The “greatest guitar ever” tag has been on him since at least the early 80s.In the day when he was still out there, most people hated his music. 'Noise' nothing but 'noise" is what you would hear. I understand he went to the UK and he was loved by music fans there. It was not until recently, the last few years that now he is "the greatest guitar player ever"
I can remember being threatened with violence more than once, for playing my 'Woodstock" album and the cuts of his "Star Spangled banner" version. Nothing changes.