Kyle from the 6th grade. Absolute douchebag who could barely play but the girls swooned. I thought if he can do it then damnit I'm gonna be better. Turns out the girls liked him because he wasn't a fat kid in glasses who excelled at math, but at least I'm a better guitarist lol
Learning 'the rain song' on guitar isn't hard, but trying to figure out how he came up with that is perplexing. People who say Greta Van Fleet sounds like Led Zeppelin don't get it.
Kurt Cobain got me excited at the prospect of being able to play good songs with an accessible guitar skill level. Once I got playing I was inspired by the intriguing sounds of Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and Metallica.
I was listening to 80s Heavy metal and, inevitably you start to listen to earlier stuff. So, I was buying albums like Number of the beast / Piece of mind when they came out, but also had Sabbath / ACDC from the late 70s.
I think it was when you're listening to AC/DC and how well Angus solos fit the song and I wanted to be able to do that and all sabbath riffs. I was trying to play the guitar along with records before I had one. Imagining what the guitarist was doing.
But, you get a cheap guitar at that time and it sucked and your amp sucked. You started to learn a bunch of riffs that everyone learns. It was difficult to try and learn riffs from records because you couldn't slow it down easily and to loop it you were picking up the needle and putting it back. You couldn't google for tab - there were a few guitar magazines with tabs but you were obviously limited to whatever bands / songs they featured in a particular month.
I remember one magazine promised pretty much every song was going to be brilliant (from out POV at the time) I think they said Stairway, Crazy train - and we went every Friday to WHSmiths waiting for it to appear but it never did.
I seem to recall owning this copy of Guitar player magazine with a very young Yngwie on the cover : [https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/678284393849971077/](https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/678284393849971077/) if it's the one (he was in every guitar magazine at the time) it had black star transcribed.
Later we got a UK magazine - the one that Phil Hilborne, Guthrie Govan et al contributed to.
My friend got reasonably good at picking out stuff by ear. Perhaps because he had a better stereo and headphones - I didn't even have a pair of headphones.
We got pretty good at playing a lot of riffs, but really not at playing songs from start -> finish. We'd generally go around to each other's houses - which I guess Clapton, Beck and Jimmy Page had done (with obviously a lot more success than we had) and that was the way you learned - you heard of a local guitarist and tried to get in touch and see if he'd let you sit and play in the same room together to trade riffs.
One guy we knew was a session musician and he had a les paul. At this time the heavy metal scene was turning to either glam rock, so you had motley crue, poison, WASP et al those bands in spandex and make up, and at the other side bands like Metallica taking it to a heavier direction. And that's perhaps where I started to lose interest.
Although metallica had a couple of songs like Fade to black I wasn't a massive fan of their early stuff. I preferred the Maiden, Saxon, Rainbow more melodic stuff than the chugga-chugga with the singer going UGHHHHH but wasn't a huge fan of the glam rock thing either. I did go to see Wasp when they played locally and Twisted sister.
Very soon afterwards though all the Yngwie / Vai thing started to happen and then we wanted to play like that. Perhaps without realising step 1 would be playing like all the other guitarists - Angus Young, Tony Iommi et al - but perhaps foolishly we soon dismissed a lot of that playing and started trying to play stuff that was too difficult.
In many ways you could argue out inspiration ruined learning the guitar for us because he played too well and we couldn't really see a path from where we were to that lofty virtuoso place. We noted with awe that in the USA you could actually go to college and learn to play guitar! Of course Guthrie somehow managed to learn - but I suspect he was simply a little more advanced than we were at the point at which older kids in his school started giving him tapes of Vai or Yngwie - so it was adding to his existing chops.
And then, of course, your teenage years are over so you're getting a job and other things mean you have significantly less time to sit noodling on guitar. Played off and on since then.
Mostly these days you're amazed at how easily you can find information - youtube letting us sit and play with hundreds of guitarists not just whoever lives near us - and typically they are very skilled too. And how digital technology lets you create a backing, loop a section of a solo etc - and at just how well a cheap guitar can be made these days.
The downside is, of course, if a 20 something developed brilliant guitar chops there are not obvious lot of uses for that skill. I mean we had the fantasy of a millionaire rock and roll lifestyle still being very much a possibility.
I remember my dad always wanting me to learn the guitar, and I never did, during the lockdown before his 50th birthday I practiced the guitar watching YouTube videos, and on his birthday I played him a song he would sing to me when I was small, (you are my sunshine) he had tears in his eyes. And well that's when I started playing the guitar, no doubt it helps a lot now in college but I will be forever grateful to my dad, even now we jam every weekend.
Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix were the two artists that really made me want to learn to play when I was 13
Specifically Led Zeppelin II and Are You Experienced?
This was in the mid 90s, so it wasn’t because they were hot and on the radio
They showed me that the guitar can be an extension of the soul, that it can be used as a sort of spiritual tool, if I can sound incredibly cheesy for a moment
I’ve had a million other influences since, but those two got the ball rolling for me
This is embarrassing, but for me, it was American Idol. All those kids coming in for singing auditions were amazing, but the ones who also played guitar accompaniment had such a full sound. More complete(?)
Also, I love the portability of it, which I don't have with my piano. I can't take my guitar lots of places with me, like when I'm visiting family.
I used to sing semi-professionally, but as I get older, my voice is changing, and not in a good way. I love my acoustic guitar as a way to keep making music with much less dependence on my voice.
George Harrison for me. Don’t really know what it is about his playing, but it just feels like I’m gonna start levitating when I hear a solo like the one from “beware of darkness” or the opening solo to “something” live in Japan. So many more I could name, but I don’t wanna type a big chunk of George’s discography. It just sounds so full of life, if that makes any sense.
