Famous Guitarists
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free Famous Guitarists trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
A great guitarist is usually known by a sound: a riff that fills stadiums, a solo that fans can hum note for note. The stories behind those sounds are stranger. One guitar hero holds a doctorate in a hard science, another kept playing after a factory accident, and another says his best-known riff arrived in a dream. Each question gives you a telling clue and a choice of names, and asks you to pick the guitarist, or now and then the band they played in. The clues cover stage names, big breaks, famous guitars, injuries, side careers and well-known line-ups, across rock, blues, metal, jazz, country, folk and classical guitar. It is written for music fans, quiz hosts and anyone who enjoys a guess-the-guitarist round. The early questions are about household names, and the later ones reward players who know their session legends and pioneers. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play straight through or print the set for a group.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Queen guitarist earned a PhD in astrophysics in 2007 for research he had begun back in 1971?
Brian May
Brian May studied the light reflected by dust in the Solar System at Imperial College London. His guitar, the Red Special, was built with wood from an 18th-century fireplace.
Q 02Which Black Sabbath guitarist lost two fingertips in a sheet metal factory and played on with homemade thimbles?
Tony Iommi
Tony Iommi was 17 and on his last day at the factory when the accident happened. He melted down a washing-up liquid bottle to shape the plastic tips.
Q 03Which guitarist, a Woodstock headliner in 1969, had trained as a paratrooper in the US Army's 101st Airborne?
Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix enlisted in 1961 when given the choice between the Army and prison, and was discharged the following year.
Q 04Which guitarist played the solo on Michael Jackson's Beat It as an unpaid favor?
Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen recorded the solo for the Thriller album in 1982 and never expected payment. Thriller went on to become the biggest-selling album of all time.
Q 05Which Rolling Stones guitarist says the fuzz-drenched riff of Satisfaction came to him in his sleep?
Keith Richards
Keith Richards woke just long enough to record it on a cassette player by his bed. The 1965 single became the band's first international number one.
Q 06Which member of the Grateful Dead had a Vermont ice cream maker dedicate a flavor to him in 1987?
Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia inspired Cherry Garcia, the first ice cream flavor dedicated to a musician. The lead guitarist had lost most of a finger at age four in a wood-splitting accident.
Q 07Which Guns N' Roses guitarist, known for his top hat, was born Saul Hudson in London?
Slash
Slash was raised in Stoke-on-Trent until he was six, then moved to Los Angeles. He shoplifted a black felt top hat from a Melrose Avenue store before a 1985 show.
Q 08Which British guitarist, the frontman of Dire Straits, has a Madagascan dinosaur named after him?
Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler gave his name to Masiakasaurus knopfleri because his music inspired the expedition crew. Before fame he spent three years as a college lecturer.
Q 09Which rock and roll pioneer's Johnny B. Goode is the only rock song aboard the Voyager Golden Record?
Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry's song left Earth in 1977 on both Voyager spacecraft, sharing the disc with Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.
Q 10Which guitarist from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band played mobster Silvio Dante on The Sopranos?
Steven Van Zandt
Steven Van Zandt had never acted before and first auditioned to play Tony Soprano. He later starred in Lilyhammer.
Q 11Which guitarist entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times: with the Yardbirds, with Cream and as a solo act?
Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton got his nickname, Slowhand, as a pun on the slow handclapping that broke out whenever he stopped a show to replace a string.
Q 12Which hard rock guitarist wears a schoolboy uniform on stage, an idea suggested by his sister Margaret?
Angus Young
Angus Young of AC/DC tried dressing as Spider-Man, Zorro and a gorilla before settling on the look. When the first outfit fell apart, he wore his real one from a Sydney high school.
Q 13Which Led Zeppelin guitarist played his guitar with a cello bow and once owned Aleister Crowley's old house?
Jimmy Page
Q 21Which Pink Floyd guitarist paid for a teenage Kate Bush's early recordings and helped her find a record contract?
David Gilmour
David Gilmour was handed her demo tape by a friend of both families in the 1970s. In 1987 he played guitar on stage for her performance of Running Up That Hill.
