What Song Inspired You To Become A Guitarist?

General Music Discussion
#1

I’m going to go out on a limb here and bet that we have an awful lot of shred guitarists or wannabe shred guitarists in this forum, heh heh.

Things didn’t necessarily start out with you picking up the guitar to become the most technically proficient guitarist on the planet though, did they? Not right at first. So what I’d like to read about in this thread is what bands, what songs, and what solos really inspired you to want to learn how to play guitar. It’s interesting to compare what inspired us at first and see how close or how far it is from what motivates us now to keep trying to become better guitar players. You don’t even have to limit it to the music. If the thought of having tons of hot girls want you because you’d be a great guitar player, or if you thought that playing guitars the ticket to fame and fortune, you can write about that too! OK, I’ll go ahead and start this thing:

Heavy metal was the main type of music that inspired me to become a guitarist. I discovered heavy metal relatively late - between 13 and 14 years old. before that I just listened to mainstream rock music although there was one guitar solo there that was part of my inspiration to become a guitarist and that was the guitar solo by Neil Schon of Journey at the end of “Who’s Cryin’ Now.” It was so melodic and so cool that I just loved it!

Heavy metal was something I discovered one day when a friend of mine played 3 albums for me and after that nothing was ever the same anymore. The legendary 3 albums that really got me into heavy metal and got me thinking about becoming a guitarists were: Back in Black by AC/DC, Blizzard Of Ozz by Ozzy Osbourne and Randy Rhoads, and Diary Of A Madman by Ozzy Osbourne and Randy Rhoads too…

After getting more and more into heavy metal and finally getting a guitar, there were many discoveries that inspired and influenced me - way too many to list here. But, already, I liked the sound of a band that had a great singer with powerful melodies and a lead guitarist who could really play exciting, fast guitar solos. One of the albums that really had this was Holy Diver by Dio. At the time Vivian Campbell, was the lead and rhythm guitarist for Dio and I loved everything from his killer riffs like in “Don’t Talk To Strangers” which also had a blazing solo, and the incredible melody and lyrics of “Rainbow In The Dark” which also had an absolutely blazing guitar solo!

Judas Priest was another one of my favorite bands, especially their early stuff like Sad Wings Of Destiny! Victim Of Changes was THE ultimate heavy metal song for me with the awesome main riff, the tremendous vocals of Rob Halford, the dynamic range from very loud and heavy to very soft and dreamy and then back again, and a killer guitar solo.

Finally, the thing that made everything complete was when listening to a heavy metal radio show one night, maybe “Metal Shop”, That night I heard the most amazing melodic and blisteringly fast guitarist who was still very clean and had an excellent vibrato. The song was “Hiroshima Mon Amour” by Alcatrazz and the guitarist, of course, was Yngwie Malmsteen. Of all the guitarists that inspired me and influenced me, I would say that Yngwie Malmsteen was the one that drove me to try the hardest to become just as good at the guitar as I could possibly get!

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#2

For me, it was no specific song. I remember that that back in the days I loved the PC game “Quest for fame” based on Aerosmith songs among others… that game made me wanna play a real guitar as a teenager because I loved guitar music anyway.

I did not remember that, but my mom told me some years ago that I always wanted to learn guitar when I was a young kid, but could not because I was sick and had wounds all over my hands until the age of twelve.

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#3

IThe first very thing that made me fall in love with guitar was probably the solo and headbangin’ riff from Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” However, it was some time before I got around to actually picking up the instrument. I was a piano player first and foremost and ended up getting my degree in jazz piano. Somewhere in the middle I heard my first batch of heavy metal bands from a friend in high school and started growing my hair out and picked up my first guitar to start writing songs in a band. Keyboards were still my main instrument and I played them in my bands but in my heart of hearts I was always a guitar guy.

Blind Guardian. They had me from the first power chord.

Iced Earth. The riff at 1:00 was a big one for me.

And then I heard this song by these assholes. Completely floored me as a 15-year-old, I remember gaping at my discman as a walked to class thinking “is this even allowed?!” to myself.

As a fan of heavy music but also film scores and classical, these bands were like my Metallica, Maiden and my Priest. Jari from Ensiferum/Wintersun was my Malmsteen. Dio is still my Dio. :slight_smile: I still find myself mimicking Vivian Campbell melodies without thinking.

When I got heavily into bands like Fates Warning, Queensryche, Solstice and Bathory I decided to pick up playing guitar in my own band. Nowadays I find more influence from 70’s hard rock, 80’s metal and the golden ages of jazz fusion than the slick European metal that was the “cutting edge” in my early days.

