Well, way back in the mid-eighties, when I was about ten years old, the very first song that made me want to get into playing music was "Eye Of The Tiger" by Survivor. After listening to that album over and over, I decided to start a band with two of my cousins with whatever instruments happened to be lying around the house (a cheap no-named acoustic guitar, keyboard, and drum machine). We sounded horrible and did not last long... however, it was a start.

From then on I devoted myself to writing songs and learning open-position chords on the acoustic guitar to sing along with. Until I first saw Al Di Meola performing on late night TV in 1991. My jaw dropped :eek: and was totally blown away by his playing. I became an instant fan, started learning lead guitar, and tried learning his entire back catalogue... not an easy task.

So, those were my main two influences that really got me into it.