Worst Guitarists of All Time
Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. is an American rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was discovered by Brian "Baby" "Birdman" Williams at a very young age, and was signed to Cash Money Records, where he would be one quarter of the rap group Hot Boys. In the years to follow, he would go on to find his own... read more He's the worst and fake. I mean, I saw his guitar solos. Are those even real? They are lame jokes. I mean, he taps on the guitar and the sound is something else. If you show me someone picking a note with one finger and calling it economy picking, would you believe it? I wouldn't call him the worst guitarist, even if he can't play guitar. But why pretend to be something you can't do? He tries to become Eddie Van Halen!
At least Kurt Cobain plays guitar, and those were real. It doesn't matter how good, bad, or overrated he is.
Not much to be said here that hasn't already been said. He clearly can't play the instrument and doesn't try to learn. This is evident in his infamous guitar solo on YouTube.
Nicholas Jerry "Nick" Jonas is an American singer, songwriter and actor, best known as one of the Jonas Brothers, a pop rock band he formed with his brothers Kevin and Joe. Guys, he is technically by far the worst on this list. He is absolutely talentless and has no purpose in anything whatsoever. Worse than Lil Wayne and Fred Durst. Also, what the heck is Kirk Hammett doing on this list?!?!?!?!?!? The guy who made this must have been drunk.
If he's trying to be a bad guitarist, then he's doing good.
His song and his guitar playing are just no...
William Frederick "Fred" Durst, born as Frederick Allen Mayne III, was born on August 20, 1970. He is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and film director... read more He is a good rapper, but Wes Borland is the rightful guitarist.
He's not a guitarist, but he tried playing guitar once and he sucked at it.
Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. She was born on December 13, 1989, in Reading, Pennsylvania. Swift is best known for writing personal songs and has won 13 Grammy Awards... read more I don't understand why a bunch of girls pick up a guitar because of Taylor Swift's "music". All she does (or at least did when she was a country singer) is play four chords over and over and sing about every guy she's gone out with and broken up with. She's not that talented and doesn't even play guitar anymore.
Taylor Swift is beyond talentless. I have never seen a more deplorable vocalist in my life.
New Eddie Van Halen my ass. She sucks.
Justin Drew Bieber (born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer. He currently resides in Ontario, Canada and is Christian. He is the son of author Pattie Mallette... read more Baby: One chord at the intro, nothing else. This guy is a poser guitarist.
Does he know what a guitar even is?
Kurt Cobain was born February 20, 1967, in Aberdeen, Washington. In 1987, he started the grunge band Nirvana, which became one of the most successful bands ever. He was a talented yet troubled grunge performer. Kurt Cobain became a rock legend in the 1990s with his band. He committed suicide at his... read more Kurt wasn't technically a good guitar player. He never did many impressive solos or musically diverse riffs, but his guitar playing perfectly matched the feeling the band was going for. His sloppy, distorted guitar screeches matched Nirvana's style and actually made their music sound more interesting and better. If they had a more technically skilled guitarist like Slash, for example, the band's music wouldn't have been as good or made as much of an impact.
The thing about Kurt was that yeah, you could sit down with your guitar and play his songs without too much trouble, but it makes you go "why didn't I think of that?" He had an amazing feel for writing compelling guitar lines, technicality aside. There are plenty of bands that like to show off their music theory knowledge, but something just gets lost along the way sometimes.
Shawn Peter Raul Mendes is a Canadian singer-songwriter and model. He attracted a following in 2013, when he began posting song covers on the popular video sharing application Vine. This guy stinks. He sucks. He only plays acoustic. Have you even seen him on electric guitars before? Hell, I think he writes all those songs just to get chicks.
Any one of his songs can be learned in under 60 seconds.
I think I can play even better than him.
Billie Joe Armstrong (born February 17, 1972) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor best known as the lead vocalist, primary songwriter, and guitarist of the punk rock band Green Day, which he co-founded with Mike Dirnt... read more Maybe if he'd shorten his strap, his pick would actually catch all the intended strings. Quality is sacrificed for image, and his ego kills his talent even more.
Sure, his solos are easy because as a child he didn't focus on being the best guitarist ever. He focused on being the best songwriter ever.
