seven of my favorite lead guitarists

and now for something completely different.  here are some of my favorite lead guitarists, in no real particular order:

• Ace Frehley - possibly the guitarist who has influenced me (and countless others) the most.  he may not be Eddie Van Halen, but we could aspire to be Ace.  he just played the way he wanted to, and anyone that thinks he wasn't a good guitarist is nuts. 
  
• Billy Zoom - X's excellent guitarist.  while most punk rock guitar players could usually play 3-5 chords (sometimes getting them in the right order) Billy came along and blew them out of the water.
  
• Brian Setzer - Stray Cats, of course.  the man can play SO many different styles of music it's just not fair.
  
• Ricky Wilson  - late guitarist for the B-52's.  he was incredibly inventive- playing sometimes with four strings on his guitar, tuned in such a way he could be both bass and guitarist.
  
• Steve Stevens the guitarist for Billy Idol, who was also really inventive and brought a metal edge to Idol's music.
  
• C.C. DeVille- elevating Poison above the glut of hairbands in the 80s, CC was not the typical "shredder" of the day.  instead of mindlessly cloning Eddie's style with no substance, CC played with heart.
• Elliot Easton- the Cars guitarist.  he added the metallic sound to the Cars, helping to propel the "new wave" band into popularity in the late 70s. without his playing, the weirdo Ocasek lyrics would have probably stopped them from being popular for several more years.

so there's a few of my favorite lead guitarists.  sure, I left out some of the big names (Page, Beck, Clapton, Eddie, etc) but these are the ones I listen to most.