Will Knaak
American guitarist
William Carter Knaak (born September 23, 1984, Austin, Texas) is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter who has released his own albums as a solo artist and frontman, and has performed as a sideman in several bands, notably as lead guitarist in the alternative rock band Blue October and on guitar and Pedal steel guitar with country superstar Parker McCollum.
Early life and musical start
Knaak was born and raised in Austin, Texas. His father played piano and fronted his own band Mad Knaak and the Revolution, and also briefly played keyboard in The 13th Floor Elevators. His grandmother played violin, and his uncle was a guitar player. When Knaak was eleven, his mother died in a house fire.
Following his mother's death, Will and his father moved into an apartment in a different part of town. Unfamiliar with the neighborhood and unable to play with his friends from his previous home, Knaak isolated himself in his room and played guitar for several hours every day, learning songs by his favorite bands such as Tripping Daisy, Nirvana, Soundgarden, and the Offspring. Knaak's uncle introduced him to the music of Chuck Berry’s rock ‘n’ roll and country greats such as Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, and Willie Nelson, contributing to Knaak's blend of alternative rock and country guitar playing style.
Knaak and his dad would often dine at the Broken Spoke restaurant in Austin, which hosted live music acts. After a performance at the Spoke, performer Guitar Lynn taught Knaak the blues scale on guitar and suggested he could use this knowledge to solo with blues bands on nearly any song.
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This entry incorporates text from “Will Knaak” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.