Who are your biggest musical influences?

Of course, a persons "age" has a huge influence on this. Clapton is a good example. Many younger guitar players hear him and go, eh, . Meanwhile if you grew up with albums like fresh cream and Disraeli Gears you would surely have a different opinion of Clapton. But I digress.
I am alone in my biggest influences-Ry Cooder and Jeff Golub. Then the usual's like Hendrix, SRV and BB King..............Eric Johnson is a hero for sure!
 
My first influence was actually not a guitar player... it was Elton John. I used to try to learn things like Funeral for a Friend on keys (unsuccessfully! ;-) before I picked up a guitar. But his piano style shows up in how I play rhythm sometimes. From there, in some attempt at order:

Beatles
Stones
Zep / Page
Yes / Steve Howe
Genesis
Carlos
Pete Townshend
Neil Young / Stephen Stills
James Taylor
Duane Allman and Dickey Betts
David Gilmour
Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir
Larry Carlton
Lee Ritenour
Trevor Rabin
Peter Buck
Crowded House
The Cure
Talking Heads
Lots more 80's/new wave...
Nile Rodgers
Dave Navarro
Trey Anastasio
Warren Haynes
Steve Kimock
Porcupine Tree
Alan Morse (Spock's Beard)
Roine Stolt (Flower Kings)
Michael Kang & Bill Nershi (String Cheese Incident)

... I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch.
 
In addition to those fantastic entries already listed, I'll add a few to the pile:

Guitar
  • Davey Johnstone (Longtime guitarist of Elton John)
  • Adrian Belew
  • David Torn
  • Pat Martino
Bass
  • Tony Levin (my favorite overall musician, and a fine human as well)
  • Mick Karn
  • Bill Laswell
  • Jah Wobble
Other Stringed Things
  • Trey Gunn
  • Bela Fleck
  • Shankar (the violinist)
Favorite Bands
  • Einstürzende Neubauten (my favorite band)
  • Tool
  • Jellyfish
 
My mom was in a band, so classic rock was always around, but I think the two guitarists that first wowed me were Slash and Eddie Van Halen. I know what a Les Paul and a Marshall stack is thanks to Slash (and he looked so frickin cool with the top hat and cigarette). The harmonics in Panama were the coolest thing I'd ever heard in my life and I loved the energy and bounce in Ed's playing. (And of course the Brown Sound is legendary.)

Then I got into alternative rock and thought all those guitars sounded cool too (The Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains), but I didn't get a guitar until my 12th birthday. I started learning punk songs (Ramones, Green Day), but then Metallica came into my life and I had a new pair of guitar heroes. I wanted that crunch, that speed, that melody. My first drummer showed me a VHS of Cunning Stunts and that made me love them even more. (It also instilled a lust for a Ken Lawrence Explorer.) I was so naive, I thought that when the rigging guy fell from the ceiling and got lit on fire that it was all real! 🤣

So Metallica led me down the metal path and I really started digging Pantera, Megadeth, and Ozzy. Megadeth also led me to discovering Cacophony and Jason Becker which made me wish I could sweep arpeggios all day. Dream Theater and Opeth also became a big influences. (It's weird to me that guitarists love those bands now because I felt that the perception at the time was that those bands were cheesy and uncool.)

Then I went to college and my musical tastes went all over the place. Now I think that I like to be able to play a little bit of everything because you never know who you may end up jamming with. I also think that might have something to do with my perception of progressive music being the ultimate catch-all genre because you're able to utilize any damn style that you want. I don't like being put in a box as a guitarist: good music is good music and I want to play it all!
 
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Such an interesting thread. I've always considered my influences to be Rhoads, Lynch, Wylde, and SRV. I started doing some home recording and the first thing the better half says is I sound like Alice in Chains and Vivian Campbell era Dio. Not disappointed, just surprised. Oh, and not that I'm as good as any of them either.....
 
The usual for music. The Beatles when I was a kid, then later KISS and others inspired me to pick up and play guitar. Heard Van Halen and my life changed. Add in Blackmore, Page and of course Hendrix. Schenker was a biggienin those years as well.

Vocally Dio, Plant from the early days, and a host of others from back in the day when guys had more than a 1.5 octave range. More recent would be Maynard James Keenan, Corey Taylor, and a boatload of rhe female vocalists who sing with more guts than most of th current guys. (Alissa White-Gluz and before her Angela from Arch Enemy and Melissa Bonnie from Rage of Light, and Brittany Hayes from Unleash the Archers for example. They make the guy from 5 Finger DP sound like a fool IMO.)

And by far my favorite of the virtuoso guitarists is Steve Vai. He has the combination of being highly educated musically and dedication to a good lifestyle and attitude of humility that gives him an edge over the guys who know the rules and still use them.

