Eighteen
At that time I had a girlfriend named Vicki and she had a guitar that I used to pose with all the time. But deep down inside I really wanted to play guitar badly. So for my 18th birthday I started saving up for my first guitar which was a hollow body Gibson es125 with one pick-up in the bridge position.

I was instantly hooked and wanted to learn about what I thought was important to me musically. My fave band of all time is the Clash and as they moved away from fast punk and got into Reggae and Rockabilly I thought this was more music that I had not explored yet. I was so into punk that I went to England for a whole summer after high school but the scene was already disentgrating apart. The vibe was still somewhat there but U.K. musical tastes revolve really quickly creating trends then disappearing. It was at this time that music become a primary focus of learning an instrument that went from buzzsaw guitar chords to the intricate picking of the claw hammer for rockabilly. My tastes went from the Sun Rockabilly label to country blues, then lead a path north to Chicago which basically was the same instrumentation they used in the South but just amplified, then that lead me to Gatemouth Brown, T-bone Walker, and Charlie Christian some of the first folks to play live with special prototype electric guitars and amps, then back to Bob Wills western Swing something that Bill Haley did too in his early years. The cross pollunation of black and white blues and country artists were the first people to desegregate long ago proving the color /racial lines can be crossed in search of the higher power of music and sports including skateboarding.

My Favorite Guitar Players
Below is a list of guitar players that have had a tremendous influence over my guitar history. If you wanna learn and play rad guitar check out these incredible guitar musicians:

• Captain Sensible - The Damned
• Stevie Ray Vaughn
• Jeff Beck
• Hound Dog Taylor
• The3 Kings (Freddie, B.B, Albert)
• Joe Maphis - Collins Kids
• Cliff Gallup
• Eddie Cochran
• Link Wray
• Lonnie Mack
• The Ventures
• The Shadows
• Dick Dale
• Chuck Berry
• Horton Heat
• Johnny Thunders - N.Y. Dolls/Heartbreakers
• Mick Ronson - David Bowie
• Wayne Kramer - MC5
• Keith Richards
• Chet Atkins
• Merle Travis
• Fred McDowell
• Ry Cooder
• Mick Jones - The Clash
• Steve Jones - Sex Pistols
• Angus Young - ACDC
• Billy Gibbons - ZZ Top
• Johnny Winters
• Jimmy Vaughn - Fabulous Thunderbirds
• Don Leady - Tailgaters
• Junior Brown
• Jimmy Nolan
• Roscoe Gordon
• Clapton in the Bluesbreakers
• Peter Green - Fleetwood Mac
• Lightning Hopkins
• Django
• Alvino Ray
• Charlie Christian
• T-Bone Walker
• Gatermouth Brown
• Brad from Sublime
• Fuguzi
• Flamenco
• Salsa
• Ivy Rorschach - The Cramps
• Any and all surf artists
• Ron Emory - TSOL
• Klaus Flouride - Dead Kennedys
• Jeff Ross
• Tracy Robar - Powerflex 5, Screaming Lord Salba, Dirty Bastards
• Roland Janes - Sun session guitar player
• Jimmy Rodgers
• Gabriel Reeves - Tin Machine
• Brian Setzer B.S.O/Stray Cats
• Deke Dickerson
• Paul Burlison - Johnny Burnett Rock n' Roll Trio
• Les Paul
• Santana
• Timm Kerr - Big Boys, Bad Mutha Goose
• Don Pendleton - JFA
• The guy from the Paladins
• Robert Johnson
• Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant
• C.C.R.
• Jimi Hendrix
• John Lee Hooker
• Slim Harpo
• Joe Perry - Aerosmith
• David Lindley
• Joey Ramone - The Ramones
• Andy McCoy - Hanoi Rocks
• Mark Laff - Generation X
• Carl Perkins
• Billy Mure
• Kerry from the U.S.Bombs/Shattered Faith