[realdealblues]

Too many to list:

Randy Rhoads (Ozzy's Guitarist) and My Brother were my inspirations to first pick up a guitar. Eddie Van Halen was probably next major influence followed by Eric Clapton and a host of other blues guitarists. There are probably 100 other guitarists who influenced me, and while they all had an effect on my playing and songwriting style in some way, I'm most commonly told that I sound like either Eric Clapton (Cream Years) or Eddie Van Halen (depending on the song) which is no surprise since I spent a long time learning every song I could from them.

I saw Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes as a kid and absolutely fell in love the whole thing. The Time Period, the Character, the Mystery, everything. From there I went out and bought Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie books which helped develop not only my love of literature but mysteries and older time periods.

Clint Eastwood & John Wayne (and Waylon Jennings to certain extent) made me want to be a Cowboy...lol. I own lots of guns and enjoy shooting as a sport, but all my handguns are Revolvers, from my Dirty Harry 44 Magnums to my 45 Long Colt Single Action Cowboy Guns. I would be just as happy living in the mountains riding a horse, wearing a cowboy hat, driving cattle as I would be doing anything else I enjoy.

I also saw The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Miniseries back as a kid in the 80's which started me on Douglas Adams and helped develop not only my love of Science Fiction but also my sense of humor. It was kind of like reading something I had written because Douglas's sense of humor is pretty close to my own. Nobody around me ever seemed to get my humor but I knew Douglas would have.

Humphrey Bogart, Orson Welles & Cary Grant hooked me on old movies. I've seen pretty much everything they've been in. Each of those 3 guys effected me in different ways, but also in many of the same ways as well.

I also took Piano Lessons as a child and Glenn Gould who was a classical pianist totally captured my attention. He turned me into an rabid classical music fan. He also taught me about interpretation and how to break the rules. I have over 100 recordings of certain classical works and every single one of them are different. Listening to and studying different interpretations of the same thing is something I absolutely love to do and it relates so much to life and the world in general, and most people will probably never understand it.

That's probably more than anybody cares to know but thanks for starting the thread V. It's been interesting.