On another note, I would add Lao Tzu, Bruce Lee, Buddha, and Tesla (not the band) to the list of those who had a huge influence on me and that has affected my approach to music and most everything in life. Music is after all about communication and emotion and has little to with technical prowess. (Unless you just want to impress other musicians.)
 
Rolling Stones
Led Zeplin
Montrose
Robin Trower
Pink Floyd
Jimi Hendrix
Jimmy Page
Almond Brothers
Kansas
Foghat
Brian Eno
Electric Light Orchestra
Alice Cooper
Blue Oyster Cult
Bad Company
Ted Nugent
John Williams [guitar]
Beatles
Santana
Def Leppard
Damn Yankees
Yes
Jeff Beck
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Journey
Edgar Winter
Peter Frampton
Frank Zappa
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
Rick Derringer
King Crimson
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Lou Reed
Aerosmith (early albums)
Warrant
Black Sabath
Mahogany Rush,
Rush
Mahavishnu Orchestra
Rick Wakeman
Yngwie J. Malmsteen
ASIA
Steve Howe
Joe Satriani
Ratt
Todd Rundgren
*******************
most of all
*******************
My Classical Guitar teacher in the local JC
&
The Jazz Guitar instructor I took private lessons from
 
unix-guy said:
Most people have no idea!

They are an excellent band and Gurley is a very cool guitarist. :)
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Such a criminally underrated band. “El Subliminoso” is in my top 5 records for guitar tones, with Mike being my favorite “strat guy” ever. The fact that his beautiful clean tone is essentially the clean channel of a dual rectifier is wild to me.

I’ve been working on a patch for the III with some of his tones. I’ll share it in the exchange when I’m happy with it.
 
Biggest influence was my guitar teacher. I only had lessons for two years in the mid to late 80's. But he taught me to play blues and rock and to improvise, he trained my listening skills and helped me to find out that my main strength is actually songwriting. Regarding influence of great musicians during that time, I still love the playing of Rik Emmett and Steve Rothery, and I think my idea of how a guitar lead should be is pretty much shaped by early Marillion albums.

Then came the 90's and I was all about metal, I was main songwriter and lead guitarist in a speed metal band. At that time I was influenced almost exclusively by bands from that genre:
Metallica
Megadeth
Slayer
Anthrax
Errrr, I just noticed I listed the big four.

For the last 10 years or so, I am only doing home recording, so I am songwriter, do the arrangements, MIDI programming, guitars and vocals, everything. So I am currently trying to learn more about overall music production than about guitar playing. I try to collect influences from good songwriting and arrangement. In that regard, more recently I liked bands like Emery and Whale Bones a lot.
 
Sleestak said:
In addition to those fantastic entries already listed, I'll add a few to the pile:

Guitar
  • Davey Johnstone (Longtime guitarist of Elton John)
  • Adrian Belew
  • David Torn
  • Pat Martino
Bass
  • Tony Levin (my favorite overall musician, and a fine human as well)
  • Mick Karn
  • Bill Laswell
  • Jah Wobble
Other Stringed Things
  • Trey Gunn
  • Bela Fleck
  • Shankar (the violinist)
Favorite Bands
  • Einstürzende Neubauten (my favorite band)
  • Tool
  • Jellyfish
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Your exceptional taste is showing again.
 
Genghis said:
The usual for music. The Beatles when I was a kid, then later KISS and others inspired me to pick up and play guitar. Heard Van Halen and my life changed. Add in Blackmore, Page and of course Hendrix. Schenker was a biggienin those years as well.

Vocally Dio, Plant from the early days, and a host of others from back in the day when guys had more than a 1.5 octave range. More recent would be Maynard James Keenan, Corey Taylor, and a boatload of rhe female vocalists who sing with more guts than most of th current guys. (Alissa White-Gluz and before her Angela from Arch Enemy and Melissa Bonnie from Rage of Light, and Brittany Hayes from Unleash the Archers for example. They make the guy from 5 Finger DP sound like a fool IMO.)

And by far my favorite of the virtuoso guitarists is Steve Vai. He has the combination of being highly educated musically and dedication to a good lifestyle and attitude of humility that gives him an edge over the guys who know the rules and still use them.

On another note, I would add Lao Tzu, Bruce Lee, Buddha, and Tesla (not the band) to the list of those who had a huge influence on me and that has affected my approach to music and most everything in life. Music is after all about communication and emotion and has little to with technical prowess. (Unless you just want to impress other musicians.)
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Love the Lao Tzu influence. I'm a high school teacher, and kids love learning about Taoism.
 
grandinq said:
Love the Lao Tzu influence. I'm a high school teacher, and kids love learning about Taoism.
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That may be one of the coolest things I have heard in a while.

I almost got into teaching, because as a high school kid I was able to reword what the teacher told us in a way my friends could understand. Then music and a few of the sidebars came along. Pretty happy with the way things are turning out these days though.
 
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