I was in seventh grade when I discovered KISS. This is THE album that started all of my passion for rock and roll. Before that, I had only been exposed to wimpy top-40's, commercial garbage on the radio and the stupid crap that my older sister listened to.

From there I became a KISS fanatic for a couple of years, and then branched out to Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc. Then I saw a news program that featured the Sex Pistols on TV (1978?) and was totally stoked. I loved the dangerous, violent, chaotic, completely irreverent, nihilistic energy.

No future! Destroy!! Hahahaha....

Became a punker for about 6 years (early 80's). Liked: Dead Kennedys, DEVO, B-52's, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, The Dickies, Social Distortion (before they went country), The Toy Dolls, Flipper, the Sex Pistols, FEAR, Gary Numan, anything strange and underground, etc., etc.

Now I still love all those old bands, and I also now love the blues, which I detested as a teen. I guess 'cause I play guitar now instead of just listening to music, and it makes emotional sense to me to play the blues (in more of a progressive sense of the word, not strict traditional blues). Even though he used a more traditional blues "vocabulary", SRV had heart and fire and soul that rivals even the hardest, most progressive rockers. That's why I love him.

I like Stevie's Hendrix covers (as well as his "Pipeline" cover) and I like "Lenny" and "Riviera Paradise" and his jam album with Albert King (his idol) was great.

It was KISS "ALIVE!" for me too. Pretty much the same story : grew up on top 40 radio. I was probably 11 or 12 when a friend mine handed me the album and plopped it on the turntable. Looking at the album jacket I was like, "What the hell is this?" Then "Deuce" comes on with Gene yelling "Get up!" I was mesmerized. I was a KISS freak for a long time, also got into VanHalen(because Gene was thanked on the 1st record) & Black Sabbath. That album, though, is what made me want to play.