Q 22Which guitar pioneer had a shattered arm set at an angle after a 1948 car crash in order to keep playing?
Les Paul
Les Paul was told by doctors that his elbow could not be rebuilt, so the arm was fixed at just over 90 degrees to cradle a guitar. He had crashed on an icy Route 66 in Oklahoma.
Q 23Which Detroit guitarist, once an upholstery apprentice, plays the riff of the sporting anthem Seven Nation Army?
Jack White
Jimmy Page developed the bow technique in his days as a London session guitarist. He owned Boleskine House, the occultist's former home, from the early 1970s to the early 1990s.
Q 14Which guitarist's Latin rock band played Woodstock in 1969 before its debut album had even been released?
Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana was born in Autlán de Navarro, Mexico, and grew up in Tijuana. Promoter Bill Graham, a fan from the start, arranged the festival slot.
Q 15Which former Beatle organised the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh with sitar player Ravi Shankar?
George Harrison
George Harrison staged the pair of benefit shows at Madison Square Garden after Shankar told him of the crisis in his homeland.
Q 16Which blues guitarist ran back into a burning Arkansas dance hall to rescue his guitar, then named it Lucille?
B.B. King
B.B. King chose the name after learning that the two men whose brawl started the fire were fighting over a woman called Lucille. He presented one of his Lucilles to the Pope in 1997.
Q 17Which member of U2, born David Evans in Essex, built his chiming guitar sound on rhythmic delay?
The Edge
The Edge was given his name by members of Lypton Village, a surrealist street gang that his bandmate Bono belonged to.
Q 18Which guitarist played through a downpour on a stage shaped like his own symbol at Super Bowl XLI?
Prince
Prince is said to have asked whether the show-runners could make it rain harder. It was the first time rain had fallen on a Super Bowl halftime show.
Q 19Guitarist Joe Perry and singer Steven Tyler were nicknamed the Toxic Twins in which American rock band?
Aerosmith
Aerosmith's songwriting pair earned the name for their drug use on and off the stage. The group itself is sometimes called the Bad Boys from Boston.
Q 20Which guitarist co-founded the Runaways as a teenager and later topped the US chart with I Love Rock 'n Roll?
Joan Jett
Joan Jett and her band the Blackhearts scored the hit with a cover of a song by the group Arrows. Her version entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016.
Jack White began a three-year apprenticeship at 15 and even made a record with his teacher as the Upholsterers. The single won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Rock Song.
Q 24Which Rage Against the Machine guitarist holds a social studies degree from Harvard University?
Tom Morello
Tom Morello enrolled in 1982 and later said that when he graduated and moved to Hollywood he was unemployable.
Q 25Which guitarist of the Who began smashing guitars after accidentally cracking one on a low pub ceiling in 1964?
Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend broke the head off his guitar at the Railway Hotel in Wealdstone, and the crowd's excitement made destruction part of the act. His windmill arm swing became another trademark.
Q 26Which blues guitarist played on David Bowie's Let's Dance album and died in a 1990 helicopter crash?
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed with four others after a show with his band Double Trouble at Alpine Valley, Wisconsin. Bowie had met him after a performance at Montreux.
Q 27Which Delta blues guitarist, according to legend, sold his soul to the devil at a Mississippi crossroads?
Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson made only two recording sessions, in 1936 and 1937, which produced the 29 songs of his entire catalogue. He died at 27 of unknown causes.
Q 28Which country guitarist and singer was born in Whangārei, New Zealand, and raised in Australia?
Keith Urban
Keith Urban moved to Queensland, Australia, at the age of two. He later settled in Nashville, where But for the Grace of God became his first US country number one.
Q 29Which Oasis guitarist and songwriter worked as a roadie for Inspiral Carpets before joining his brother's band?
Noel Gallagher
Noel Gallagher took up the guitar at twelve and joined the Inspiral Carpets crew at 21, after meeting their guitarist at a Stone Roses show.
Q 30Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers became the three-guitar line-up of which British heavy metal band in 1999?
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden gained a third guitarist in 1999, when Smith rejoined and his replacement Gers stayed on. The trio is nicknamed the Three Amigos.