Re: Your gear (all of it) does NOT matter !
Gear can be an inspirational tool, he even talked about how they would have written different songs if they had a different sound. I find that I write completely stuff now than I did a year ago, largely because a year ago I was using Fender style amps and fuzz pedals with analog delays, and now I use a Marshall-voiced amp with low-gain overdrives and digital delay. My sound was different and the 'feel' of my gear was different so what comes out is a lot different, even if it's still the same set of fingers playing it.
I do think something can be said about over-obsessing about gear. I've played on all sorts of club backlines, I've borrowed pedals from people and the audience has never noticed a thing. I remember looking up the gear of one of my current favourite guitar players, he had Strymon delays and reverbs, some J Rockett overdrives stacked, his pedalboard was a thing of beauty. I saw him live and his tone was absolutely mindblowing, I remember sitting there and 'hearing' his Strymon-wash-of-sound, and the beautiful smoothness of his Klone pedal during solos, it was perfect. After the gig, I got a chance to go up a bit closer to the stage and check out his board and chat with him, it was a fly gig so he had just made a tiny board with an Ibanez TS-808 and two Boss DD-6's, one set long for delay and one set short for Reverb. I could not tell the difference in a live setting between his expensive boutique rig and a couple of things you can pick up at any guitar center, and he was proudly talking about his board and how he loved the tones he was getting that night.
I also think for some players there is a place to stop. Some players are best when they get new gear that inspires them to play differently, and some guys have been using the same stuff for 30 years because they've found 'their' sound and don't really care about gear.
