Hendrix...

My dad wake me up at night. Jimi was playin in german TV. He looks like he was waiting for the bus. And he play´s wild...

So when I was seven years old...I wanted to play like him. Then I asked my dad to buy a guitar. This was 40 years back.

I remember the day Mrs. Bentley rolled the AV cart into Drama class and popped in Deep Purple's Gemini Suite for the class to digest. That was my eye opener...my first "wow" moment in music. Not long after that I picked up my first copy of Black Sabbath's Paranoid and someone turned me on to Led Zeppelin....

I'd always kinda listened to rock music for the emotional stirring inside and power it has to move ones feelings and thoughts. From simple fist in the air charge into combat music to thoughtful complex songs that draw you in and keep you locked in like a good book or a movie.

I first picked up an instrument and try to play the melodies behind Rush's bass lines from Exit Stage Left When I was like 12/13 yo just plunking around on a cheap ol tyco guitar that had only the E and A string on it trying to figure out melodies like Red Barcheta and so on ...but as I progressed and learned more complex voicings and chords scales shapes etc... I began to love guitar more than bass ...and Rhoads was always a favorite of mine so I decided to learn everything off of Blizzard and Diary of a Madman ..I loved how heavy and cool that sound was at the time ...every time I heard Crazy Train or Flying High Again on the radio or at the local arcade playing "Defender" Id break into air guitar while playing lol ...cuz I knew how to play it ..

As I got older I focused more on subtle nuance and tone ..and hear I am ...today listening to Tool, All that Remains, King's X, Queensryche, but the main thing to me that really inspired me to strive to be better and never stop learning was Randy Rhoads and reading of his example ...I remember thinking I will force my right and left hand to cooperate and never give up trying to learn more like he did. lol.

wow...this question got me thinking! I remember getting the Star Licks cassette tape and book lessons through the mail because I thought Jimmy Page was out of this world. I liked Van Halen, but frankly, he scared the crap out of me! I thought he was waaaay too out of my reach to attempt, other than to steal a lick or two.

I loved Kiss and Randy Rhoads big time, and had phases when I was totally into them.

But I know who it was that made me *know* that I was gonna play guitar....I was about 5 or 6 years old listening to the AM radio. Keith Richard's intro to 'Satisfaction' gave me shivers everytime I heard it. It was like I had an allergic reaction! Thank God they didn't hand out Ritalin to kids like they do now!

I legitimately have 2 answers to this question.   When I was 7, I wanted to be like Kiss, but my parents said if I wanted to learn guitar, it'd have to be classical.  So I played classical guitar until I couldn't take it anymore and I quit b/c it just wasn't Kiss.  For what it's worth, I was *far* from a prodigy on the classical guitar, so no regrets there.

Then I was either in 8th grade or a freshman in HS and I heard George Lynch w/ Dokken (the album w/ "Into the Fire," "Alone Again," and "When Heaven Comes Down").  I bought an electric back around 1985 or so and still can't play like ol' George, LOL.

Cheers,

Fester2k

Played guitar before this, but it was pretty folky...

I was about ten when I started listening to Rage Against the Machine. Tom's expression of the diversity of guitar inspired me to pick it up.

Granted, just as most guitarists of my timeframe (class of '07 if it gives you a clue), I ended up just trying to emulate my heroes and play their material.

It wasn't until I discovered The Black Dahlia Murder, At the Gates, Purified in Blood, Slayer, Metallica, DragonForce, Rhapsody, and Megadeth that I took my own path and wrote my own music instead of impressing the occasional person in earshot with someone else's music.

Here's some pics of my homages to two of my heroes, well three....

The cream LP Custom and the white Peavey are mine and the red LP belongs to Howard Leese. The Marshall was the other guitar players and the Hiwatt Bulldog was mine, so was the little Peavey 2x10 Chorus.

That's me (you can't see my ponytail) and Howie in the studio. He is a friend of our drummer and he flew in to help produce our demo. This was back in 1995, he played keys and a little guitar on it. I had to get some pics with him and my Randy LP! Notice the DiMarzios ala Ace Frehley!!

