Between the Buried and Me’s Dustie Waring Plays His Favorite Riffs

Between the Buried and Me's Dustie Waring was recently on hand at the 2020 NAMM convention in California, promoting his signature PRS guitar, and The Music Experience's Squiggy met up with him for our latest edition of Gear Factor.

Waring spoke about his early upbringing, crediting his father and his father's side of the family for giving him an early appreciation for music. One of his early favorites he picked up was Alice in Chains.

The guitarist says, "Alice in Chains is still Top 2 bands for me and Jerry [Cantrell] is probably my favorite living guitar player. I love his style and how vocal he is in his playing … He doesn’t waste any time with his guitar work. Having a guy who can write riffs and write six solos, he can kind of do it all, that’s what’s always been really appealing to me rather than just being some shred master.” While "Man in the Box" is an obvious choice, Waring instead selects "We Die Young" to display as one of his favorite riffs.

Waring also tells us that Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" is another early favorite, sitting in the car with his dad and hearing it for the first time. "Randy Rhoads, he just had a different sound. As a kid, he was the first commercially successful guy who was doing the neo-classical thing. For most people who start playing guitar, that style is very appealing," says Waring.

With the band approaching 20 years, Waring says they've been reflecting on their early days. “It’s still fun for me to play stuff from when I was still a fan,” says the guitarist, who serves up "More of Myself to Kill" from BTBAM's 2002 self-titled album. He also calls the more recent track "The Grid" as one of his favorite riff sections he's ever written.

Waring also speaks about what it means to him to have his own signature guitar. "They were always my favorite guitar brand and I was blown away just to have one, a PRS," says Waring. "How far it’s come now, it’s a humbling experience and I still don’t even have words. It’s cool to hear that people like them and are buying them and I get messages from people who finally got theirs in the mail and they’re just like, 'Wow, man, what a sick guitar.'" Catch more of Dustie's playing in the Gear Factor episode above.

Get a closer look at the DW CE 24 "Floyd" guitar from PRS guitars right here. 2020 will see Between the Buried and Me playing two sets nightly in honor of their 20 years as a band, playing one set of songs from throughout their catalog and the second performing The Great Misdirect in full. See dates here.

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