46Jerry Garcia

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesMost people who play the blues are very conservative. They stay a certain way.Jerry Garciawas painting outside the frame. He played blues but mixed it with bluegrass and Ravi Shankar. He had country and Spanish in there. There was a lot ofChet Atkinsin him going up and down the frets. But you could always hear a theme in his playing. It's like putting beads on a string, instead of throwing them around a room. Jerry had a tremendous sense of purpose. When you take a solo, decide what to say, get there and give it to the next guy. That's how Jerry worked in the Dead. Jerry was the sun of theGrateful Dead the music they played was like planets orbiting around him. He wasn't a superficial guy at all. It was a lot of fun to play with him, because he was very accommodating. He'd go up and down; I'd go left and right. And I could tell he enjoyed it, because the Dead always invited me back. By Carlos SantanaKey Tracks:"Dark Star," "Sugaree," "Casey Jones"

47Stephen Stills

Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns"He's a musical genius,"Neil Youngonce said of Stephen Stills, his bandmate and co-lead guitarist inBuffalo SpringfieldandCrosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Stills is one of rock's most underrated guitarists, possibly because of his well-established reputation as a singer-songwriter. Off and on for more than four decades, he has challenged and complemented Young's feral breaks with a Latin-and country-inflected chime, and as his soaring solos at the recent Buffalo Springfield reunion shows have illustrated, Stills has never lost his fervor for adventurous shredding. Such was his pull as a musician that he got bothEric ClaptonandJimi Hendrix(a close friend of Stills') to make guest appearances on Stills' 1970 self-titled solo debut the only album in rock history to feature both guitar giants. "I like all of every aspect of performing," Stills has said. "But I really enjoy the hell out of just getting up there and burning on my guitar."Key Tracks:"Bluebird," "Carry On," "Go Back Home"

John Shearer/Getty ImagesRadioheadare the consummate 21st-century rock band, and in Jonny Greenwood, they have one of the 21st century's defining guitarists: an effects-loving wizard whose endlessly mutable style has powered the band's restless travels from the interstellar pomp of "The Tourist" to the misty shimmer of "Reckoner." Like the Edge, only farther out in the art-rock stratosphere, Greenwood is a guitar hero with little apparent connection to the blues and little interest in soloing. He's been known to attack the strings with a violin bow, and plays so maniacally that at times he's had to wear a brace on his arm. It was Greenwood's gnashing noise blasts that marked Radiohead as more than just another mopey band on 1992's "Creep" an early indicator of his crucial role in pushing his band forward. "I've admired him for a long time," saysRush's guitarist Alex Lifeson. "The way he weaves his parts through the melody of a song is really exceptional just amazing."Key Tracks:"Creep," "Paranoid Android," "My Iron Lung"