Guitar World iNquirer feature in 2000 when he had just released The Grande Passion (Telarc), an acoustic tribute to tango master Astor Piazzolla. Here it is.

Who or what inspired you to play guitar?

Hearing the Ventures and Elvis Presley when I was eight years old. But my guitar teacher thought I should learn jazz standards first, and the training really paid off. I was taught theory, reading and understanding the instrument.

Can anyone learn to play fast like you?

Yes, if they’re willing to put in the time. There’s a myth that you need big hands, but it’s not a help to have gigantic fingers because the frets themselves are small. I don’t have big hands, but I do have a very wide span and that’s from developing it over the years; it’s not a natural occurrence.

You were one of the inventors of jazz-rock fusion. Did any rock players influence you?

Not in the same way as jazz guys like George Benson and Kenny Burrell or country pickers with great technique like Clarence White and Doc Watson. I never thought of the rock players as having good technique. They have something else very appealing and I love the whole package of guys like Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana, but I never looked at them as people to imitate.

At your peak, how long did you practice each day?

Eight hours when I was at the Berklee School of Music. It wasn’t easy. I would wake up at seven and practice as much as possible between classes, then play all night. I was a little obsessed. I would practice specific tunes, improvisation on the changes, inversions... the whole gamut.

Is there a point at which there’s nothing left to practice?

If you hear something in your head you’re not able to play then you have room to grow. It’s a bunch of bullshit every time someone says, “One note says so much more than 100.” Tell that a flamenco player or a classical player and see what they say.

You need both-- to be able to sing a melody and play with space, and also to have the requisite technique to play the most intricate music. That makes you more complete, and able to play a wider variety of music. I always laugh at idiots who make that claim. When guys with horrible technique put down guys with technique, it’s almost a defensive reaction. They take something they lack, attack it and claim they never wanted it in the first place. Sure.

Brothers and Sisters: the Allman Brothers Band and The Album That Defined The 70s was my third straight book to debut in the New York Times Non-Fiction Hardcover Bestsellers List, following Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan and One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band. My first book was Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues and Becoming a Star in Beijing, about my experiences raising a family in Beijing and touring China with a popular original blues band. It was optioned for a movie by Ivan Reitman’s Montecito Productions. I am also a guitarist and singer who fronts two bands, Big in China and Friends of the Brothers, the premier celebration of the Allman Brothers Band.