Which guitar hero got you to pick up an axe?

As a kid growing up in the 80s, I definitely was influenced by C.C. Deville, Slash and the two co-leads from Def Leppard. There was about a full year, when I was in elementary school where I pretty much played on repeat and rotated Poison's 'Open Up and Say Ahh' and Guns N' Roses 'Appetite For Destruction' albums. This really sparked my urge to rock.

In the 90s, it was alternative music and people like Chris Cornell, Kurt Cobain, Billy Corgan, Gavin Rossdale and Jerry Cantrell.

In the 2000s, I started to go back in time and be inspired by people like SRV, Hendrix, Duane Allman, Jerry Garcia, Jimmy Page, Robin Trower and Santana.

In 2008, I sold all my gear and haven't really played all that much since then.

Over the last year, I've really had an internal pull to pick up guitar again and this was inspired by Marcus King. Been on the waitlist for a DGT SE for a couple months and when it arrives, I'll be hopefully adding a Boogie Fillmore 25 to the arsenal.
 
Are most people into guitars here similar to myself and were blown away at an early age by an event or two involving musicians?
Curious as to who/what?

For me it was Ritchie Blackmore and Michael Schenker.

Saw Blackmore's Rainbow in 76 with the quintessential lineup of Blackmore, Dio, Powell, Bain and Carey.
Permanent indelible mark!

Then shortly after (81/2?)
MSG with again Powell on drums.
Schenker probably left an even bigger impression so much that I went right out and bought a Gibson Flying V...lol.
Pity Gary (flat as a pancake) Barden was the singer( and I use that term loosely).

So who was it for you?
Or maybe it's a what was it?
My journey was a little longer than most:

When I was a kid, dad listened to a lot of 50's era rock albums/radio. So my earliest musical memories are Elvis, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, etc. Those guys really caught my ear and made me fall in love with the guitar in general.

As I got older and things other than baseball, became more interesting... dad began listening to County Music: Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and-- Charlie Daniels-- who really got me interested, and I paid more attention to dad's radio, listening for similar bands: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Black Oak Arkansas, the Allman Brothers...

However, the desire to actually play a guitar came when my best friends older sister (for whom I had a terrible crush) had put a copy of Led Zeppelin on their parents turntable one summer afternoon. THAT made me want to play guitar!

Things just went downhill from there LOL!
 
Last edited:
Mom listened to killer stuff around the house all day: UFO, Rainbow, Pink Floyd, Skynyrd, John Cougar, Journey....pretty much all the "heavier" guitar oriented music of the 60s, 70s, early 80s.

With all of those early, subconscious influences showing prevalently more-so now, it was Dave Murray and Adrian Smith that hooked me on the 6 strings forever.

One if the joys in my playing is constantly incorporating styles from new influences. Right now I am loving Larry Carlton and Yvette Young. I have aylists with them alternating. I am loving Carlton's phrasing a note choices. With Yvette Young I am learning/ experimenting with alt tunings. Something in common with both is the use of time signatures.

Always good stuff out there!!
 
I started enjoying pop and rock in late 70s when I was ten, listening to much of the classics since then.
My guitar hero were/are Brian May and Angus Young.

But I took my first guitar at 20 when I discovered Whitesnake.
So I can tell "the spark" came from Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden.
 
Last edited:
Like a lot of the older folks here (I'm 70), seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show made me take notice. But I didn't start playing until 1969 and I actually started on bass of which I played in bands through 1982.

Guitar didn't come around until around 1998. Progress was very, very slow due to the enormous hours I worked for the next twenty years.

I'd say the guy I admired the most was Eddie Van Halen. His playing just struck me as downright fun! I could hear a lot of dedication, a lot of attitude but mainly fun in his playing. No, I don't sound a thing like him nor am I anywhere near that level of playing. But he was and still is an inspiration.
 
I may be a bit different than many other guitar players out there. It wasn't one guitar player that blew me away that I wanted to be like. It was really about the sound of the guitar when listening to music that drew me in. I loved the sounds I was hearing from many different sources. Then I got an actual guitar in my hands. There was just something about the electric guitar that I loved the feel of. I can't explain it. I Just liked having it in my hands.

I like guitar tones all the way from snappy clean to hard driven metal. It was the instrument itself and what various people were doing with it that pulled me in. The versatility of the instrument and how you could create music from many generas on the same instrument was amazing to me, and still is.
 
Carlos Santana! I always loved listening to guitar but once I heard Europa I had to see Santana live, once I saw Santana live I had to play guitar. Oddly, I have many PRS' but don't have a PRS Santana.

I have to admit that hearing Carlos on Europa was simply a near our of body experience ..lol.
And likewise I just had to see them which I did in about 78 I think if memory serves me correct.

Totally different from Blackmore and Schenker who were really my hard rock/ metal style gods at the time and I probably did not appreciate Santana live as much as I should have done.
 
Santana's "Supernatural" album piqued my interest in the electric guitar.

Then I was the apple that fell down the tree and rolled down a hill via delving into death metal, and some other styles/sub-genres thrown in there.
 
Santana's "Supernatural" album piqued my interest in the electric guitar.

Then I was the apple that fell down the tree and rolled down a hill via delving into death metal, and some other styles/sub-genres thrown in there.
Just looked up the Bandcamp page, which do you suggest I try first?
 
Back
Top