Reckless. I know he likes to see himself as that. It's difficult because I know him so well and I've seen him develop so much. In America I could say 'brilliant' and it would mean that I would be talking about his intelligence, creativity and feeling altogether, but I know it means something totally different on the streets of England like - "It's time to eat, brilliant!"
In-his-own-world. Sorry for using a hyphenated phrase, but Eric's a complex player. There were many times on stage that the players not soloing looked at each other in disbelief. I remember the first rehearsal for G3 and I'd just met Kenny Wayne Shepherd; Steve Vai was there and I hadn't seen Eric for ages. We stood around checking each others gear before starting the first song. As bandleader, I nodded to at people to take there solos. Eric took his solo and Kenny and I just looked at each other and went, shiiittt! The sound that came out of his amp. sounded as if it had come from some other world, like it had flown in through a wormhole!
Blues! That's how you have to sum that guy up. He always walked onto stage 100 percent Kenny Wayne Shepherd. He was unashamed to celebrate his blues roots; he always came to play and he never held back. A free-spirit and really dedicated player.
Cathartic. I don't know the correct word to convey the way I feel about his music, but I know that the last time I listened to one of his albums the whole way through, after about 30minutes I realised I'd been thinking about all this deep stuff about my life. It had, musically, drawn it out of me, and you don't have thoughts like that too often.