Rolling Stone Left Prince Off Its 2003 Guitar List. Then Came the Rock Hall Solo
When Rolling Stone published David Fricke’s list of the 100 greatest guitarists in 2003, Prince’s name was absent. By the following March, anyone who wanted to make the case for him had a performance to point to. It came during the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s tribute to George Harrison, on a song whose lead guitar was already famous.
The two dates matter. The magazine’s ranking appeared in 2003. The ceremony took place on March 15, 2004. Prince was in New York as a Rock Hall inductee in his own right, and producer Joel Gallen had asked him to join the Harrison tribute. The familiar story about a snub and a solo leaves out what brought all those musicians together.
Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, who had made records with Harrison in the Traveling Wilburys, inducted their friend that evening. Harrison’s son Dhani joined them onstage. With Steve Winwood, Marc Mann and members of Petty’s band in the lineup, the arrangement had enough guitars to carry the song before Prince ever took a lead.
George Harrison wrote “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and Eric Clapton played lead on the Beatles’ 1968 recording. The Rock Hall performance leaves space for two different approaches. Marc Mann plays the earlier lead lines, while Prince takes the extended ending. That arrangement lets the audience hear the version it recognizes before the tribute takes a turn of its own.
In a 2016 oral history, Gallen recalled that rehearsal made him worry there would be no room left for Prince to play. He asked Prince to take the solo at the end. Prince had rehearsed with the group, but the closing solo that people know from the footage was still something the rest of the band would have to follow on the night.
The argument about where Prince ranks is easy to pick up again. The video offers something more specific to listen for: the moment the vocals give way, the band settles under him, and a guitarist who had been sharing the stage suddenly has everyone looking in the same direction.
Why Prince was in the room that night
The Hall’s induction footage gives the tribute a wider frame. Alicia Keys and Outkast were there to recognize a musician whose work moved across rock, funk and pop. Later in the evening, his part in Harrison’s song showed what an all-purpose description can miss. For those last few minutes, you hear a guitarist decide exactly how much room one note needs and exactly when to use the next one.
