Five Minutes Alone Danny Jones

The McFly man reflects on misconceptions, Mike Oldfield and the teachings of Mayer

- Matthew Parker

For whom the bells toll

“I first started playing because I was obsessed with the Tubular Bells Live DVD. I remember the guy introducing it was like, ‘Two highly-compressed electric guitars!’ and then Mike Oldfield played this amazing guitar solo. Then it was Springsteen. He always played a Telecaster, so then I wanted a Tele and that solidified which guitar I was going to play.”

Finger tips

“I ended up buying guitars and buying guitars. I had a Custom Shop Nocaster, a Tele like Springsteen’s, another Tele that I set on fire myself. Then about five years ago, I sold everything and got three Teles that sound insane. And I’ve got three acoustics and one Strat that all sound insane – and now I’m done! That’s all I need. It was either Stevie Ray Vaughan or Steve Vai that said, ‘Tone is the ability to listen to yourself.’ That’s so true.”

Everybody’s got to learn sometime