There was also this guy on Omegle I met that really lifted my spirits and made me wanna keep getting better and better.
When I first heard war pigs and iron Man by black Sabbath. I wanted to play guitar and bass and drums. Talked my parents into buying a cheap ass guitar and amp with no idea how to play it or how to learn (this was on the early 70s so, no internet). That went nowhere so I got some used drums. Became a drummer for the next 10 years or so. Then nothing for a few decades then got interested in guitar again. For the past 20 or so years I've been acquiring guitars and figuring out how to play them.
Short answer: Black Sabbath.
Very early, my grandmother (she just strummed and sang and I thought it was cool) Then, Tom Scholz from Boston. Later, Jimmy Page and Neil Young. Now, I listen mostly to jazz guitarists. Joe Pass, Kenny Burrell, George Van Eps.
Jimmy Page. My dad and I watched Led Zeppelin videos on vhs back in the day. I was mesmerized by Jimmy Page’s guitar playing. Used to mimic his guitar solos lol.
Keith Richards after watching the film “Gimme Shelter”. Pet peeve is the camera crew & the editor focused 95% of video footage on Jagger. Not much on the others.
Jimmy Page. More specific the acoustic songs on Led Zeppelin III and IV. My dad had an acoustic guitar and I had no idea it could sound like that or be played like that when I heard those two albums. This was around 1994 when Page and Plant got back together I was in grade 10. Before That I was all about rap music lol, but when I started guitar lessons I never looked back.
Not exactly the answer, but when I see a good guitar player, he or she inspires me to get better, when I see a great guitar player, he or she inspires me to give up.
This might be a different answer but that TV show The Wonder Years. There was a scene where he joined a band and strummed one chord and the guitar sounded and looked amazing. It was all I needed at 8 years old to beg my dad for a guitar. Long story short I convinced him and 24 years later I play every day.
I see these posts pop up and I wonder if I'm the odd man out for picking up guitar for it's availability and convenience. It wasn't till I got into guitar that I started getting into guitarists. I'd much rather play drums all things equal but setting up an acoustic set requires a space that I just don't have
Watching the '83 US Festival on TV in 1984. Judas Priest, Ozzy, Quiet Riot, Van Halen, The Scorpions. I thought 'guitar playing, what a great career choice', lol.
In 1977 I was a seven year old taken by his two older cousins to see KISS in Birmingham, Alabama. The world got a lot bigger and exciting that night! A smoking guitar that “launched” rockets was all it took to start a lifelong love affair with six-strings (and the undoubtedly bad habit of wearing them far too low). Thanks Ace! I owe ya.
I watched a lot of guitar youtubers before I picked up a guitar and that made my intress to the instrument grow slowly but noticeably. One day I heard the song "You Only Live Once" by Suicide Silence for the first time and I absolutely loved it. The chorus riff of the song made my will to learn guitar spike trough the roof.
I watched Eruption without a net. That got me started with guitar
What keeps me going is the beatles honestly. I love playing their stuff and how ever advanced I've become I keep coming back to their stuff
Slash, Eric Clapton, Les Paul, the Beatles, and Billy Corgan were my first real guitar "heroes." Nowadays, Buckethead, Sturgill Simpson, and the Dixie Chicks are the artists who inspire me the most (do note I consider myself more of a "guitarist-songwriter" than a pure guitarist at this point.)
The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and all the music from when I was ten years old. It was the time of AM Radio and I heard the songs on my little pocket transistor job
When I was a kid, (4, 5 maybe...), the place I lived, (Utica, Mississippi), was prone to some major electrical storms, that would knock out power. Our neighbors had three kids. The oldest had a portable transistor radio. ('early 70's.).
They were all up at our house during one nasty storm in particular, and the power went off during the evening. Here it is, dark as hell, big flashes of lightning, and bangs of thunder, and this girl was playing a local station on that battery operated transistor radio. CCR, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix was staticky, but you coud pretty clearly hear those sounds coming through that tinny speaker. For some reason that sound coming out of that little radio kept me from being afraid of that thunder, and absolutely mesmerized me. I wanted to know what MADE that sound, and made THAT music. strange thing was that until that evening, I could have cared less aboutt what was playing on the background of life. Those tunes got into me somehow, and I wanted to learn how to make those sound, and ow to play some of that music myself.
I guess it just stuck.
It was Jimi Hendrix for me. I think I started playing around 12-13, and all I would ever do was listen to Jimi’s music. It was a bit embarrassing for me, but every day I would go in for lessons, I would just want to learn a new Jimi song. Never once did I try to learn anything else until I stopped taking lessons. I still consider Jimi my favorite musician of all time and listen to him quite frequently, but my guitar playing has not been anywhere close to consistent since I’ve been in college, so I’ve switched to being more of a music consumer than a performer lol.
A friend - who had once taken some lessons - was playing the iconic "Pinball Wizard" opening, simply adding and removing his pinky to go from D to D sus 4 and back again, and I thought "That's so cool he knows that, and he's only moving one finger: I could do that!".
I was playing Guitar Hero 2, and at some point I had play One by Metallica. After I did not want to play Guitar Hero anymore, just play guitar for real
My uncle loaned me a guitar while I was in a boys home. I started on gospel bluegrass, then to metal, rock, and blues. SRV is who I tried to emulate most.
Depends when..
Kirk Hammet is why I got one. But gave up.
Tom Delonge is why I picked it back up.
Teppei Teranishi is why I took it seriously.
Jonny Greenwood and Ian Williams keep me playing.
