“I play whatever the guitar inspires me to play!” Danish Pete talks inspiration, Spinal Tap moments and more
You might know him as the purple Telecaster-toting Dane who’s quick wit and even quicker chops have seen him elevate Andertons YouTube channel to the top. But, Pete Honore is also a seasoned session player, and has worked with Tom Jones and Lionel Ritchie.
The moment it all started…
“My mum and dad had an old Oscar Teller nylon-string lying around the house that me and my sister always played with. But when I was 11, we were at a school trip, and one of the dads had a guitar. He showed me A, D, and E and I picked it up immediately! Then he showed me some more chords and it came super easy to me, so he proceeded to give me lessons for free. The first song I learned was Blackbird – from then on I couldn’t stop playing…”
I couldn’t live without my…
“I have lots of great gear, and great guitars, but it has to be my purple Custom Shop Fender Telecaster, not just because it’s an incredible guitar, but also because it was a birthday present from my wife and my three girls.”
The one that got away…
“It was a 1976 Les Paul Standard in tobacco burst, and it was my first ever proper guitar.
I bought it after Gary Moore released Still Got The Blues – I became a little obsessed with that album! It was hanging in my local music shop and they were always the coolest, they would let me buy stuff and pay it off when I could, so I went with some of the money I saved and bought the guitar, I think it cost around £700-ish.
“I loved it, but then for some stupid reason I saw a green Lâg… it wasn’t me at all, but I swapped it for my Gibson and instantly regretted it. But when I went back to the shop they had sold my Les Paul – gutted! I think I swapped the Lâg for a pink Kramer and from there I got into Strats. The funny thing is, it is still in my hometown and my dad knows who has it, but the guy doesn’t want to sell it, so there we are!”
My signature model…
“I think I would learn towards something like my purple Telecaster, because it’s killer. I have an awesome set of signature pickups that Monty’s has made for me and
I absolutely love them, they would definitely be a part of it.”
The first thing I play when I pick up a guitar…
“I play whatever the guitar inspires me to play! Playing as many guitars as I’m lucky enough to when filming the Andertons videos, I have made that a thing. We do four, maybe more, videos in a day and there is a beginning and an ending jam, plus the playing in the middle – after two videos it’s hard not to play the same thing over and over, so I let the guitars give me the inspiration.”
The best advice I’ve ever been given…
“I think the best is to ‘just be nice’ – it works with everything. Be happy for your peers when they get a gig or a tour you want, always say please and thank you, good people do things for other people. And if you do good things, you’ll get good things back – karma I guess!”
My ‘Spinal Tap’ moment…
“I won’t go into too much detail, but I once did a gig in Tokyo, I think it was, and I had some bad shellfish the night before – you can work out the rest! I’ve also fallen over on stage a few times, and I may have once left the BRIT Awards with a huge wheel of cheese!”
My guilty pleasure…
“I like a bit of R&B – Boyz II Men, Babyface, Mariah, Whitney, NSYNC and so on – good grooves, good chords! Check out Babyface on MTV Unplugged – it’s just awesome. Oh, and perhaps a little bit of Steel Panther, just because!”
The most important thing on my rider…
“Having been lucky enough to have played a fair few tours, including a stadium tour, I would want a very comfortable chair to sit in, because there is a lot of waiting around.”
If I could just play one thing…
“I’m not sure! I think if I needed to play a song I would sit down and spend the time learning it, but I wouldn’t mind being able to shred some Van Halen once in a while.”
Follow Pete on Instagram at @mrpeterhonore, or check out his YouTube channel at youtube.com/peterhonore.