I started playing guitar in early 1989. I was 11 and my older brother had turned me on to skateboarding and all the music and culture that surrounded that. My mom bought me a Crate 20 watt 1x12 combo for my 12th birthday in March 1989, and as part of the agreement I was to take lessons. The shop up the road, Boykins Music (Virginia Beach), had a guy named Bob Johns who was the teacher there. He had this awesome vintage Les Paul Custom that was originally white but had yellowed quite a bit. I had a $45 Hondo 2 Les Paul with a bolt on neck. I said, "Hey, we have the same guitar!"
He asked me what I wanted to learn to play. The next lesson I brought a tape with "Wreck Age" by Rollins Band, because the guitar player was pretty awesome and the riff was more complicated than most of the power chord based stuff I listened to. Rollins' vocals came in "I TAKE A LOOK AROUND ME, AND IT MAKES ME MAD!" and Bob gave me a look I will never forget. He had never heard anything like it. Not to mention, here's this nice kid who's barely twelve playing him this crazy angry sounding music. So, he got over it the best he could and helped me through learning the basics of the song.
He tried to teach me other stuff but I wasn't interested, in fact my guitar would sit unplayed all week sometimes. After maybe 6 months I had quit lessons, but found that I enjoyed both writing my own stuff and figuring out other people's stuff on my own.
/Cool Story Bro not required.