I can't believe his solos are super easy. I played the solo in "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" in maybe under 1 minute!
Edward Christopher "Ed" Sheeran is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He sang songs such as The A team and Shape of You. He was born in Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk. Can't play. Can't even make a single good song.
All he does is play three chords over and over while singing boring and generic love songs.
Joseph Adam "Joe" Jonas (born August 15, 1989) is an American singer and actor. Jonas first rose to fame as a member of the pop-rock band Jonas Brothers, along with his brothers Kevin and Nick... read moreThe Newcomers
His style is basically screechy noises that ruin beautiful solos. He's an insult to guitarists, and he's very pretentious.
His solos are way too distorted and sound more like screechy noises than actual solos.
Chad Robert Kroeger is a Canadian musician and producer, best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist for the Canadian rock band, Nickelback. All he does is play basic chords that you would learn in the first month of guitar lessons (Photograph is a perfect example). He doesn't even have good note selection either: Burn It to the Ground would have sounded better if he hadn't gone from plucking the open E straight to plucking that string on the 15th fret.
Why is Kurt Cobain above him? I'm not even a Nirvana fan, but it's not hard for me to realize they're nowhere near the worst! But Chad Kroeger sucks!
Take a look at this trash guitar.
Every time I play it I become a star.
Oh wait, that was stolen!
Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), better known by his stage name Marilyn Manson, is an American rock musician, songwriter, actor, painter, multimedia artist, author, and former music journalist. He is the lead singer and only constant member of the band Marilyn Manson, which he formed in 1989... read more
Noel Thomas David Gallagher is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known as the lead guitarist, co-lead vocalist, and principal songwriter of the rock band Oasis. After leaving Oasis in 2009, he formed Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, with whom he has released four... read more Since 30 years ago, he sounds like he has only a few days of practice and never improved a little bit. The worst guitarist ever, worst solos ever, boring, simple in the worst sense of the word... very low-quality music made for the masses... Oasis is the McDonald's of music...
Graham Coxon, Jonny Greenwood, Keith Richards, and Pete Townshend are way better guitarists than Noel Gallagher. Also, he is an absolute idiot and treats everyone like garbage. Why anyone would like or support this person is beyond me.
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor, producer, and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor... read more
Kirk Lee Hammett (born November 18, 1962) is an American musician who has been the lead guitarist of the heavy metal band Metallica since 1983. In addition to playing guitar, he contributes as a songwriter for the band... read more Whammett demonstrates what happens when you're taught by one of the best and don't practice your material. Kids, please learn from this!
Seriously? This guy's solos are awesome!
John Clayton Mayer is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but disenrolled and moved to Atlanta in 1997 with Clay Cook. Together, they formed a short-lived two-man band called Lo-Fi Masters. Terrible guitarist. Even Lil Wayne plays much better.
Yngwie Johan Malmsteen is a Swedish guitarist, songwriter and bandleader who was born on June 30th, 1963, in Stockholm, Sweden. He was known for his neoclassical metal playing style back in the 1980s. Doesn't play with enough feel, but he does do some impressive feats.
James Patrick Page is an English musician, songwriter, and record producer who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin.
He used to be good. Now, he seems to have lost all knowledge of music theory. As a guitarist, Richard Benson's guitar playing sounds like he's just slamming a bunch of random notes from different arpeggios, scales, and keys together, and playing them at lightning speed with no regard for musicality.
A bad guitarist with no skills. All he knows is how to tap and make a guitar suffer. He sucks!
Hideto Matsumoto, better known by his stage name Hide, was a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is primarily known for his work as lead guitarist of the heavy metal band X Japan.
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined... read more I highly agree - he couldn't play guitar very well and just strummed along with the band. But he posed with a double-neck electric guitar, LOL. There are pictures on the net.
Bradford Phillip Delson is an American musician, best known as the lead guitarist and one of the founding members of the Grammy Award winning rock band Linkin Park. Not that bad, but very overrated. Just plays a few simple power chords and that's all.
Ross Shor Lynch is an American singer, songwriter, actor, and musician. He is one of the founding members of the pop rock band R5. As an actor, he is known for his debut role as Austin Moon on the Disney Channel original series Austin & Ally, and for his role as Brady in Disney Channel's Teen Beach... read more