“Prince said, I just would like to talk guitar. I said, You’ve come to the right place.” ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons on his first meeting with Prince, and the astonishing performance which made him re-think everything he thought he knew about Prince

Billy Gibbons says Prince’s guitar solo at a 2004 tribute to George Harrison changed his view of Prince as a musician. Although he already admired Prince as a performer, the solo revealed a level of guitar skill that Gibbons had not previously recognised.

Later, the two met by chance at a New York bar and spent about two hours talking guitar, continuing until around 5am. Gibbons asked Prince about the guitar intro to “When Doves Cry”; Prince said he had created it by accident and had never managed to play it the same way again.