Show Notes
“I think it’s safe to say John Osborne is a fuckin’ beast!”
That’s how Chris Shiflett kicks off this episode of Shred With Shifty, featuring bearded Brothers Osborne shredder-in-chief John Osborne. Osborne joins Shifty to dissect his blistering country-rock ripping on the band’s breakout single, “Stay A Little Longer.”
Osborne tells Shifty about failing miserably at guitar in college, where he learned to read and play bass clef but never got the hang of the treble clef. It’s no surprise when Osborne admits he’s taken notes from players like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dickey Betts, Eric Johnson, and Skynyrd shredders Allan Collins and Gary Rossington, but his very first guitar influence? Kurt Cobain, and the Nirvana frontman’s anxious energy. “I’m a little bit awkward, and I have social anxiety, but I can talk to people through music,” says Osborne. As far as technicality, though, he and Shifty agree that bluegrass guitar playing is “the Usain Bolt of musicianship.”
To recap the “Stay A Little Longer” leads, Osborne plays a stock blackguard 1953 Fender Telecaster that he scooped from Carter Vintage Guitars. (Listen in to learn why it and some other Fenders from that era have an abnormally thick “Friday neck.”) He explains that he wanted the solo to have the same philosophy as legendary solos like those in “Free Bird” and “Hotel California”: hooky, repetitive, accented, and not too shreddy. Plus, he reveals the “un-Photoshopped” blips in the solo that stayed on the record.
Click below to subscribe to the podcast!
Full Video Episodes: http://volume.com/shifty
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1690423642
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4B8BSR0l78qwUKJ5gOGIWb
iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shred-with-shifty-116270551/
Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shred-with-shifty/PC:1001071314
Follow Chris Shiflett: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrisshiflettmusic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shifty71 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chris.shiflett Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisshiflett71 Website: http://www.chrisshiflettmusic.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5tv5SsSRqR7uLtpKZgcRrg?si=26kWS1v2RYaE4sS7KnHpag
Producer: Jason Shadrick Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis Engineering support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudoin Video Editors: Dan Destefano and Addison Sauvan
Special thanks to Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.
More from Shred With Shifty
Get out the Kleenex, hankies, or whatever you use to wipe away your tears: It’s the last episode of this season of Shred With Shifty, a media event more consequential and profound than the finales of White Lotus and Severance combined. But there’ll be some tears of joy, too, because on this episode, Chris Shiflett talks with one of country music’s greatest players: Vince Gill.
The Cars’ self-titled 1978 debut record changed the world of power pop forever. Guitarist and co-vocalist Ric Ocasek penned all the tunes, but lead guitarist Elliott Easton transformed them with his tasteful 6-string stylings. This time on Shred With Shifty, Easton sits down with Chris Shiflett to show him how to play the solo from “My Best Friend’s Girl.”
The Georgia-born, Nashville-based roots-rock outfit Larkin Poe have had a busy year. Last summer, they toured across the U.S. supporting Slash, and released their seventh studio album, Bloom, on January 22. With a bit of downtime back in Nashville, co-shredders-in-chief Megan and Rebecca Lovell joined Shred With Shifty to deconstruct their face-melting leads on “Summertime Sunset,” off of their 2022 record Blood Harmony.
This time, Chris Shiflett sits down with fellow west coaster Craig Ross, who calls in from Madrid equipped with a lawsuit-era Ibanez 2393. The two buddies kick things off commiserating over an increasingly common tragedy for guitarists: losing precious gear in natural disasters. The takeaway? Don’t leave your gear in storage! Take it on the road!
When you imagine the tools of a guitar shredder, chances are you see a sharp-angled electric 6-string running into a smokin’-hot, fully saturated British halfstack of sorts—the type of thing that’ll blow your hair back. You might not be picturing an acoustic steel-string or a banjo, and that’s a mistake, because some of the most face-melting players to walk this earth work unplugged—like Molly Tuttle.