“This is going to sound so embarrassing…”: Sophie Lloyd says this kids cartoon – no, millennial icon – was responsible for her picking up the guitar

Machine Gun Kelly band member and virtuoso guitarist Sophie Lloyd has earned a reputation as a formidable player and this month, rightfully, makes her debut on the cover of the new issue of Guitar World.

In her accompanying interview with GW, she discusses her earliest days as a guitarist – revealing in the process that her inspiration to pick up the instrument came from a most unlikely source.

“This is going to sound so embarrassing,” Lloyd tells Guitar World. “It was actually when I watched SpongeBob SquarePants.”

While, of course, we all know Spongebob has a banging theme tune, Lloyd says it was specifically a scene from 2004’s The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie that did it.

“It's a great show,” acknowledges Lloyd [which is fortunate, because we have zero tolerance for SpongeBob shade on GW – Ed].

“[Then] I saw the movie – [and] they do a version of Twisted Sister's I Wanna Rock, but SpongeBob sings, ‘I'm a goofy goober!’ They had the big band, and I thought it looked so incredible. I said, ‘Wow, I wanna do that!’”

Of course, while SpongeBob has taught the world many life lessons, the adventures of a cartoon sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea ultimately have their limitations as a practice aid, and Lloyd soon found herself on a more familiar six-string journey.

“That was the start,” explains Lloyd. “Plus, my dad loved music, and he had all the classic rock around the house – Led Zeppelin, Joe Bonamassa, Rory Gallagher, all of these amazing blues guitarists…

“I was surrounded by music. I took a few classical guitar lessons when I was 10 or so, but I was like, ‘Nah.’ Then I got an electric guitar – a Yamaha Pacifica – and I was like, ‘This is more like it.’”

“I got really into it. It was the classic sob story in school – I was a bit of an outcast and didn't make friends. The guitar was my release and my escape. I found so much comfort from playing rock music. I'd come home from school and play for five or six hours.”

Now she’s on the cover of Guitar World, so we’d say that time has paid off...

Elsewhere in the wide-ranging interview, Lloyd discusses her role as Machine Gun Kelly’s guitarist, including the sexism she faced as a female guitarist following baseless rumors around their relationship; her forthcoming solo album Imposter Syndrome – which features the likes of Matt Heafy and Chris Robertson – plus her Kiesel signature guitar.

To read Lloyd’s full cover feature, head to Magazines Direct to pickup Guitar World issue 568.