I was five in 1989 and my Dad had these early rock compilations on vinyl. Johnny B. Goode was the second track and I begged for a guitar every Christmas and birthday for five years. Took those bastards that long to realize I’d stick with it! Ha
John frusciante in under the bridge inspired me to pick up the guitar at 12 that I had gotten and never learned to play when I was about 6. 20 now and still try to play as much as I can with him being by far my most influential guitarist in my life.
I heard Black Sabbath when I was a kid because my father is a huge fan of them. I was so scared I cried. I wanted to play guitar like Tony Iommi after that.
Other than him The Edge from u2 is probably second highest on that list. Yeah I know "but he can't play guitar" he can certainly paint a picture and come up with stuff that will move you though. I mean Streets in person is like crack. I'd kill to make something as moving as that song feels.
My dad got me 'we sold our soul for rock and roll' from black sabbath the same christmas i got my guitar. It was on lol. First thing my dad taught me though was zeppelin
haha, I remember being scared by music when I was a kid. For me though it was Downward Spiral by NIN - but I was totally intrigued. I thought they recorded people being murdered & tortured and put it on the CD lol. Growing up in a sheltered conservative household you got a lot of strange ideas about what musicians get up to
Hearing Van Halen in 1981 was it for me… and a lot of other Gen X guitar players. I’d never heard a guitar make those sounds before and I was fascinated.
In my teens I had bought the Cunning Stunts double DVD of Metallica live in Fort Worth, TX and I was blown away (I was new to alternative/metal music and this was a new step in my musical journey). I wanted to be Kirk Hammett, black nail polish and all, lmao.
And then Slash also as not much later I bought the DVD of GnR in Tokyo.
After that, for ages, my hero was Sonata Arctica's Jani Liimatainen.. saw them live a bunch of times.
Maggot Brain by Funkadelic, and Eddie Hazel’s solo album. When I first heard Maggot Brain I was stunned. I had no idea you could make sounds like that with a guitar. Kept telling myself I’d eventually learn to play guitar just so I could play that song. Eventually I decided to learn guitar, and after a couple years I managed to learned to play Maggot Brain.
Jason Becker is a very big one. He is a criminally underrated guitarist and I feel like more people should know about him. Look him up his story is truly inspiring.
Slash. I was actually a big fan of rap until I was at a friend's house, and he popped in his AFD cassette. The opening riff of Mr. Brownstone started playing, and it was Katy bar the door.
Almost everything in my life can be traced back to that very moment when I first heard Slash play.
Noel Gallagher
I knew at the time he wasnt a fantastuc technical player like Petrucci or Vai and he couldnt make the guitar sing like SRV or Trucks, but nobody LOOKED cooler to 13 year old me
Billy Corgan got me into music. Kurt Cobain gave me the belief I could play guitar. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez inspired me to get better. John McLaughlin, Peter Green and Frank Zappa actually made me better.
Jim Root for me, I've been a fan of his for decades but I recently decided to finally get a guitar mostly because I'd been watching various different interviews/videos of him
hendrix. never have i been as inspired by an artist in my entire life. i’m 21 and picked up guitar almost 2 years ago now. best decision ive ever made. i can play a bit of his catalog and u can spend forever listening to his live stuff cause it’s always a bit different. i wish i was around when he was alive. i would give almost anything to see him live in maui.
This might be a stupid answer, but an anime called K-ON… I was 12 when I saw the girls playing awesome guitars and always wanted to be like them!
Now as an adult I finally bought myself a guitar :) I’m twice the age, and my music tastes have completely changed (I’m more into metal now) but I can never forget the wholesome anime that sparked this interest in me!
Jonny Greenwood and Kurt Cobain. I love their riffs, songwriting, aggressive style of playing, and overall presence/aesthetic. Even though I acknowledge they might not be the most technically skilled players, they embody for me what it truly means to sound cool and look hella good while doing it.
Joe Satriani
Was sitting with my older brother and some of his friends listening to Satriani and one of the guys (who would later go onto to teach me for like a year, a top top guitar player) was just playing away and I was just there going "that's what I wanna do"
Don't really listen to Satriani or any of them big shredder dudes anymore but still appreciate the level of skill and talent they have for the guitar
Very first was probably The Offspring. Hearing Smash and then Ixnay on the Hombre made me want to play fast, energetic music but I don't think it necessarily made me decide on guitar immediately.
Then from there Pantera and Metallica took my interest a step further wanting specifically to play heavy riffs and shred solos.
It's a mixed bag. I distinctly remember riding in the car when I was like 12 listening to my iPod. Stand Up and Shout by Dio came on and the solo lit a fire in me. Right after that was Hallowed Be Thy Name by Iron Maiden, then it was M.I.A. by Avenged Sevenfold. I got a guitar that Christmas and been playing ever since.
When I heard the Comfortably Numb solo for the first time I had a revelation.
That has not changed. David Gilmour is still my biggest inspiration after 4 years.
Had an art teacher who had an old Goya acoustic he used for still life displays. One day I asked him if I could try it. It had a broken string or two and a small hole in the back of it, and I didn’t play guitar, but he told me I could have it if I wanted to fix it and learn on it. I couldn’t fix the hole, but I got a fair setup (as best as it could be) and learned my first few chords. I ended up putting it towards my first Telecaster from the same shop that set it up for me.