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#4

It’s great to see another power metal fan here, @element0s! The first time I started to care about music was when somebody in high school introduced me to Nightwish and Van Canto (kind of ironic considering that they don’t actually use any guitars). Until then, I wasn’t interested in music, but after hearing a few songs, I knew I didn’t just want to listen, but play that stuff as well.

It wasn’t any particular song or guitarist that got me into playing guitar, just the way I felt when listening to power metal, which is still my favorite genre and if I had to pick my top band, it would definitely be Blind Guardian.

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#5

The songs that finally pushed me over the edge to actively pursue playing guitar were “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by GnR and “One” by Metallica, but I had been listening to Van Halen and AC/DC a lot in the years before those songs came out. The '86 “live” music video for Van Halen’s “Best of Both Worlds” was also a biggie for me. Tracks from 1984 like Panama and Hot For Teacher were a big deal too.

My dad had actually played the Jimi Hendrix “Star Spangled Banner” for me off the Woodstock triple LP back when I was about 5, but at the time I only found it interesting as a novelty, and even when I listened to “Are You Experienced” years later as a teen, Hendrix never grabbed me by the balls, not even “Purple Haze”. Hendrix didn’t win me over until I heard some of the high profile tracks from Electric Ladyland; even if I had heard them on the radio or TV at a younger age, I hadn’t connected the dots.

But the cheesy, superficial thing that actually did set off my guitar spidey-sense for the first time was a 30 second commercial for a candy bar (clearly trying to sound like Van Halen I). Before I got my first Van Halen album, before I got my first AC/DC album, this commercial is the thing that made my young mind go: “Guitar. Fuck yeah.” (I don’t remember how much of a factor the girl might have been in that equation)

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#6

There was no song that was the inspiration for me to take up guitar. When I was 11 a friend mentioned he was taking guitar lessons via the schools music department and I thought that sounded interesting so I went along. He quit shortly after and I carried on because I liked the challenge. Music wise I was a child of 80’s rock and metal so I loved anything remotely heavy that came on the radio however I was more into the rhythm guitar parts rather than solos. That changed when I bought my first album which was a metal compilation on tape called Masters of Metal.

That introduced me to things like Ozzy’s “Bark at the Moon” but most importantly it had Gary Moore’s “Out in the Fields” and that solo was “the moment”. It was so fast and precise and the really cool part was the music video had a camera mounted to the head stock of his guitar.

I was 14 at the time, I’d never seen anything like this and it blew my mind. I only had a classical guitar and tried to work it out which is next to impossible given there’s only 12 frets before it meets the body. Somehow trying to play it mostly with legato didn’t sound quite right either and I couldn’t grasp the concept that he was picking most of the notes. Where was Troy Grady and the internet when you needed it!

Regardless that was the real “guitarist” beginning for me. From there it was Van Halen, Yngwie, Satch, Whitesnake, various thrash metal bands etc.

The next big thing to blow my mind came a few years later when a neighbour gave me a copy of Greg Howe’s debut album on vinyl…I’m so happy that there’s been a continual supply of guitarists that blow my mind!

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#7

I remember hearing the intro riff of “Was it all worth it” from Queen for the first time when I was 14 years old and until then I only had been exposed to popmusic, this was somewhere around 1990. The heaviness of that riff made such an impression on me that I started wondering if there was anything just as heavy (I couldn’t imagine something heavier).

I started asking around at school and a classmate handed me the Metallica album “Master of Puppets” on a cassette tape.

I was completely blown away by how heavy it was but at the same time catchy. I listened nonstop to the tape. I asked him for more tapes and he gave me Justice for All. Around that time the Black Album came out (I bought it on CD before I even had a CD player) and I saw footage from James Hetfield playing live.

I watched him playing on stage and I saw his right hand go up and down and his left hand not doing much, but at the same time I was hearing this wall of sound.

I thought to myself: hey, that doesn’t look to difficult and it sounds great, I can do that! Thank god I was so optimistic.

I started playing Master of Puppets (the song) on a classical guitar that had only three strings. Finally, my dad gave me the money for a guitar and amp and I started playing Metallica songs 4-8 hours per day. My neighbours hated me.

There were good tabs of the albums those days and I remember trying to play Kirk Hammett solos from day one, but I didn’t understand what a “bend” was or when to play up and downstrokes. That came later when I took lessons.

So yeah, it’s all Hetfield’s fault.

