International Guitar Month - GET INSPIRED - Quotes from Guitar Heroes!
Published on 01 May 2025
International Guitar Month is a good excuse to ponder the bigger questions in life:
‘Can country music have tapping solos?’
‘Is there such a thing as too much wah-wah?’
and the biggy: ‘Why aren’t Megadeth playing at the big Black Sabbath gig in Birmingham?’
Sorry, that wasn’t the biggy, this is the biggy: ‘Why did I first start playing the guitar?’
This is the sort of question that can have you digging deep into your dark soul, so approach it with caution! It’s a good question though, and one well worth asking other players, in order to gain some insights and perspectives.
What if I reached out to some of the famous players I’ve encountered over the years and asked them for an answer? Maybe these answers could be made into a bunch of social media posts, for an entire month’s worth of inspiring online content?
Indeed, that’s exactly what happened. I opened my contacts and reached out to a number of players whom I thought might engage with the question, particularly when I mentioned that I only needed a quick sentence or two. The responses were terrific, and some were actually longer than we could use in those social posts, so I figured it would be fun to collect them all here in one place, to fully capture the power of each story!
Some of my colleagues did the same, and we've ended up with quite the treasure trove here! Under the banner of 'Get Inspired', we made a month's worth of social posts from the gold given to us by these wonderful artists.
So, in no particular order, here’s everybody we got a quote from, answering the question: "What inspired you to play guitar?"…
Steve Vai
(Photo: Larry DiMarzio)
Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal
“ I heard the KISS Alive! Album at 5 years old and immediately knew that this was what I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t really know what ‘that’ was, just that it was the most uplifted I ever felt, and I wanted to make others feel that way.
I wanted to be a drummer, but so did my elder brother, he won (thankfully - I’m an awful drummer!) So my next choice was to be a bassist. Mom took me to a local music store to start lessons and they didn’t have kid-sized basses and didn’t want to lose a sale, so they said ‘in order to become a bassist, you have to take two years of guitar lessons’. They tricked me into playing guitar, haha!!
My goal was to be in a band, part of a team that made songs, by any means, the instrument was secondary to the song itself - and so the journey began…”
James Bay
(Photo: Caity Krone)
Phil Campbell
Becky Baldwin
Ian Thornley
“I started playing guitar mainly because the music I was listening to at that time was guitar-based music. I had started on piano around the age of 5 and went pretty far with that, but had moved away from keys in my mid-teens. When a friend showed me the chords to songs I already knew intimately, I was pretty much hooked. I could recreate the sounds on my own that I had been listening to religiously. From there I began figuring out guitar parts on all my favourite records and coming up with my own little bits. It’s an obsession, an addiction, a bottomless well of inspiration, a hobby and a best friend. The destination has always been music, but the coolest and most fun way to get there is with guitar!”
Ace (Skunk Anansie)
(Photo: India Fleming)
Sophie Burrell
Andy Timmons
Jennifer Batten
Toby Lee
Erja Lyytinen
(Photo: Ville Suurikkala)
“At the age of thirteen, electric guitar started to interest me. I had been playing classical violin since the age of 7, but then guitar started somehow just to feel more fascinating. My Dad is a guitarist too, so it was easy for me to pick up his guitar and start to learn it. I remember when he showed me how to play barré chords. It blew my mind, to be able to play all the chords on the fret board with the same fingering! So I quit violin, and grabbed my Dad´s Ibanez, and here we are a few decades later, still fascinated about this mythical instrument that can wail and scream, sooth and comfort you. You are never alone with a guitar in your lap!”
Troy Redfern
Anna Cara
Steve Harris (Gary Numan)
Erica Fox
(Pic: Brody White)
Callum Beattie
Jared James Nichols
Vixen's Diary
Tom Shemer (The Damn Truth)
Chris Woods
What's Your Story?
So, there we have it: 20 moments of sublime inspiration from some of the biggest, most exciting and most up-and-coming artists in the business. From Grand Masters like Steve Vai and Andy Timmons to newer faces like Toby Lee and Sophie Burrell, each player has their own unique ‘backstory’. What is yours? What brought you to the guitar and its attendant lifestyle? Whatever your story, we’re glad to have you here with us!
