who started you playin?

[Jacksons Rock]

Who started me playing? A friend at the orphanage I grew up. He gave me my first guitar. It was a total piece of crap, but it played

[VitaminG]

looking back, probably Joe Walsh & Don Felder. My dad liked the Eagles and as a kid I knew not only the words to Hotel California, but I could sing all the solos too.

[paulbag]

Hard to pin it on 3, so the three most inspiring before beginning to play at age 13 were Iommi, Campbell, Smith/Murray

[Nimitz]

Angus Young... my cousin bought me the double AC/DC live album and I thought Angus was the best ever... Then Kirk Hammett and the solo to ONE... but my very first guitar experience that stuck was when I saw Junior Brown on Austin City Limits.

[Kempo Bulldog]

EVH, Vito Bratta, and George Lynch.

[RR2772]

Very good question.

The reason for saying that is that growing up in the country side of Denmark the guitar influence was not really around exept my parents record collection but it was not the Beatles which I listen to quite a lot or the Danish '70s rock group Gasolin' all though I always liked their music in high regard and played it years later in cover band.

I do recall being showed a ukulele around 1986 in music class which were different than the flute that we tried to play. I also did some visits to the local music store but not guitars but more keyboards if I remember that bit correctly.

Anyway in 1988 I got my first acustic Jasmine S60. My mom asked what instrument I would play if I wanted to do so and I said guitar nothing else. I did take a few leasons and got to hear smoke on the water by Deep Purple. I learned the main riff on the low e so Ritchie Blackmore was first but my guitar teacher showed it to me wrong.

In 1989 I was in a school with about 50 other kids my age and many of them were city kids. They had good record collection and pretty soon it was Metallica's first 4 albums. S.O.D with Scott Ian. Death, DRI and a bit of Slayer as I recall.

That was the beginning influence into playing guitar and for the most time electric!

[eakinj]

I might end up laughed off the forum for this but really for me it was first Roy Clark (Country legend) then Steven Clark (of Def Leppard), and then some guy named Randi Roads? Anyone ever hear of him? I think he played with some guy who was with some band or something... Maybe even had been a guitar out there with his name on it... can't recall.

(ok i'm actually really sick right now so this may have only been funny to me sorry... then again jay leno was funny to me last night so I may need serious medical attention.)

[Cygnus X1]

Oh damn I broke the rules.
#3 for me was a guy that my country music and classical fan parents raved about.
No one could play guitar like that...they saw him somewhere.
I picked up an album the next time opportunity struck and it was George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers.
He's the guy that closed the loop and and started me on a journey started by another local.
John Mooney was (and I guess still is) an astounding example of delta blues.
He schooled under Son House himself.
That's where the trip went backwards, then forwards.
Then for me it was on to Pink Floyd, Rush, Black Sabbath...and all of the others influenced by
Son House and Robert Johnson.

My playing still stinks, but what a foundation.

[Cygnus X1]

I guess that is also why, deep in my bones I "got" Rolling Stones, but not the Beatles.
Polar opposites in my mind.

[AIC70]

Vivian Campbell, Lindsay Buckingham, Warren DiMartini/Robbin Crosby, and Jerry Cantrell, in that order. I cheated, that's technically 5. Sorry.

[straycat]

George Harrison,Carl Perkins and Keith Richards I was 10 in 1962 and these guys were the shit!!
Earlier than that it was Chuck Berry that made me notice a guitar the others made me want to play.
I don't know for sure but I must be one of the oldest members here age wise.LOL.

[Grawnday]

I was 10 in 1975, and a KISS fan. In my eyes Ace Frehley was the coolest of that bunch. Soon after that Tom Scholtz impressed me as the guitarist and mastermind behind Boston.

I didn't get my 1st guitar until '84 for HS graduation. By then my tastes had changed to EVH, Randy Rhoads, and most other 80's metal.

[sparky]

Two words...Ace Frehley!!!

[Big Al]

My brother.
He was ten years older than me and he played. He had Les Pauls, an Explorer, a Flying V and several Strats. He even had a full Marshall stack stuffed in his closet. When my parents left the house, he would play the Marshall at extreme volumes (still in the closet) and I would listen for what seemed to be hours. He would let me listen to Zep & Jimi with him. For my 15th. birthday he got me a Peavey Decade amp, Van Halen I and Iron Maiden Killers.
I was fortunate that my high school offered a guitar class. Whenever the class performed in front of school, he would bring me a Flying V to play. He was always there to keep the spark alive.

RIP David!

[jacksonaxes]

George Harrison,Carl Perkins and Keith Richards I was 10 in 1962 and these guys were the shit!!
Earlier than that it was Chuck Berry that made me notice a guitar the others made me want to play.
I don't know for sure but I must be one of the oldest members here age wise.LOL.

You got me beat stray, I'm 55 but Johnny Winter was my guitar idol in youth.