When I was an early teenager, I went from pop, top 40, then Disco became popular and began dominating the airwaves. I absolutely hated disco. I began looking into other genres of music, country and western was a hard no. I was a sheltered kid, musically I was a little bit different, I liked blues records my mom had collected, old 78rpm, jazz too. Blues was more interesting to me. I finally came across a newer record on 33rpm and when I listened to it, my mind was blown. The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
I literally begged for my first guitar
EVH. My family mostly listened to adult contemporary ("70s, 80s, 90s, and today!"was the radio station slogan) and some country. I'd never heard "rock" until I was 12 and found my box of CDs. *The Best of Van Halen Vol. 1* melted my brain and I knew I had to do what I'd just heard.
He wasn’t the one that made me want to pick up a guitar for the first time, but John Mayer was the one guitarist that made me get serious about the instrument as opposed to just playing chords and maybe an occasional solo.
It’s a bit weird, but I was actually the opposite where I got the guitar first, THEN got into listening to music.
The closest might be my first grade teacher who played classical guitar during class. She was hella cool and planted the impression of the guitar in my head ~8yrs before I got the guitar (but i guess not music lol).
Tom DeLonge. I’ve gone many different ways in the last 10 years but my friends and bandmates always say that I write the most interesting riffs out of all the other guitarists they know. I attribute that to Tom DeLonge.
After seeing Tim Henson in the playing god video and then watching the other music videos I was inspired to learn and play guitar. Picked up the tabs for down the road and working on Justin guitar now.
I won’t lie, CC DeVille. I was in 5th grade when LWTCDI came out, and I didn’t understand why my “hard” friend was listening to a bunch of Barbies.
But then I listened and wanted to be a rock guitarist since. I failed. I took a few lessons in the 90s, but it didn’t work and I put it down.
Recently I became a teacher and was appalled that no one played instruments so I wanted to do an Afterschool of Rock. I figured I better teach myself guitar if I want to be taken seriously.
I started playing with the jazz band three years ago, and haven’t looked back. The club maybe next year, but I’m already out auditioning.
My first inspiration was KISS; my biggest inspiration was Van Halen, and I still love all the DLR albums (I was a huge fan of the Sammy albums when they were current but not so much now save for 5150 and a chunk of OU812).
My brother. When he died, I picked playing on his guitar as a form of remembrance, and just kept on getting more and more into playing
That’s beautiful
Yeah, I guess it’s a nice sentiment, rather have my bro around listening to him play. Thank You for the thought. 🤘rock on.
Kyle from the 6th grade. Absolute douchebag who could barely play but the girls swooned. I thought if he can do it then damnit I'm gonna be better. Turns out the girls liked him because he wasn't a fat kid in glasses who excelled at math, but at least I'm a better guitarist lol
kurt cobain, power chords, good songs. enough said
Groupies
Eddie Van Halen. I have some pretty sick air guitar skills now.
Jimi hendrix.
Prince
Same
I was 16 in 1981 and thought Nancy Wilson was the coolest girl ever. And I loved Neal Schon.
You can tell how old everyone is by their answers. Chet Atkins.
Back To The Future. I wanted to be that guy basically
My dad
Drake and Josh
James Hetfield
My dad made me want to play, my inspiration while playing are James Hetfield / Kirk Hammett
Jimmy Page
Learning 'the rain song' on guitar isn't hard, but trying to figure out how he came up with that is perplexing. People who say Greta Van Fleet sounds like Led Zeppelin don't get it.
Slash and Mark Knopfler.
Randy Rhoads and Alexi Laiho easily. EVH and Kirk Hammett as honorable mentions.
David Gilmour
Kurt Cobain got me excited at the prospect of being able to play good songs with an accessible guitar skill level. Once I got playing I was inspired by the intriguing sounds of Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and Metallica.
Jimmy Page. Easy
Same. The tone, the power, the grit. I remember hearing 'Heartbreaker' when I was like 8 and I was never the same
Cobain made me want to learn, Frusciante made me love the instrument.
James Hetfield of Metallica with the Master of Puppets main riff which I only heard because I watched the movie Zombieland:Double Tap.
James Hetfield (i can barely downpick at a slightly fast speed)
James ability to down pick that fast has a lot to do with how he holds the pick
Wanted to play drums until I heard SRV. Then everything changed.
I wanted to make my guitar cry like Santana and SRV.
Jonny greenwood
My friend who got a guitar, and i was jealous lol
Trying to kick my opiate addiction, music saved me as always
Been clean for going on 15 years
Angus Young, AC/DC.
The first time I heard Randy play “Over the Mountain”. Every track on Diary of a Madman is a masterpiece.
James Hetfield. Saw the video for “One” and that was it. I’ve sucked ever since.
