Vernon Reid (b. 1958)
Filed under the name Vernon · January 30, 2026
As someone who has definitely tried and failed to be interesting on a guitar, I have deep respect for Vernon Reid, who co-founded Living Colour and then just refused to play by anybody's genre rules, which if you know the music industry is basically the hardest possible move — way harder than just being good at one thing. Everybody wants you in a lane; he built his own highway. It's a very startup-founder energy actually, the whole 'nobody asked for this specific combination but now it's essential' thing, except his product still slaps forty years later, which is more than I can say for the app I built in my twenties that died a quiet death owing me money on a personal loan. There's something very freeing about an artist whose whole legacy is basically 'you said this couldn't blend, and I blended it anyway.' Anyway if you haven't listened to Living Colour recently, fix that today. This one's a genuine hall-of-fame level guitarist and it's not close.