Sophie Lloyd, the virtuoso guitarist who began her career on YouTube and social media before touring with Machine Gun Kelly and releasing her critically acclaimed debut solo single, Do Or Die, earlier this year, has been voted the Rock Guitarist Of The Year by the readers of our friends over at Music Radar.
Lloyd beat out heavy competition from the likes of Cardinal Black's Chris Buck, who came in at second place, plus Alter Bridge duo Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy, legendary shredder Steve Vai and Shinedown's Zach Myers, who were voted in at third, fourth and fifth respectively.
Rounding out Music Radar's Top 10 Rock Guitarists Of The Year are Red Hot Chili Peppers legend John Frusciante (sixth place), fretboard genius Joe Satriani (seventh), Muse frontman Matt Bellamy (eighth), fast-rising player Lari Basillo (ninth) and Ryan Adams (tenth).
"I was so honoured to just be nominated on this list alongside some of my favourite guitarists, let alone win!" comments Sophie Lloyd on winning the prestigious vote. "It’s been such an incredible year and this rounds it off so amazingly. Also a massive thank you to all of my supporters, I’m so lucky to have such an incredible community behind me."
Lloyd joined Machine Gun Kelly for his Mainstream Sellout tour this year, releasing her solo single Do Or Die last month. The track and accompanying video feature vocals from Inglorious frontman Nathan James.
Watch the video below.
Last year, Sophie spoke to Metal Hammer about her incredible rise to prominence on social media, where her play-along videos have earned her millions of views.
"It started as a virtual portfolio for me to look back on and see my progress," she explained. "Then it became something so much bigger."
“I try to tailor my pages to the right audiences," she added of her videos, "so I’ll do a lot of classic rock covers for the slightly older generation of rock music lovers on YouTube, and then on TikTok I’ll do shred versions of artists such as YungBlud, Bring Me The Horizon, Lil Nas X and BlackPink for the Gen Z’ers. And my Instagram is kind a mix of everything!”
