who started you playin?

[msaint65]

Well I'm gettin' to the "older than dirt" category....so here goes: Chuck Berry, Les Paul (my Dad's influence), Dave Yorko (Johnny and the Hurricanes), and Cliff Gallup (and any other Rock-a-billy guitarist). But really what was the final PUSH was a local guy named John Clapp, lead guitarist for the band the Rondo's. I was in 8th grade, and me and my buds walked into a dance where I heard my first ever "live" electric guitar lick....the beginning of "Shakin' All Over". Six months later me and the buds had our first band called the Shocks.....and the rest is (largely forgotten) history .

Mark

[wilkinsi]

you could actually hear the guitar?!?! damn! you have good ears

I have very good hearing.

[Cygnus X1]

Well I'm gettin' to the "older than dirt" category....so here goes: Chuck Berry, Les Paul (my Dad's influence), Dave Yorko (Johnny and the Hurricanes), and Cliff Gallup (and any other Rock-a-billy guitarist). But really what was the final PUSH was a local guy named John Clapp, lead guitarist for the band the Rondo's. I was in 8th grade, and me and my buds walked into a dance where I heard my first ever "live" electric guitar lick....the beginning of "Shakin' All Over". Six months later me and the buds had our first band called the Shocks.....and the rest is (largely forgotten) history .



Mark

You must be 1,000 years old!
Get off my lawn!

[msaint65]

You must be 1,000 years old!
Get off my lawn!

Cyg, betcha didn't know Jackson / Charvel made walkers......

[Cygnus X1]

Heh, we can fight on the Festivus Pole to see who the next HOA pres will be.
I just turned 50.
Some days I feel it.
In my mind I'm still 25.

[peabuddy]

Heh, we can fight on the Festivus Pole to see who the next HOA pres will be.
I just turned 50.
Some days I feel it.
In my mind I'm still 25.

Me too Cyg, I hit 50 nov but i'm still 25 too!

[msaint65]

Me too Cyg, I hit 50 nov but i'm still 25 too!

Sheeee-it, wait till you hit 60, then you'll be fifteen .

Mark
.

[stevoc]

Me too, now that I think about it. I remember standing in my parents living room listening to KISS Alive II, pretending to be Ace Frehley using a tennis racket as a guitar. Must have been 5 or 6 at the time.

[straycat]

I drove my parents crazy playing Beatles albums all day long.
I had all The Dick Clark American Bandstand albums too Shit now that makes me feel old!

Cyg I'm 60 and don't feel a day over 35 ........well maybe 45.LOL

[Steel City Psycho]

I actually started taking drum lessons in 5th grade (Wish I would have stuck with that because there are Millions of guitar players and every drummer I know is in like 4 or 5 bands ) and my step-brother already played guitar, a total EVH Fanboy, and I actually did not want to copy him and it wasn't until just a few years ago that I really got into Eddie.

Went so far as to go to a music store to look at drum sets, and upon seeing the price tags for just a basic kit and seeing a crap guitar for $99 my parents tried to persuade me to play guitar because it was "cheaper."

It wasn't until I heard Mick Mars play the intro and riff to Motley Crue's Kickstart My Heart that I wanted to play guitar. I think I was in 7th grade at the time, and coincidentally at the same time my Elementay School music class was teaching us guitar, they had like 20 little student acoustics and my friend Justin who took lessons would come in and play whatever new song he learned. I thought that was way cooler than the actual class itself and he taught me the riff to Kickstart My heart instead of Row, Row, Row, Your Boat or whatever the hell we were learning.



Then that year for Christmas I got my first no name guitar and amp from the Sears Catalog, a red strat with a black pg and a little crap 10 watt. Then shortly there after my musical tastes got severely heavier upon discovering Metallica and PanterA.

James Hetfield made me want to play fast and heavy and Darrell showed me you could play that way and play leads too.

But actually the first 3 songs I learned to play were the "standards" Highway to Hell, Iron Man, and Stairway and I still have a huge soft spot for SGs and my first "Made in the USA" guitar was an SG. Then I moved on to songs like One and Mouth For War...

So I credit 6 actually Mars, Hetfield, Abbott, Young, Iommi, and Page.

Mars made me pick it up, Hetfield/Abbott made me want to play fast and heavy and be good at it, and Young/Iommi/Page showed me that I really could do it.

[straycat]

We had an electric guitar and amp in the band room at school I would sneak in at lunch and play.
I was a freshman at the time and the music teacher caught me more than once jamming to an album when she came back from lunch.
She said why don't you take band class? I said I hate trumpets and violins.
One girl keyboard player said hey you want to start a band?
I said yeah sure not thinking I needed a guitar and amp.LOL
We had a band all thru HS and played proms and country club gigs.
After school we would practice in the band room and always had quite a crowd of kids hanging around teachers too.
Back then the band Exile were the hot local rock band most people know of them when the hit it big in country music.
The guitar player J.P.Pennington asked us to open an outdoor show for them.That was 67 IIRC.
Playing that outdoor show helped our band out a lot.

[chrisolson]

Probably the RATT dudes for me, followed closely by Lynch.

[AdRock]

I guess the earliest I can remember was when I was about 8 (1980) I got to watch Eric Johnson in my uncles studio in Austin. Also watching Buck Owens and Roy Clark on Hee Haw with my grandfather. On my 10th birthday in Oct. of 1982 I was given Too Fast For Love and Screaming For Vengeance for my birthday. That was the day I became a true metal head.

Since I pretty much enjoy playing rhythm and holding it down with the bassist and drummer my main 2 influences that made me want to pick up a guitar were James Hetfield and Scott Ian.

[Cygnus X1]

Hee Haw made me want to play also.

[Cygnus X1]

Stray, I remember Exile.
For those that don't...here is the Wiki on them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exile_(American_band)