The Guitarist Eric Clapton Says Plays “Like Nobody Else”

Imagine you are a young guitarist, and one of your heroes becomes a fan.

Los Angeles-based producer and artist Mike Gordon knows the feeling. None other than Eric Clapton announced his admiration for Gordon—who records under the name Mk.gee. His critically acclaimed debut, Two Star & The Dream Police, arrived in 2024 and found its way on many year-end lists of the best albums of the year.

Slowhand Discovers the Future

Speaking about Mk.gee with The Real Music Observer on YouTube, Clapton said Mk.gee plays the guitar “like nobody else.”

Clapton credits his daughter for the introduction. He also spoke of Mk.gee’s use of different guitar tunings. (Gordon tunes his Fender Jaguar in a lower register, similar to a baritone guitar.) Like Clapton, Mk.gee borrows from the past to push the guitar forward. He uses a four-track recorder as a pre-amp, similar to the Tascam recorder Clapton once used.

His unique guitar sound has kept internet forums buzzing with guitarists attempting to crack the tone code.

Reinventing the Guitar

In 2018, Mk.gee told Complex how Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix inspired him to first pick up the guitar. In Clapton’s early years with The Yardbirds and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, the music world considered him “God.”

However, when Hendrix arrived on the scene, Clapton—like his contemporaries Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page—witnessed someone transforming the electric guitar. While the British blues revivalists had introduced American blues artists like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, and Willie Dixon to a larger audience, Hendrix seemed like he had arrived from another planet.

Meanwhile, Clapton compared Mk.gee with yet another legend. He said he had a similar reaction the first time he heard Prince. The high praise from Clapton is worth paying attention to. This is someone who has experienced the rise of everyone from Hendrix to The Beatles in real time.

Mk.gee also appeared in a 2022 film with Dijon called Absolutely, which impressed Clapton. He said, “I couldn’t believe it. [Innovation is] happening. It’s still going on.”

Learning Another Way

Part of Mk.gee’s unique approach to his instrument stems from how he studied music growing up. Instead of learning from a guitarist, he studied under the tutelage of an upright bassist.

He explained to Dazed, “I never liked the idea of getting lessons from a guitar player, and thought it would be more useful to learn from someone who didn’t play the guitar at all—someone who could give musical lessons that were more exploratory, more about trying things out.”

After forming a jazz trio in his teens, Mk.gee became frustrated with his bandmates. “I always knew that I wanted something more, you know because I wanted to be the best ever. And so eventually, as one does, I got a four-track recorder. And then I was just like, ‘All right, f–k y’all, I can play your instruments even better than you can. I’m just gonna learn how to record myself.’”

More Big-Name Fans

The high-profile accolades continue with John Mayer and Charlie Puth equally impressed by Mk.gee. Puth told Rolling Stone he thinks Mk.gee should be a bigger artist—repeating a sentiment Taylor Swift had shared about Puth in her song “The Tortured Poets Department.”

Check out Mk.gee performing “Big Mike’s” with Dijon below.

Photo by Disney/Christopher Willard