Sensitivity to his family’s finances – as well as an exchange involving his sister and a tennis racket – helped Knopfler on the way to crafting his legendary approach to the guitar.
The Dire Straits guitarist released his new album, One Deep River, in April – a record on which his fingerpicking reigns supreme. Now, as a guest on BBC’s Desert Island Discs radio show, he’s discussed how tight finances growing up – and the lack of a cheeky streak – helped shape his voice as a guitarist.
Speaking to host Lauren Laverne, Knopfler explained how a move to his mother’s hometown of Blythe in Northern England when he was five brought him closer to his uncle, who was one of his earliest musical influences.
“I played shockingly bad boogie-woogie piano, taught by my uncle, in the house,” he remembers. “I cannot believe how patient my parents must have been. Then, later on, when I got a guitar I’d be stomping on the floor, but they never stood in the way of it.”
Notably, Knopfler is left-handed, but an exchange involving his big sister and a tennis racket provided a game-changing moment for the budding guitarist – one that prompted him to play right-handed and in turn give him a unique advantage on the instrument.
“My big sister Ruth… we had these dodgy tennis rackets that you could get for not very much money,” he says. “I was pretending it was a guitar, and she swung it around and said, ‘That’s the way you play it’.”
Ultimately, playing a right-handed guitar meant his strongest hand was commanding the fretboard, rather than doing the picking.