Here, we're listening to playback on some tracks and we had a friend of ours roaming the studio taking pics.

And here's my homage to EVH....just a Squire strat I had lying around, it had to be done! LOL!

cgtrox

Well, I've been playing music since I'm 6 years old ( I'm 30 now...), but what definitely turned me into Heavy music with no looking back was the Guns 'n' Roses Appetite For Destruction album. Though my parents raised me with ACDC, ZZTOP, this album changed my life forever! I still can remember where I was and what I was doing when I first heard Welcome To The Jungle 's intro... Ahah... and the minute after, I had long hairs, I was spitting on my piano and saying "****" in every sentence!!!

Then, the classic scheme : a band with friends, METALLICA, beers, another band with other friends, PANTERA,  more beers, another other band with other other friends and... MESHUGGAH!

I'm wondering if someone with more knowledge on the subject than me, could start a thread making a metal family tree with the different categories and players--would it start with Zeppelin or?

Definitely Tony Iommi and Ace Frehley!

Great topic.  Not too long ago I was actually thinking of my influences.  Nowadays it runs the length and breadth of metal from Slipknot back to Sabbath.  However, I was listening to my Ipod yesterday and dialed in Sabbath.  It took me back to 1983.  Master of Reality had been out for some time, but I got this (and several other) album (vinyl) from a friend.  There was no slip cover, just the record.  I put the needle on the record, heard the coughing, and then one of the heaviest and evil sounding guitars I had ever heard.  The song...Sweet Leaf.    I then started buying up all their music.  Iommi had changed me.  I had already been listening to Back in Black (never listened to blues the same way again) and Angus was awesome.  But Iommi...wow.  Then a little later in the 80's when I had been playing a bit, Metallica: Ride The Lightning. Holy $hit!!.  Then, the ultimate for me, as far as sound and composition, Master of Puppets.  Once again, my life was changed forever.  To this day, I still emulate a lot of Hetfields playing style.  However, Sweet Leaf and Toni Iommi started it all for me.  Peace. 

I've always been influenced & inspired to play by my two older brothers. But as far as Bands Etc; I was 11 & my brother had brought home 2 albums one day #1. Lovedrive by The Scorpions & #2. Hell Bent For Leather by Judas Priest!!!   It was 1979 & like I said I was 11 but even back then I was drawn to the Duel Guitar Attack of Jabs & Schenker,, &Tipton & Downing and the way they fed off one another and used their individual parts to make songs complete. I love them to this day & I am also a huge fan of Metallica of course tried & true, thru thick & thin.

But on topic the above mentioned got me started and the rest is history.

Alex Lifeson, Rush

Rik Emmet, Triumph

All the 80's hair metal bands and right now John Petrucci of Dream Theater.

More to come

I had played with hardly any ambition (or real musical interest at all) for a couple of years before I heard my first Hammerfall song, The Dragon Lies Bleeding, which opened my eyes to the epic power of metal--the rest was history. So credit goes to Oskar Dronjak and Stefan Elmgren, who are still some of my absolute favorites of all time.

The solo to Aerosmith's version of "Train Kept a rollin" was what made me want to learn the guitar and bug mom and dad till I got one and began lessons. I was already learning piano.

It wasn't untilI saw and heard Al Di Meola on Don Kirschners rock concert that I flipped out and began what was to be the first of many years of woodshedding. At theage of 19 I was lucky enough to be at a "Daddy's Junky usic store in New Hampshire where Al was giving a clinic and was actually able to go up and play "Mediterrenean Sundance" with him. What a thrill.

Fueled by the emergence of Yngwie Malmsteens Rising force record my fingers have never got a proper nights sleep.

A disapointing side note is that neither Joe Perry nor Brad Whittford played the lead  guitar on Train; the very song that made me a smith fanatic for years. Bob Ezrin, who was the executive producer on Get Your Wings, brought in session guitarists Richard (it's actually Dic%) but line6 thinks it is being used as an expletive) Wagner and Steve Hunter to perform the dueling solos on this tune. I only discovered this a few years ago yet it still bothered me a ton as this was my first "Holy Crap" moment with guitar. I felt duped.

Mark