I started playing guitar when I was 15. It was funny. I didn't listen to much other than movie soundtracks when I was a kid. I caught Wayne's World on TV one night, and suddenly I was hugely into classic rock. Me and my dad had tickets to go to SARSstock in 2003, but he hurt his leg and didn't want to stand around in the crowds all day. I ended up watching the concert on TV (which probably resulted in better sound quality and, you know, being able to see the performers). AC/DC came on, and Angus Young blew me away. I don't mean that I thought his playing was amazing. He just looked like he was having so much fun. It's kind of funny. AC/DC could be the biggest reason I play guitar, but I don't enjoy their music much at all. It also helped that my parents wanted me to take piano lessons at about the same time. I had no interest in the piano (at the time), which probably pushed me even further towards the guitar. Eventually I got into modern fingerstyle stuff (Andy McKee, Antoine Dufour, and more "traditional" stuff like Tommy Emmanuel (and holy shit, check out Tommy if you don't know him) ) and convinced people I was a lot better than I felt. That plus university caused a bit of burnout that I'm still recovering from, and now I play mostly electric. I'm a pedal addict too, and I'm trying to figure out how to write music for the looper that I don't think is boring.

I started listening to Rush pretty heavily as a teenager (and as an adult, :D ), which made me want to learn the bass guitar. And the drums (I have a basic electronic kit from Roland, and a Neil Peart drum book. Guess how well that's working for me). I went back to trying to learn the piano at some point and bought a nice Yamaha digital piano a few years ago. I have a mandolin and a violin that I can't play (but I can play the mandolin significantly better than the violin... I wonder why?), and a synth that I can almost program.

And here's some more Tommy Emmanuel because he isn't nearly as well known as he should be.