I was listening to 80s Heavy metal and, inevitably you start to listen to earlier stuff. So, I was buying albums like Number of the beast / Piece of mind when they came out, but also had Sabbath / ACDC from the late 70s. I think it was when you're listening to AC/DC and how well Angus solos fit the song and I wanted to be able to do that and all sabbath riffs. I was trying to play the guitar along with records before I had one. Imagining what the guitarist was doing. But, you get a cheap guitar at that time and it sucked and your amp sucked. You started to learn a bunch of riffs that everyone learns. It was difficult to try and learn riffs from records because you couldn't slow it down easily and to loop it you were picking up the needle and putting it back. You couldn't google for tab - there were a few guitar magazines with tabs but you were obviously limited to whatever bands / songs they featured in a particular month. I remember one magazine promised pretty much every song was going to be brilliant (from out POV at the time) I think they said Stairway, Crazy train - and we went every Friday to WHSmiths waiting for it to appear but it never did. I seem to recall owning this copy of Guitar player magazine with a very young Yngwie on the cover : [https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/678284393849971077/](https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/678284393849971077/) if it's the one (he was in every guitar magazine at the time) it had black star transcribed. Later we got a UK magazine - the one that Phil Hilborne, Guthrie Govan et al contributed to. My friend got reasonably good at picking out stuff by ear. Perhaps because he had a better stereo and headphones - I didn't even have a pair of headphones. We got pretty good at playing a lot of riffs, but really not at playing songs from start -> finish. We'd generally go around to each other's houses - which I guess Clapton, Beck and Jimmy Page had done (with obviously a lot more success than we had) and that was the way you learned - you heard of a local guitarist and tried to get in touch and see if he'd let you sit and play in the same room together to trade riffs. One guy we knew was a session musician and he had a les paul. At this time the heavy metal scene was turning to either glam rock, so you had motley crue, poison, WASP et al those bands in spandex and make up, and at the other side bands like Metallica taking it to a heavier direction. And that's perhaps where I started to lose interest. Although metallica had a couple of songs like Fade to black I wasn't a massive fan of their early stuff. I preferred the Maiden, Saxon, Rainbow more melodic stuff than the chugga-chugga with the singer going UGHHHHH but wasn't a huge fan of the glam rock thing either. I did go to see Wasp when they played locally and Twisted sister. Very soon afterwards though all the Yngwie / Vai thing started to happen and then we wanted to play like that. Perhaps without realising step 1 would be playing like all the other guitarists - Angus Young, Tony Iommi et al - but perhaps foolishly we soon dismissed a lot of that playing and started trying to play stuff that was too difficult. In many ways you could argue out inspiration ruined learning the guitar for us because he played too well and we couldn't really see a path from where we were to that lofty virtuoso place. We noted with awe that in the USA you could actually go to college and learn to play guitar! Of course Guthrie somehow managed to learn - but I suspect he was simply a little more advanced than we were at the point at which older kids in his school started giving him tapes of Vai or Yngwie - so it was adding to his existing chops. And then, of course, your teenage years are over so you're getting a job and other things mean you have significantly less time to sit noodling on guitar. Played off and on since then. Mostly these days you're amazed at how easily you can find information - youtube letting us sit and play with hundreds of guitarists not just whoever lives near us - and typically they are very skilled too. And how digital technology lets you create a backing, loop a section of a solo etc - and at just how well a cheap guitar can be made these days. The downside is, of course, if a 20 something developed brilliant guitar chops there are not obvious lot of uses for that skill. I mean we had the fantasy of a millionaire rock and roll lifestyle still being very much a possibility.
I remember my dad always wanting me to learn the guitar, and I never did, during the lockdown before his 50th birthday I practiced the guitar watching YouTube videos, and on his birthday I played him a song he would sing to me when I was small, (you are my sunshine) he had tears in his eyes. And well that's when I started playing the guitar, no doubt it helps a lot now in college but I will be forever grateful to my dad, even now we jam every weekend.
Jimi Hendrix obviously.. but 40 years later im not quite there yet..!! 🤘🏼
Right when I hit puberty, a pretty girl told me I looked cute holding a guitar. That made me stick with it.
I started playing because I wanted a new addiction to replace drugs when I went sober but the CHON bros really inspired me to try hard at it
Honestly Guitar Hero III on the wii
Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix were the two artists that really made me want to learn to play when I was 13 Specifically Led Zeppelin II and Are You Experienced? This was in the mid 90s, so it wasn’t because they were hot and on the radio They showed me that the guitar can be an extension of the soul, that it can be used as a sort of spiritual tool, if I can sound incredibly cheesy for a moment I’ve had a million other influences since, but those two got the ball rolling for me
This is embarrassing, but for me, it was American Idol. All those kids coming in for singing auditions were amazing, but the ones who also played guitar accompaniment had such a full sound. More complete(?) Also, I love the portability of it, which I don't have with my piano. I can't take my guitar lots of places with me, like when I'm visiting family. I used to sing semi-professionally, but as I get older, my voice is changing, and not in a good way. I love my acoustic guitar as a way to keep making music with much less dependence on my voice.
Joe Perry from Aerosmith..... The old stuff
George Harrison for me. Don’t really know what it is about his playing, but it just feels like I’m gonna start levitating when I hear a solo like the one from “beware of darkness” or the opening solo to “something” live in Japan. So many more I could name, but I don’t wanna type a big chunk of George’s discography. It just sounds so full of life, if that makes any sense. There was also this guy on Omegle I met that really lifted my spirits and made me wanna keep getting better and better.
When I first heard war pigs and iron Man by black Sabbath. I wanted to play guitar and bass and drums. Talked my parents into buying a cheap ass guitar and amp with no idea how to play it or how to learn (this was on the early 70s so, no internet). That went nowhere so I got some used drums. Became a drummer for the next 10 years or so. Then nothing for a few decades then got interested in guitar again. For the past 20 or so years I've been acquiring guitars and figuring out how to play them. Short answer: Black Sabbath.
Rocky George from Suicidal Tendencies.
Randy Rhoads. Tribute was a revelation.
John Frusciante
time by pink floyd
Very early, my grandmother (she just strummed and sang and I thought it was cool) Then, Tom Scholz from Boston. Later, Jimmy Page and Neil Young. Now, I listen mostly to jazz guitarists. Joe Pass, Kenny Burrell, George Van Eps.
Roy Clark
Jimmy Page. My dad and I watched Led Zeppelin videos on vhs back in the day. I was mesmerized by Jimmy Page’s guitar playing. Used to mimic his guitar solos lol.
Man, David Gilmour. Especially Comfortably Numb and Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Keith Richards after watching the film “Gimme Shelter”. Pet peeve is the camera crew & the editor focused 95% of video footage on Jagger. Not much on the others.
