One thing I've learned over my years is musicians respect any genre. If you interview a heavy metal guitarist, they'll
tell you Merle Haggards life story. It's a gift we should all have. Most of us don't though
I'm a hard rock guy through and through....a one-trick pony on guitar, but that's okay because all I ever wanted to do was play for ME. And I'm satisfied with my ability to say most of what I want to say on the guitar. But I can absolutely appreciate virtuousity when I see it, or hear it. And there's different types of virtuosity, IMO. Some guys are technically virtuous. Some guys are creatively virtuous. Some guys just hear things or play things in a way no one else has heard them before. Some guys give virtuous performances.
But one of my all-time favorite guitar players...absolutely a guitar god before the phrase even existed....Roy Clark! Playing was nowhere near the realm of hard rock/heavy metal, but man that dude could play. I watched Hee-Haw every week just to see what he would conjure up next. I wanted to take Buck Owens place and "play underneath" Roy's performances. Virtuoso!