I understand that the list is not per se about who is technically best on six strings, it's not a Guitar Player poll. It's about cultural relevance (Chuck Berry), being an inventor/progenitor (Jimi Hendrix, EvH), an impressive body of work based on guitar (Neil Young, Prince, St. Vincent), an iconic image (Keith Richards, Johnny Thunders, Joan Jett, Joe Perry), being a renowned stylist (David Gilmour, Carlos Santana, Ritchie Blackmore, Mark Knopfler, Nile Rodgers) or, yes, even how good you simply are playing that darn thing (Jeff Beck, Randy Rhoads, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai). In many cases it's a mix of all or some these criteria.
That is fine with me, it's not who's on that list, but the often gaping/incredulous omissions that follow no apparent logic. Neither Michael Schenker nor Uli Jon Roth meeting
any of the above criteria? Not a single one? That is kinda difficult to justify unless you deem all hard and heavy rock/heavy metal irrelevant in the first place (which is obviously not the case with the list, there are plenty of entries from those genres, Dimebag Darrell, the guitar teams from Metallica, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden etc).
Ah, now I get it ... all German entries were
streng verboten!
