When I was about 8 years old I heard the Vogues song You're The One That I love. Up to that point all I had ever heard was classical music and very easy listening stuff my parents played. When I heard the Vogues I said I want to do that and music has been my main hobby ever since. I got my first guitar at age 10.
When I was about 12 my brother gave me an 8-track tape of the band Chicago. I think it was a bootleg live album it was a white case with just CHICAGO printed on it. I wore this tape out, I cant count the times I spliced it. Soon after I bought every Chicago album I could find until I was caught up to Chicago V. then the highlight of every year was when the new Chicago record came out. To this day they are my favorite band. The volume of quality music they have produced over a 40 year span is just mind boggling.
During the '70s I was also exploring Jazz and at one point tried to buy every Chick Corea record available. That was a futile attempt, man that guy puts out a lot of records. I was also heavily influenced by Herbie Hancock. from Herbie's records I discovered Freddie Hubbard (Hubtones is my favorite trumpet record, I was a music major on trumpet in college). I bought every Blue Note record I could find. Of course I was blown away by Miles and Coltrane.
In the '80s I got a job playing lead guitar in a country band. To that point I had never really been exposed to country music. This band had a very talented singer and songwriter, Taft Yeatts, that turned me on to Willie, Merle, Hank Jr, Alabama and many others. County music taught me the value of the song. I was always trying to learn more music theory and be as competent as possible to improvise in a jazz setting. Country music helped me realize that the true value of music is the song, not the technique. The tech is great and I still love to hear cats that can play and show their stuff, but nothing beats a great simple song.
