Guitar World

Ben Kenney played guitar and bass with The Roots, then spent 20 years as Incubus' bassist. While on tour, he found out he had a brain tumour that would permanently take the hearing in his right ear. He sits down with Guitar World to talk about joining The Roots through Questlove, backing Jay-Z on MTV Unplugged, the surgeries that led him to step away from Incubus, and his current rig: a chambered Strandberg with Seymour Duncan Mark Holcomb pickups and a Quad Cortex profile of his Mesa Mini Rectoverb 25, run in stereo even though he can only hear in mono. Watch Ben on his 5 favorite riffs: https://youtu.be/2o6_6J-8wjs Follow Ben on socials: https://www.instagram.com/vatoben/ 00:00 Intro 00:33 Meet Ben Kenney 00:50 Growing up on drums 02:59 Hendrix, Malmsteen and jazz radio 05:08 Punk rock and learning chords 06:27 How he joined The Roots 09:58 Learning The Roots' guitar parts 12:43 Guitar vs bass, and backing Jay-Z 14:04 Joining Incubus 16:12 The Pino Palladino session 18:09 20 years with Mike Einziger 19:18 Carpal tunnel and three hand surgeries 20:57 Hearing loss and the brain tumour 26:24 Stepping away from Incubus 27:16 Playing again 28:50 His solo album 29:49 His Strandberg and Mark Holcomb pickups 36:03 Pedals, Quad Cortex and his live rig 41:21 Guitarists he's into now 44:01 Advice for young musicians 48:16 Life away from music 50:30 New album and tour Subscribe to Guitar World: https://www.youtube.com/@guitarworld?sub_confirmation=1 More at: Guitar World: https://www.guitarworld.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GuitarWorld Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guitarworldmagazine Twitter: https://twitter.com/GuitarWorld TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@guitarworld_official #BenKenney #Incubus #TheRoots #Strandberg #GuitarWorld