Scotty Moore's Royal Legacy: Bearing Witness at the Birth of Rock and Roll

Below, we offer a historic interview with Scotty Moore from the pages of Guitar Player magazine.

With all the mythology surrounding the night Elvis Presley strode into the Sun Recording Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, and recorded “That’s All Right,” it’s hard to believe that one man still walks this earth who was present in that room for, if not the birth of rock and roll, then most certainly for the lightning bolt that set the puddle of gasoline on fire. But it’s true: Tucked away in a picturesque recording studio/residence in the hills outside Nashville, Scotty Moore is alive and well—a real-life Yoda of rock and roll electric guitar.

Moore is most certainly the originator of the rockabilly guitar style, as well as many of the blues-meets-country licks that continue to dominate rock guitar to this day. He was also Elvis’ guitarist, bandleader, and first manager—the man who drove the man who would be King through the lonely highways of the Deep South, chasing a dream that Elvis alone would take to the bank. He is, more than anything, the archetype of the silent but steady sideman.

Moore is sort of the musical equivalent of the survivors of tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes. He is the man who lived through the cultural explosion known as Elvis Presley—who was, in many ways, crazier and more destructive than a tornado—and survived to tell the tale. There is nobody else who could have done what Moore did. Sure, there were flashier players who could have played the rockin’ stuff with more technical prowess, and there were jazz guys who could have played the ballads more smoothly. But, considering that the early Elvis material ran the gamut from gut-bucket blues (“Good Rockin’ Tonight”) to pop standards