One name---Slash. I'm 17, but grew up my whole life around stuff like the Stray Cats and Aerosmith because of my parents. I started playing just over 3 years ago. At first it was partially serious, I wanted to play, but it wasn't the most important thing. Since then, and after discovering lots of different players and developing my own style, about a year and a half ago I realized I wanted to make a living, and base my life off of playing guitar. Seeing and hearing Slash play when I was younger, and then realizing who it was, and what he was doing was when I wanted to play. The guys that made me want to do it the rest of my life were Slash, Joe Perry, Zakk Wylde and Dimebag Darrell. Those 4 guys, to me, just have everything that makes an awesome guitar player...it's never overly complicated, and it just rocks. Period.