Simon Neil hopes he can "inspire" people after becoming the first recipient of the Fender Play award at the 2018 Q Awards on Wednesday (17.10.18).
Simon Neil at the Q Awards
The Biffy Clyro frontman picked up the honour - which is awarded in celebration of an artist at the forefront of guitar music - during the glitzy award ceremony at London's Roundhouse, and said it "means a lot" to know that the music he makes is inspiring other people.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz about becoming the first recipient of the award, the 39-year-old rocker said: "It's good to be first, it's better than being f***ing last! I've played guitar most of my life, it's been my main way of Cummings ting with prior since I was 13 or 14 years old, it's always been such an important part of my life so to be told that what I do inspires other people really means a lot. We were those guys growing up in a small town that didn't know anyone who played music and we just wanted to build our own little world and that's what we did."
American guitarist Duane Eddy, 80, presented the 'Black Chandelier' hitmaker with his gong, and spoke about his own career, where he said many artists have called him an inspiration - something which he calls an "unforeseen reward" from his career.
He said: "It's the first time I've handed an award like this out. My career has been a joy, I've had these great young musicians say to me, 'Oh you started my playing.' Or, 'You inspired to do this.' If you're not careful you can pretty egotistical over that, but I don't I just think it's part of the job. I'm just happy to have influenced so many musicians, it's an unforeseen reward. I was just going along happily making my little hit records and hoping for the best."