My first and early music influences included Three 
Dog Night and the Rolling Stones, in particular the 
song "Jumpin Jack Flash". Other big influences would 
include Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. To this day, 
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi and Deep Purple
guitarist Ritchie Blackmore remain among my top 10 
favorite and most highly respected guitarist for their 
obvious knowledge of the guitar and guitar theory, as 
well as their ability to compose and create and deliver 
such a wide variety of sounds that range from classical 
guitar to the heaviest of metal.

As an early teen I began to appreciate the great blues 
guitar playing of Johnny Winter and Lightning Hopkins. 
These blues greats became among my favorites for their 
ability to follow note for note along with the vocal 
line of a song. Others would include the southern rock 
greats such as Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet and bands 
like Boston and Van Halen who became to change the sound 
of rock music in the 1970's.

During the later years I became fond of Metallica and 
Megadeth, for their use of classical scales that were 
adapted to heavy metal. This playing style was elaborated 
by guitar wizard Yngwie Malmsteen who adapted the sounds 
of Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven, and Mozart and 19th century 
violinist Niccolo Paganini. As well as being fond of blues
rock and southern rock music, I also became very fond of 
one country guitarist by the name of Brent Mason. I had 
the privilege of being introduced to Brent's amazing play-
ing style by a student of mine Daryl B who obviously has a 
great ear and much appreciation for such an extremely 
talented guitarist. After hearing this great talent I was 
inspired to practice some of my earlier lessons I was taught 
in my youth that included hall of famer Roy Clark. Roy is 
among the most respected of all country guitarist for his 
abilty to play various instruments and his application of 
smooth tones and lightning fast fingers. I would have to 
say that Roy's song "Guitar Boogie" remains to this day as 
my favorite country song.


Other early to modern day infuences would include:
Jimmy Page * Jimmy Hendrix * Ace Frehley * Eric Clapton
B.B. King * Chuck Berry * Steve Howe * Buddy Guy
Jeff Beck * Carlos Santana * Zal Cleminson
Alex Lifeson * Billy Gibbons * Elliot Easton
Andy Summers * Eddie Van Halen * Joe Walsh * Don Felder
Paul Kossoff * David Gilmour * Stevie Ray Vaughan 
Michael Schenkar * Matthias Jabs * Angus Young
Malcom Young * Brian Setzer * Glen Tipton * K.K. Downing
Dave Murray * Adrian Smith * Wolf Hoffman * Jake E. Lee
Brad Gillis * Joe Perry *  Adrian Belew * Robert Fripp
Donald Fagen * Walter Becker Joe Satriani * Steve Vai *
Dimebag Darrell * Billy Duffy * Warren De Martini * Mick Mars 
Zakk Wylde * James Hetfield * Kirk Hammet * Dave Mustaine
Slash * George Lynch * Kerry King *  Billy Joe Armstrong 
The Edge * Andreas Rudolf Kisser * Daron Malakian



Overall Favorite Guitarist * Randy Rhoads

Being a guitarist who favors music that is based upon much 
theory using scales and modes for composition as opposed to 
easier music that may consist of a simple 12 bar blues, or 
a few grunge powerchords, when I was first introduced to the 
guitar playing of Randy Rhoads, as many others like myself, 
it opened a whole new approach to the world of guitar and how 
it could be played. Before his early departure, I was lucky 
enough to see Randy Rhoads play live in the year 1981 at the 
Welsh Auditorium in Grand Rapids Michigan. I can recall on
the way to the concert, the song "Crazy Train" came on the 
radio. The whole entire song was (is) amazingly written with 
much theory and Randy's playing was the most incredible sound 
I have ever heard. At the concert, from the very opening note 
of the song "I Don't Know" to the grand finale, Randy's 
performance was better than all of the many performers I had 
seen, all put together. As it was Jimi Hendrix who changed 
the sound of guitar and the way it was played in the 1960's,
it was Randy Rhoads who took playing the guitar to the next 
level of creation and innovation. Long live Randy Rhoads!