“I thought he was just great.”
-Allan Holdsworth
“I saw Chuck Berry open for Frank Zappa, Oct. 8th, 1971 at the New Haven Arena with Syracuse legends Bobby Comstock and the Counts backing him up (and they were damn good too, no ‘sloppy back-up band” from my hometown)… and I recall thinking, “This is the greatest rock’n’roll show I have ever witnessed.”
-Gary Lucas
“Chuck Berry was the TRUE king of Rock’n’Roll!
A revolutionary performer with a dynamic stage presence. He created the duckwalk, revolutionized slide guitar and rock guitar soloing. He created the blueprint that we follow to this day. Long live the king!”
-Joe Deninzon
“Chuck Berry: Took the classic slide guitar double stop and simplified it to its orgiastic essence.
Chuck Berry shaped the vocabulary of rock n roll with a wizard smile and the flesh of a single finger.
Chuck served it up smoking hot, real and golden brown to a mass audience of sex-crazed pubescent malcontents,
Chuck exposed the dark and grinning demonic scatalogical backside of the American Dream,
He transformed Ida Red to Maybelline in a brilliant stroke of Commercial Pop Art savvy.
He made us shiver with joy at the sound of of his libidinous luminosity.
Chuck also tortured 3 generations of mercenary pick-up bands who shit in their pants just trying, in vain, to please him.”
-Phoebe Legere
“I’ve stolen so much from him.I loved that he created the phrase ‘motorvating over the hill.’ I stole that for a Motivational article I posted; Wayne Kramer wrote me a note, and gave me thumbs up. I’ve stolen from Wayne, too! Hail hail rock and roll!”
—Anne Leighton
