Wow, my story is so different than the others. First, it didn't have anything to do with professional guitarists, although my taste was heavily influenced by Jorma Kaukonen and Pete Townsend.
I think I was 14 years old, and 2 hours into a 1000 mcg or-so trip, which wasn't all that unusual for me in those days. There was a $35 classical guitar sitting there in a cardboard case, and a copy of Mel Bay's "EZ" Guitar Method. Fortunately, the owner was anal retentive, so it was in tune, because I was way too fried to know or care. I just started in with that kind of special obsessive-compulsion that can happen on LSD. 10 hours later, I could play every song in the book, and it wasn't until the next day I realized what I had done to my fingers!
I got a cheap classical, which was all I could afford, and spent the next 4 months playing The Mamas and the Papas, Peter, Paul, and Mary, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane,and Country Joe and the Fish. Late that spring, my friend Rick (the owner of that $35 guitar) bought a Les Paul Custom. One day he walked in with his old Les Paul Junior and said, "I don't play this any more, why don't you hang onto it for a while?" He dropped it on the couch with a copy of the complete score of "Tommy" and the double album also. What the hell, he was the son of a millionaire, he could afford to do things like that. I spent the next year learning to play "Tommy" with
a Les Paul Junior and *no amp*! By the time he took his guitar back a year later, I had enough money to buy my own damn guitar *and* an amp!
So I guess, who made me pick up a guitar is Rick Cordes, a chiropractor from Sidney New York. And I guess that year with
the Les Paul Junior is why I never got into heavy distortion. All I wanted to do was make the guitar sound like it wasn't plugged in, but louder. That is why, in addition to mic'ing amps, to this day, I also often put a mic in front of a solid body and blend some real pick and fretting sound into the mix. I started in bands by the time I was 16, and finally managed to get laid! I knew playing 5 hours a day would get me something. I eventually got tired of the personality dynamics of bands, and fighting over the custody of our child, (the PA), and became a solo (mostly) acoustic performer.
I am influenced by The Eagles, Tom Lehrer, David Wilcox, Steeleye Span, Different Feet, Schooner Fare, Silly Wizard, Nickel Creek, Faith Hill, Garth Brooks, Eric Burdon, Steve Goodman, James Taylor, and a host of little known psychedelic bands of the late sixties, particularly Salloom, Sinclair, and the Mother Bear, Spirit, It's a Beautiful Day, and The United States of America. Although it didn't involve a guitar, I had some of the greatest fun of my life playing Herod Antiphas in Jesus Christ Superstar off Broadway.-Richie
So far I've gotten the first few chords down!
