OT: Who Was Your Biggest Inspiration To Play Guitar?

[Heritage Softail]

When I went and saw KISS Alive I concert. It was over then. I was also diggin Glen Buxton from Alice Cooper Billion Dollar Babies...

Lately, Jerry Cantrell. Just simple great tone used correctly in killer songs.

 

[Juggernaut]

Was a bassist for years, when I finally NEEDED to switch to guitar, the 2 biggest influences that inspired me were....

1.Dimebag
2.Dave Mustaine

 

[Sheik_Yerbouti]

Hard to say who's the "biggest" per se, but it would definitely be down to these four guys...

(My FIRST huge inspiration to play guitar!)

My first guitar was a Gibson Flying V, so maybe that's a subconscious hint!

 

[dulrich1227]

Alive I, I was 7 and learning to play piano, I heard the guitars and that was it

 

[snowdog]

 

[bravedude2]

after him, dave murray adrian smith

 

[racerevlon]

Adrian Smith

Tom Scholz

 

[Digital Jams]

Yeah Kiss Alive had me going nuts for Ace back in middle school..........................ugh learned later to choose better chops wise.

Ed, Lynch, Gilbert, Vai, Warren, Schon, MS, etc..............


Last ten year guys I know on the forums.

 

[lolzgreg]

I bought my first guitar because of Randy Rhoads after seeing a live performance of "Mr. Crowley."

 

[twenty4_7spy]

Jimmy Page - Over The Hills and Far Away was the first song I ever tried to play. The mysticism of LZ captured my imagination
Billy Gibbins - Tres Hombres blew me away, and his live sound on Fandango made me dream of walls of "Rio Grandes"
Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs entranced me; saw him live in '76 and he was SONIC - three 100w SL stacks in full throat produced a wall of Stratified guitar magic. I have some Kodachrome of this show somewhere

It was a great time to be young and impressionable

 

[jguzmos]

Randy Rhoads was my inspiration. Much later i bought a Joe Satriani tab book and that really got me hooked on his playing.

 

[Heritage Softail]

Randy Rhoads was my inspiration. Much later i bought a Joe Satriani tab book and that really got me hooked on his playing.

Surfing with the Alien was a game changer for me. I bought that album, we went to our practice room, got a good buzz, and tossed that on the stereo... blown away

 

[Ventura]

Randy Rhoads was my inspiration. Much later i bought a Joe Satriani tab book and that really got me hooked on his playing.

Surfing with the Alien was a game changer for me. I bought that album, we went to our practice room, got a good buzz, and tossed that on the stereo... blown away

SWTA by Satch and a couple Vai albums just made guitar the "epitome" of "limitless" to me...

And there's no way I'm even 5% into its capabilities as a player...I need to be like a monk, tucked away in some Zen like studio for years, living breathing meditating and playing guitar and only guitar. I think that's what it'd take to get there. I'm still pondering the notion of taking 3 years off of my usual career to just get entrenched in music study, practice, theory and lesson. To the best of my knowledge, I'll only be here with a guitar in this realm, on this planet, so I wanna get all that I can from it before moving on...

Babble, sorry...
V.

 

[rupe]

Elvis kicked off my infatuation with music.
Peter Frampton made me want to be a rock star (I was 8 when FCA came out and he was everywhere...his image was larger than life to me back then).
Randy Rhoads made me take the guitar seriously and start woodshedding.
Lynch, Lee, Jabs, Vai, Malmsteen, Satriani, and a few others kept the fire burning.
Beck, Hendrix, Gilmour, Gallagher, Knopfler, and Setzer became important once I grew up

The single biggest inspiration was definitely Rhoads

 

[mp31bsdmf]

Gary Rossington, Allen Collins, Dimebag, Tony Iommi, Zakk Wylde

 

[johnpace2]

I always thought guitar was cool as a kid, but I'd say Hetfield is my biggest influence.

 

[Badronald]

Angus Young

 

[Flump]

Mike Einziger of Incubus pretty much singlehandedly made me want to learn the electric.

 

[rupe]

Mike Einziger of Incubus pretty much singlehandedly made me want to learn the electric.

I'll bet you're the first person to ever put those words together in that order...congrats!!!

 

[Inca Roads]

My GAWD man!! Uncanny - practically the exact same list as me for the late 70's, early 80's. And I do have to add, in all sincerity, Ace Frehley as well. KISS had a HUGE impact on me as they were probably the most visually "available" band at that time - there was no MTV or the like. It was just radio and records. KISS was popular and made it to the TV because of their schtick, so immediately, as a 6 or 8 year old kid, to see a dude dressed like that with the rest of the band, man, I thought he HAD to be the best guitarist... EVER!!!! Then RR entered the picture after Iommi, RR was and is and always will be "the reason I picked up the guitar".

To this day Zappa, both The Man himself and his son Dweezil, inspire me to continue...

Peace,
V.

Without a doubt, Ace was the Man!!!
KISS, Aerosmith, Sabbath, Queen and Zappa was all I was listening to
as a young kid. Me and my Brother would dress up as
KISS for Halloween and play cardboard guitars to (Shout it out Loud, She,
and Love Gun) etc...
My Father listened to Zappa every night after work and that's where
I picked up the ear for Progressive music with lot's of different
Changes and Time signatures.

Randy Rhoads was my inspiration. Much later i bought a Joe Satriani tab book and that really got me hooked on his playing.

Surfing with the Alien was a game changer for me. I bought that album, we went to our practice room, got a good buzz, and tossed that on the stereo... blown away

I was young, probably 18 years of age and my friend stopped by a party I was
having at my house, with the brand new Surfing with the Alien LP.
We were all doing Hallucinogenics that particular night
At that particular point in time, I was into Various Shrapnel Artists
Steve Vai, Yngwie, Shenker, EVH, Vivian Campbell, Murray & Smith, Tipton & Downing, Ronnie Le Tekro, Sykes, Gary Moore etc.....I thought I had heard the pinnacle, of Modern day guitar
shred. So he put the Album on my turntable and after listening to the first 3 songs,
I thought the Flesh was gonna get ripped from my body from the Mighty explosion
that my ears were hearing!!!! It was INCREDIBLE, almost more than I could handle at that moment.....I felt like I was gonna launch into space, Totally Surreal experience.
JOE was a GOD at that moment, it was Fantastic.







My first list will never change, but many have influenced me over the decades.
Here is my secondary list:

70's

80's

Today: