who started you playin?

[Flatpicker]

My Grandfather.

[Steel City Psycho]

Hee Haw made me want to play also.

I'm a huge John 5 fan because of his both country and metal styles, reminds me of when I was growing up Saturday nights were spent watching Hee Haw with my parents and then after they went to sleep watching Headbanger's Ball.

[petez0r]

i was 11 and never heard anything but the beatles and prince and nothing but pop, and then i got MOP by chance , cost me 5 bux and it was stolen, changed my life, i was an instant metalhead, and i remember begging for a guitar pretty much instantly.

[ginsambo]

I got hold of that Rolled Gold double album by the Stones and used to play that back to back on my Dad's Hi Fi before he got ome from work whilst still in primary school. But he'd hit the roof and beat me if he found out I had used his stylus. That and Sticky Fingers are what made me want to play and is about the time I got a cheap classical acoustic and learning blues riffs.

Then, travelling around the Australia desert in a Japanese campervan with my sister, parents and gran who was on her way out, listening to the electrified and emotive tones of Dire Straits Brothers in Arms until the batteries ran out is what made me yearn for an electric. Then I guess WASP and being around my neighbour's listening to Donnington '87 live on the radio at 100,000 decibels on the Radio 1 Rock Show with Tommy Vance. Chris Holmes. WASP. Power chords. Motley Crue. Then a year later listening to Donnington '88 I heard Guns and Roses and started learning very song and solo on my first electric.

I do remember being very impressed by Sique Sique Sputnik's F1-11 single early on also, although I think that more inspired me to put fishnets on my head, rather than play and I like Ah Ha but never admitted it in public and I'II confess I bought Europe's Final Countdown single in Woolworth's when it was in the charts.

Age 11 upwards at high school there were a few secondhand record shops about and sometimes when I didn't spend my dinner money on cigarettes I used to buy albums, anything from Twisted Sister or AC DC to old Aerosmith to Cheap Trick or Zep albums. I can't remember how much albums were, a couple of quid I think, 10 B&H were about 76p and from memory I think lunch cost 80p or £1. Choosing records was really a case of lucky dip as I had no idea who they were. I loved WASP and Chris Holmes though big time. Ha Ha....still do! I think they sat right in the middle of Metallica/Iron Maiden kind of metal and La Guns/Ratt kind of hairmetal, both of which I had a big aversion to at the time and what with Chris Holmes melodic and slamming solos and Blackies songwriting and harmonies and power chords, it was pretty much metalised Ah Ha I guess and appealed to my emotions. Also, singing about shooting your load over some girls face to an emotive melodic soundtrack of powerchords and climatic soloing beat the hell out of singing about Monsters and Dragons.

So Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Mick Taylor, Mark Knopfler and Chris Holmes I guess.

Wish I'd gotten into VH earlier, Ratt later on and a host of other US bands earlier, but they really didn't have that much exposure over here, nor did MTV in the early days as Satellite was only introduced in around 89/90. I think and most people were lucky if you had a video player, let alone Satellite and anyway I was too busy racing my BMX to even watch the Tube on Channel 4. Mostly it was a case of British metal here, Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Saxon and only US bands that were signed on a British Label, like Twisted Sister, Denium. leather and Studs and singing about Monsters or beer. I was far too pretentious and sensitive at the time for that shite but loved ACDC though. I do remember a vague general consensus over here, that bands coming out of America's sunset strip were definitely all gay and you would be beaten to an inch of your life if you confessed to liking them. Guns and Roses really broke down those barriers though in 1988 after Donnington and blasted everything out of the water with Axl's straight ahead lyrics, Slash's straight ahead guitar and the bands straight ahead Rock n Roll.

Then most of very late '80's and early '90's was spent learning and listening and catching up with the US stuff from the mid or late '80's on someone elses TV Satellite recordings. Ratt, La Guns, Hanoi Rocks. The world in the UK changed radically in 1988/9/90 and suddenly you could get access the US stuff back to back on video recordings from Satellite TV in the UK and the British world of leather and denim kind of got sidelined.

Of course, if I was only 5 or 6 years older everything would be a different story I guess.

[peabuddy]

thanks guys for all your stories! It's so cool that all influences can effect a player! But I cant believe I'm the only bass player that has replied! lol

[Big Al]

Well, YJM and the likes almost made me put down my guitar and take up bass.

[paris is burning]

Al DiMeola,EVH,Santana

[Foolius Maximus]

kiss

[Robert Burns]

Boy am i dating myself! Johnny Winter...Hendrix... Dave Mason... Jose Felliciano!

[Whoopu2]

I guess I did things backwards. When I was about 8 I was at a friend of mine's house and he had some super-cheap Strat copy on a stand. I remember just being enamored by the thing, it appealed to me. I mentioned to my dad I wanted a guitar and soon I had my very own super-cheap strat copy. It was AFTER I started playing that I discovered my heroes. Metallica and RR-era Ozzy were my first big influences.

[Jayster]

Iommi, Estes

[guitarguy2237]

Dave Mustaine,Dimebag,Jerry Cantrell,Jeff Hanneman, Ol Drake, Few others too, but those are the bigger ones.

[Rupe]

When I was a wee lad (early 70's), Elvis made me want to become a rock star. As a kid, seeing all of the hype around Peter Frampton in the mid-70's made me want to become a guitar playing rock star. Hearing Randy Rhoads for the first time in the early 80's made me want to become an accomplished guitarist and sent me to the woodshed.

[Saw]

Honestly I just wanted to play guitar when I saw them hanging on the wall in a music store window I walked past when I was really small. I listened to music after I started playing. I'd already started to learn piano but thought "That is an awesome looking instrument!" and it went from there. I have been influenced by bands recently like Sikth, Machine Head and Exodus. But not single players, as far as I can recall

[shramiac]

Ace Frehley and Dave Murray! Years later, I prefer Vinnie Vincent and Adrian Smith!