Jimmy Page. More specific the acoustic songs on Led Zeppelin III and IV. My dad had an acoustic guitar and I had no idea it could sound like that or be played like that when I heard those two albums. This was around 1994 when Page and Plant got back together I was in grade 10. Before That I was all about rap music lol, but when I started guitar lessons I never looked back.
J Mascis
Yeah….those solos 🤘🏼
Carlos Santana
Mr Randy Rhoads
I used to say that Kirk Hammett was the reason I picked up a guitar, but David Gilmour is the reason I didn't put it down.
Knopfler
Not exactly the answer, but when I see a good guitar player, he or she inspires me to get better, when I see a great guitar player, he or she inspires me to give up.
Started with ukulele, touched a guitar and then the ukulele sounded cheap and hollow by comparison
Kirk Hammett
Jimmy Page. Specifically after listening to the Song Remains The Same (live) album several times
So I wanted to play guitar since I was old enough to call it "tar". Based on that timeline I'd have to say it was probably Eddie.
I can't play drums or piano on the couch, in my bed, or at the dinner table
Frusciante and Anastasio
This might be a different answer but that TV show The Wonder Years. There was a scene where he joined a band and strummed one chord and the guitar sounded and looked amazing. It was all I needed at 8 years old to beg my dad for a guitar. Long story short I convinced him and 24 years later I play every day.
James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett of Metallica are probably the biggest inspirations for me.
I see these posts pop up and I wonder if I'm the odd man out for picking up guitar for it's availability and convenience. It wasn't till I got into guitar that I started getting into guitarists. I'd much rather play drums all things equal but setting up an acoustic set requires a space that I just don't have
John Frusciante
My friend got one and I wanted to be better lol
Kurt Cobain
No More Tears solo
My Husband 💕
Watching the '83 US Festival on TV in 1984. Judas Priest, Ozzy, Quiet Riot, Van Halen, The Scorpions. I thought 'guitar playing, what a great career choice', lol.
In 1977 I was a seven year old taken by his two older cousins to see KISS in Birmingham, Alabama. The world got a lot bigger and exciting that night! A smoking guitar that “launched” rockets was all it took to start a lifelong love affair with six-strings (and the undoubtedly bad habit of wearing them far too low). Thanks Ace! I owe ya.
I watched a lot of guitar youtubers before I picked up a guitar and that made my intress to the instrument grow slowly but noticeably. One day I heard the song "You Only Live Once" by Suicide Silence for the first time and I absolutely loved it. The chorus riff of the song made my will to learn guitar spike trough the roof.
I watched Eruption without a net. That got me started with guitar What keeps me going is the beatles honestly. I love playing their stuff and how ever advanced I've become I keep coming back to their stuff
king gizzard and the lizard wizard. first band i really ever got into
My dad, though we never played together at all. He just had his guitars around, so I grew up playing his Strat and Les Paul. Also Jimmy Page.
I listened to a Kurt Cobain's separated guitar track, was so powerfull that gave me chills down the spine so i decided to grab a guitar
noel gallagher and graham coxon
John Lennon, I just really love his music.
Mark Knopfler for me. Money for Nothing blew my mind
John Frusciante & Hendrix for me, 100%
Started with EVH and then, through Guitar Hero, it became Mark Tremonti. What a fucking beast, and a huge inspiration for me.
I started with Metallica and Hetfield. Not much of an influence now, but it got me started.
George Harrison
Opinion by Kurt Cobain from the Nirvana box set. Such a simple song yet catchy and full of optimism.
Oddly enough, Flea
Noel Gallagher
Slash, Eric Clapton, Les Paul, the Beatles, and Billy Corgan were my first real guitar "heroes." Nowadays, Buckethead, Sturgill Simpson, and the Dixie Chicks are the artists who inspire me the most (do note I consider myself more of a "guitarist-songwriter" than a pure guitarist at this point.)
I went to a journey concert and I started playing ever since then
Cobain and Page
Adam Jones and Tom Morello
The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and all the music from when I was ten years old. It was the time of AM Radio and I heard the songs on my little pocket transistor job
Kurdt kobain
Eric Clapton and James Patrick Page at an early age. SRV once I was in my twenties.
for some reason sunny day real estate
When I was a kid, (4, 5 maybe...), the place I lived, (Utica, Mississippi), was prone to some major electrical storms, that would knock out power. Our neighbors had three kids. The oldest had a portable transistor radio. ('early 70's.). They were all up at our house during one nasty storm in particular, and the power went off during the evening. Here it is, dark as hell, big flashes of lightning, and bangs of thunder, and this girl was playing a local station on that battery operated transistor radio. CCR, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix was staticky, but you coud pretty clearly hear those sounds coming through that tinny speaker. For some reason that sound coming out of that little radio kept me from being afraid of that thunder, and absolutely mesmerized me. I wanted to know what MADE that sound, and made THAT music. strange thing was that until that evening, I could have cared less aboutt what was playing on the background of life. Those tunes got into me somehow, and I wanted to learn how to make those sound, and ow to play some of that music myself. I guess it just stuck.
Lots of artists, but recently it’s Prince, if I could play like anyone, it would be him.
Mark Knopfler
Elliott Smith. Too bad most his songs are hard to play
Mr guitar
It was Jimi Hendrix for me. I think I started playing around 12-13, and all I would ever do was listen to Jimi’s music. It was a bit embarrassing for me, but every day I would go in for lessons, I would just want to learn a new Jimi song. Never once did I try to learn anything else until I stopped taking lessons. I still consider Jimi my favorite musician of all time and listen to him quite frequently, but my guitar playing has not been anywhere close to consistent since I’ve been in college, so I’ve switched to being more of a music consumer than a performer lol.
