For me, back in the day, Gilmour was as big a god as Page. Once we got to the EVH era, we had those others that got more attention like Satriana and Vai (and others who I guess were from the Zappa camp?), but those latter ones only ever fascinated guitarists (mostly) from a technical standpoint. I think to be a true GOD like Hendrix, Page, EVH, you had to be technical of course but also innovate and have something to offer beyond just virtuosity. (“Just virtuosity” — lol, I get that sounds asinine.) Back then, everydamn song had to have a proper guitar solo, and that lasted forever… like, until the grunge era, I guess. You didn’t hear technical style solos from Cobain, really — often just weird hard-core noises and so forth, which a lot of guitarists found more accessible, I’d guess? Back in the 80s, it was tough to have a cover band, you know? No one was good enough to cover anything by VH (at least not without totally mangling the solo). But nowadays, I expect that’s not an issue anymore (unless you’re covering classic rock). But, like, even Foo Fighters tunes aren’t solo-centric. They’re playable by any decent guitarist. I wonder if, given the way rock is going (especially the areas I’m usually hanging out in, which would be india, garage, and psychedelic), if we’ll have any further GODs like that. I suspect there is some freaking amazing talent lurking below the general radar. I think I mentioned Thee Oh Sees on another of your articles in a comment, but that guy (John Dwyer) is jaw-droppingly good, but not in a EVH / Page / Hendrix way (although that’s also saying something!).