Jim Root, guitarist for bands Slipknot and Stone Sour, has no problem admitting he's a fan of his peers' gifted guitar playing skills. The Iowa native sat down before a Stone Sour concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, England in late October to discuss which players of the stringed instrument he admires most.

Before naming a few veteran guitarists, Root explained his past process of finding new bands. "I don't like read magazines and follow music, you know," the guitarist said in an interview with LickLibrary.com. "When I come into stuff, I just kinda accidentally fall into it or I stumble onto a few years later. I always feel bad that I don't really source music out like I used to but honestly, the way the world is now, it's harder to."

Though the vocalist remembers his days searching through racks of CDs for hidden gems, he admits those days are long gone. "I used to love go to mom and pop shops and look for actual CDs," he revealed. "Now in America, you go to Best Buy and you've got a band's latest release and their greatest hits and that's it for their collection. You can't really get back catalogs of ACDC or whoever it is."

Now, Root, who joined Slipknot in 1999, comes across new guitarists many times by accident. "Awhile back I found Omar from [The] Mars Volta, and I really like his approach to guitar playing," he admitted. "These aren't necessarily younger guys, but Brent from Mastodon is a very fascinating guitar player. He incorporates a lot of finger picking and like banjo, Nashville style... That's very cool."

While he's a fan of many, there's one tour associate Root admires for the way he composes his riffs. "Brian from Avenged Sevenfold. He's an amazing player, you know. He's got very melodic, tasty riffs. He flows through his leads. Since we've been able to tour with them I've been able to sit down and just kinda, not really woodshed with him, but kinda pick his brain a little bit, and he's been kinda picking my brain on how we play. And we have two totally different styles."


Watch Jim Root's Interview With Lick Library

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