Guitar icon Steve Stevens recently reflected on his career, sharing the story of how Billy Idol bought him his first high-end guitar.
Though Stevens is renowned for collaborating with many prominent artists, his work with Billy Idol remains his most memorable. “Rebel Yell” stands out as the track where Stevens’ guitar parts made the most significant impact on fans of guitar-driven music. Throughout his career, Stevens has been known for using a wide variety of guitars, never limiting himself to a single brand. However, he did have custom and signature models, such as the Hamer Steve Stevens model (SS1), which showcased his innovative touch.
In a recent conversation with Guitar World that mainly focused on his Hamer guitar, Stevens recalled how Billy Idol took him to a guitar store to buy a Gibson Les Paul for the recording of Idol’s 1982 self-titled debut album. When asked if his Kramer signature model, which he owned before meeting Billy, made its way onto the record, Stevens responded:
“Probably not. The first Billy Idol record was recorded with a Les Paul. When I met Billy, I didn’t really have an amazing guitar. He said, ‘Oh, you gotta have a Les Paul, mate.'”
Stevens elaborated on the story of the purchase and shared details about the guitar, explaining:
“We went down to 48th Street in New York City, and Billy got me a ’53 Les Paul. It originally had a trapeze tailpiece but had been retrofitted with a Tune-O-Matic, and it had P-90s instead of the original PAF pickups.”
He added, “It wasn’t a collectible. It was a workhorse and sounded fantastic. But on ‘Rebel Yell,’ I used a Kramer Pacer that I bought for $650 at Sam Ash.”
While discussing his Hamer signature model, Stevens also compared it to the Gibson Les Paul. When asked what the Hamer had that the Les Paul didn’t, he replied:
“Roughly, they were similar to Les Paul Juniors or Les Paul Specials. They were all mahogany and definitely in the Gibson tradition. They were the first kind of hot-rodded guitars right out of the box.”
“They came with DiMarzio pickups and had excellent parts and paint jobs. I saw my heroes, like Rick Nielsen, playing them. Like any other kid, I’d flip through magazines, seeing the ads, and thought, ‘Oh, man, one day, I want to have one.’ It was a dream of mine to get a guitar endorsement and eventually have my own model.”
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