“It’s tough for me to listen to many of the newer technical players out there today”: Shrapnel Records founder Mike Varney helped guitar gods soar in the 1980s, but he doesn’t “enjoy” new wave shred stars – here’s why

The founder of Shrapnel Records was a key figure in popularizing the shred boom of the 1980s, and he has some choice words for the emerging generation of fretboard pioneers