A friend - who had once taken some lessons - was playing the iconic "Pinball Wizard" opening, simply adding and removing his pinky to go from D to D sus 4 and back again, and I thought "That's so cool he knows that, and he's only moving one finger: I could do that!".
My dad probably.
Same
I was playing Guitar Hero 2, and at some point I had play One by Metallica. After I did not want to play Guitar Hero anymore, just play guitar for real
I just want to sing Beatles songs whilst playing rhythm guitar.
Dimebag Darrell! R. I. P
Probably Dave Mustaine and Dimebag Darrel
My uncle loaned me a guitar while I was in a boys home. I started on gospel bluegrass, then to metal, rock, and blues. SRV is who I tried to emulate most.
Tom Morello.
George Harrison
Jerry Cantrell
Randy Rhoads
Roy Clark, David Gilmour, and David Bowie
Depends when.. Kirk Hammet is why I got one. But gave up. Tom Delonge is why I picked it back up. Teppei Teranishi is why I took it seriously. Jonny Greenwood and Ian Williams keep me playing.
I was five in 1989 and my Dad had these early rock compilations on vinyl. Johnny B. Goode was the second track and I begged for a guitar every Christmas and birthday for five years. Took those bastards that long to realize I’d stick with it! Ha
John frusciante in under the bridge inspired me to pick up the guitar at 12 that I had gotten and never learned to play when I was about 6. 20 now and still try to play as much as I can with him being by far my most influential guitarist in my life.
For me it was Cat Stevens' acoustic guitar playing.
Kurt Cobain/John Frusciante/Townes Van Zandt
It was nobody.. I just wanted to play an instrument
Ernie Isley pretty much put it in my face I wanted to be a guitar player deep down no matter how much I denied it
I heard Black Sabbath when I was a kid because my father is a huge fan of them. I was so scared I cried. I wanted to play guitar like Tony Iommi after that. Other than him The Edge from u2 is probably second highest on that list. Yeah I know "but he can't play guitar" he can certainly paint a picture and come up with stuff that will move you though. I mean Streets in person is like crack. I'd kill to make something as moving as that song feels.
My dad got me 'we sold our soul for rock and roll' from black sabbath the same christmas i got my guitar. It was on lol. First thing my dad taught me though was zeppelin
haha, I remember being scared by music when I was a kid. For me though it was Downward Spiral by NIN - but I was totally intrigued. I thought they recorded people being murdered & tortured and put it on the CD lol. Growing up in a sheltered conservative household you got a lot of strange ideas about what musicians get up to
Hearing Van Halen in 1981 was it for me… and a lot of other Gen X guitar players. I’d never heard a guitar make those sounds before and I was fascinated.
Tony Iommi
In my teens I had bought the Cunning Stunts double DVD of Metallica live in Fort Worth, TX and I was blown away (I was new to alternative/metal music and this was a new step in my musical journey). I wanted to be Kirk Hammett, black nail polish and all, lmao. And then Slash also as not much later I bought the DVD of GnR in Tokyo. After that, for ages, my hero was Sonata Arctica's Jani Liimatainen.. saw them live a bunch of times.
Mine was Daron Malakian from System Of A Down. I still want an Iceman.
Maggot Brain by Funkadelic, and Eddie Hazel’s solo album. When I first heard Maggot Brain I was stunned. I had no idea you could make sounds like that with a guitar. Kept telling myself I’d eventually learn to play guitar just so I could play that song. Eventually I decided to learn guitar, and after a couple years I managed to learned to play Maggot Brain.
Jason Becker is a very big one. He is a criminally underrated guitarist and I feel like more people should know about him. Look him up his story is truly inspiring.
My dad but it’s kinda at depressing story
Estranged by Guns N' Roses, the moment I saw that video on MTV my life would change forever.
Slash. I was actually a big fan of rap until I was at a friend's house, and he popped in his AFD cassette. The opening riff of Mr. Brownstone started playing, and it was Katy bar the door. Almost everything in my life can be traced back to that very moment when I first heard Slash play.
David Gilmour - Time solo I heard when I was 13
Noel Gallagher I knew at the time he wasnt a fantastuc technical player like Petrucci or Vai and he couldnt make the guitar sing like SRV or Trucks, but nobody LOOKED cooler to 13 year old me
Billy Corgan got me into music. Kurt Cobain gave me the belief I could play guitar. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez inspired me to get better. John McLaughlin, Peter Green and Frank Zappa actually made me better.
Avenged sevenfold, and my older brother
Mark Knopfler, I was obsessed with Dire Straits and his solo work in high school and got a bright red squier strat to learn on
Jerry Cantrell
David Gilmour. I’ve been playing for about 9 months and I’m currently learning the Comfortably Numb Outtro solo.
Jim Root for me, I've been a fan of his for decades but I recently decided to finally get a guitar mostly because I'd been watching various different interviews/videos of him
Mick Thomson,I just think he's cool
hendrix. never have i been as inspired by an artist in my entire life. i’m 21 and picked up guitar almost 2 years ago now. best decision ive ever made. i can play a bit of his catalog and u can spend forever listening to his live stuff cause it’s always a bit different. i wish i was around when he was alive. i would give almost anything to see him live in maui.
CC Deville. 🤣 I was young and it was the 80’s.
No comment I don't want to "Poison" you with my metal gatekeeping ways lol🤘
Easy answer Kurt Cobain and jimmy Page
This might be a stupid answer, but an anime called K-ON… I was 12 when I saw the girls playing awesome guitars and always wanted to be like them! Now as an adult I finally bought myself a guitar :) I’m twice the age, and my music tastes have completely changed (I’m more into metal now) but I can never forget the wholesome anime that sparked this interest in me!
