“I’m an approachable guitar player. I’m not Slash or Jimi Hendrix. I write songs and play with energy. My signature model had to be accessible to everyone”: How Yungblud became punk’s next guitar hero, bringing high-volume rock to Gen Z

Yungblud performs at Sziget Festival 2023 on August 11, 2023 in Budapest, Hungary.

Yungblud is momentarily lost for words. It doesn’t happen often. The punk rock superstar is known for speaking up about everything that excites or motivates him. But when he joins a Zoom call with Total Guitar, he is at the Gibson Garage in Nashville, holding his first-ever signature model, the Epiphone Yungblud SG Junior in Classic White, and at first, all he can bring himself to say is: “Just, wow…”

Seated on a turquoise sofa, and wearing leather-look dungarees, he shakes his head and takes a long pause for thought before finally saying with a smile: “It’s so cool, man. This day in particular, releasing it officially from the Gibson Garage, has been wild. Honestly, it’s been mental. When you’re a kid, you always dream of having a signature guitar made by Gibson and Epiphone, so now it’s happened, I’m like, ‘What the actual fuck?’”