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#8

what? I would say that’s pretty early!!
I heard Master of Puppets in 89’ and I have never been the same. After 100 listens I started to think
"that would be great if I could do that". I remember looking at all of these thrash bands back in the day where most had 2 guitarists. A rhythm and a lead. It never even occurred to me that two guitarists could play the same thing at the same time. I thought it was way too complicated to match up all of those notes in unison, so I used to think that Hetfield did all the rhythm and then Kirk would stand off to the side of the stage and only come on stage when there was a solo! Hahahaa…

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#9

If I remember correctly, it was this song by a fantastic Italian band called “Elio e le Storie Tese”. They may be seen as a sort of Zappa-inspired band, they take the piss out of anyone/anything in the universe, both with their lyrics and with their musical references. Brilliant musicians as well!

PS: The main riff here is classic DWPS coolness!

Here they are jamming with Santana himself!

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#11

It was Ratts Round and Round music video. I saw it on MTV and was like wow that dude playing guitar is awesome. I want to play guitar to. Was a couple years later that I got enough money to get one but I used plenty of tennis rackets and brooms for air guitar in the meantime.

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#12

For me it was U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name.” I got the chills when I first heard it in 1987 (especially the intro crescendo - still do now!), and after hearing it I vowed to learn the instrument. “I must do that!”

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#13

A little unconventional and not really shreddy, but for me it was the music from Sonic Adventure, particularly “Open Your Heart” and the character select jingle.

I was probably 7 at the time, and had gotten an N64 the year before. I went to spend some time with my uncle and he had a big screen TV, a proper sound system, and this playing though it. Going from Super Mario 64 to this was…incredible. And try as I might I haven’t found anything else that sounds quite like this. Jun Senoue has some beautifully smooth playing.

A while after that someone made me an “Intro to Metal and Punk” mix tape with Black Sabbath, Armageddon, UFO, Iron Maiden, Metallica (Kill 'Em All), Megadeth (Rust in Peace), Testament, Sepultura, The Sex Pistols, and X-Ray Specs. Possibly also Siouxsie Sioux, can’t remember.

Guitar Hero 2 was the final nudge, but at that point I didn’t have enough time to play or enough money for equipment, so I waited through high school and college, saved up, and bought my first electric.

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#14

Great thread this, some interesting selections.

For me, being a teenager in the UK in the 1990s, my first real inspiration was from bands like Blur, Oasis, Ride, The Stone Roses.

In particular the Oasis album What’s The Story inspired me and influenced my playing a lot early on.

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#15

Oh yeah dude, I completely skipped over the large portion of my youth spent listening exclusively to music from the Mega Man and Mega Man X games before getting into actual bands.

I’m listening to this stuff for the first time in what feel like a decade and holy shit, now I know where I stole literally all of my ideas from.

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#16

Odd man out here, but while I grew up in a household where I was constantly exposed to the sound of the guitar, and my dad’s Stones albums, the Howlin’ Wolf London Sessions, and Jimi Playing “Voodoo Child (slight return)” were things that made me think the guitar was cool…

…it wasn’t until seeing a live video of Kurt Cobain playing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” that it was something that I actually wanted to go out and do myself. Something about him standing there, screaming his ass off, motionless in front of a giant wall of speakers, and this huge wave of sound washing over him really struck me, and suddenly it was something that I really wanted to do.

From there, it was only a short matter of time before I was picking up my dad’s old Gibson acoustic and trying to teach myself a few chords and learn some of the songs off “Unplugged” (I think the first was probably “About a Girl,” but “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” was the one that really drove me to learn).

Since then I learned mere mortals could actually play Jimi, discovered SRV, and then went off the deep end with Satriani, Andy Timmons, Petrucci, and a few others, but at the end of the day it was Kurt Cobain that made me want to actually go out and do it. :smile:

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#17

For me it was Goofy Goober Rock, which is used at the end of The Spongebob Square Pants movie; https://youtu.be/VeNxh5t5dHg?t=2m38s. It’s basically a cover of Twisted Sister’s “I Wanna Rock” but with an extended solo. I was completely obsessed with it as a kid. Still one of my favourite hard rock solos.

Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing” was also a pretty big inspiration for me.

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#18

Come As You Are/Smells Like Teen Spirit. Almost exactly 20 years ago as well.

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#19

Always happy to run into another guy who plays shred these days, but first picked up the guitar thanks to Kurt. And I say that as a guy with too many friends a couple years older than me who blame Nirvana for killing off 80s metal. :smile:

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#20

hah well not to diminish your happiness, but I don’t really play shred stuff much. Still appreciate Nirvana!

#21

Oh well, haha. You gotta play a little, if you ended up here! Still cool though.