Speaking with Music Radar, ZZ Top frontman and solo artist Billy Gibbons revealed 10 guitarists that inspired him as an artist. Following is an excerpt from the rundown.

Gibbons: "I learned from the best. There’s a secret language to the blues - you need to say it without saying it! There is a mystique in the poetry and in those simple three chords that have been stretched every which way. You take a song from my new record like 'Mo' Slower Blues': it just has one chord that it never leaves! It just stays on the tonic. It doesn’t need to do anything else."

Eric Johnson

Gibbons: "Eric is an absolutely terrifying player. He has a great tone that he once called his own attempt to become a 100-pound violin… which I think is brilliant. I remember reading that and absolutely loving the idea behind it. He has this warm sound that comes from multiple amps, delays and reverbs. I would definitely say he’s someone who has tamed the twang of his Strat - there’s not as much high-end in there. He’s a very schooled player; there’s a lot to be learned from him."

Jimi Hendrix

Gibbons: "For my list, Jimi Hendrix needs to be on there without question. That man was doing things with the Fender guitar that I can guarantee the designers never dreamed would be done to their instrument. It was all him who did it. He took that thing and made it his own. He was the first to discover that the three-way toggle was actually five. Instead of just the back, middle and front, he learned about the in-between sounds. He took the pickguard off, removed the springs so the toggle was free-floating, carefully placing it in all the sweet spots. It was a happy accident that the toggle-switch connectors could work that way."

Check out the complete rundown here.