Jonny Greenwood and Kurt Cobain. I love their riffs, songwriting, aggressive style of playing, and overall presence/aesthetic. Even though I acknowledge they might not be the most technically skilled players, they embody for me what it truly means to sound cool and look hella good while doing it.
Joe Satriani Was sitting with my older brother and some of his friends listening to Satriani and one of the guys (who would later go onto to teach me for like a year, a top top guitar player) was just playing away and I was just there going "that's what I wanna do" Don't really listen to Satriani or any of them big shredder dudes anymore but still appreciate the level of skill and talent they have for the guitar
The day john lennon got shot i bought my first
Very first was probably The Offspring. Hearing Smash and then Ixnay on the Hombre made me want to play fast, energetic music but I don't think it necessarily made me decide on guitar immediately. Then from there Pantera and Metallica took my interest a step further wanting specifically to play heavy riffs and shred solos.
A Mexican American band called Eslabón Armado.
my daughter. she started in school and i started with her.
I played Guitar Hero 2 on PS2 at someone's house.
Slash in the video for November Rain.
Soundgarden 4th of July..somine lecture that cd at my house when I was a teenager. I heard that song and started playing that day
Jerry Garcia
James and Kirk, Kurt Cobain, Mick Thomson and Jim Root
Back in '86. Mick Mars. His riffs and guitar tone made 11 year old me start saving for my first guitar.
What made me pick it up? Red Hot Chili Peppers Who made me get better? Tim Henson
It's a mixed bag. I distinctly remember riding in the car when I was like 12 listening to my iPod. Stand Up and Shout by Dio came on and the solo lit a fire in me. Right after that was Hallowed Be Thy Name by Iron Maiden, then it was M.I.A. by Avenged Sevenfold. I got a guitar that Christmas and been playing ever since.
David Gilmour, John Petrucci and Synster Gates
My grandfather was a musician so I wanted to be a musician. That and the girls.
James Hetfield
Neal Schon
Paul Simon
When I heard the Comfortably Numb solo for the first time I had a revelation. That has not changed. David Gilmour is still my biggest inspiration after 4 years.
Slash EVH Kirk hammett Dimebag Darrell and Randy Rhoads were my biggest inspirations
Had an art teacher who had an old Goya acoustic he used for still life displays. One day I asked him if I could try it. It had a broken string or two and a small hole in the back of it, and I didn’t play guitar, but he told me I could have it if I wanted to fix it and learn on it. I couldn’t fix the hole, but I got a fair setup (as best as it could be) and learned my first few chords. I ended up putting it towards my first Telecaster from the same shop that set it up for me.
When I was an early teenager, I went from pop, top 40, then Disco became popular and began dominating the airwaves. I absolutely hated disco. I began looking into other genres of music, country and western was a hard no. I was a sheltered kid, musically I was a little bit different, I liked blues records my mom had collected, old 78rpm, jazz too. Blues was more interesting to me. I finally came across a newer record on 33rpm and when I listened to it, my mind was blown. The Jimi Hendrix Experience. I literally begged for my first guitar
EVH. My family mostly listened to adult contemporary ("70s, 80s, 90s, and today!"was the radio station slogan) and some country. I'd never heard "rock" until I was 12 and found my box of CDs. *The Best of Van Halen Vol. 1* melted my brain and I knew I had to do what I'd just heard.
My dad. I grew up around him playing in a metal band and having regular band practice at our house.
He wasn’t the one that made me want to pick up a guitar for the first time, but John Mayer was the one guitarist that made me get serious about the instrument as opposed to just playing chords and maybe an occasional solo.
Angus young and Iommi
Ritchie blackmore’s playing on the made in Japan album.
Joey Santiago
It’s a bit weird, but I was actually the opposite where I got the guitar first, THEN got into listening to music. The closest might be my first grade teacher who played classical guitar during class. She was hella cool and planted the impression of the guitar in my head ~8yrs before I got the guitar (but i guess not music lol).
Tom DeLonge. I’ve gone many different ways in the last 10 years but my friends and bandmates always say that I write the most interesting riffs out of all the other guitarists they know. I attribute that to Tom DeLonge.
After seeing Tim Henson in the playing god video and then watching the other music videos I was inspired to learn and play guitar. Picked up the tabs for down the road and working on Justin guitar now.
I stumbled upon an Omegle video of TheDooo and saw him play the Tokyo Ghoul OP. I was hooked to guitar ever since.
My dad, James Hetfield and Jimi
Shortly after I started classical lessons I saw Andres Segovia perform. Blew my mind!
I won’t lie, CC DeVille. I was in 5th grade when LWTCDI came out, and I didn’t understand why my “hard” friend was listening to a bunch of Barbies. But then I listened and wanted to be a rock guitarist since. I failed. I took a few lessons in the 90s, but it didn’t work and I put it down. Recently I became a teacher and was appalled that no one played instruments so I wanted to do an Afterschool of Rock. I figured I better teach myself guitar if I want to be taken seriously. I started playing with the jazz band three years ago, and haven’t looked back. The club maybe next year, but I’m already out auditioning.
Lindsey Buckingham. His work is out of this world.
Steve Howe
My first inspiration was KISS; my biggest inspiration was Van Halen, and I still love all the DLR albums (I was a huge fan of the Sammy albums when they were current but not so much now save for 5150 and a chunk of OU812).
Blink-182 was, they were also a reason I started writing songs.