Most of us can trace our obsession with music and guitars to a single, magical album-an album so all-powerful that our eyeballs bulged and ears bled at the sound of it. That's right, we're talking instant karma ,rock and roll epiphany, the great full-body tingling that comes with the intermingling of music, adrenaline and testosterone.
We all have one-the album that not only changed our approach to music, but altered our very existence. Eddie Van Halen encountered the controlled chaos of Cream's Live Cream and became a man. Eric Clapton heard Robert Johnson's King Of The Delta Blues Singers and still hasn't recovered.
Some of the stars have already changed your life with their work, just as some of the albums they cite are destined to get your racing, your soul aching and feet beating a frenzied path to the nearest record store for sonic salvation.
Metallica
James Hetfield > Stryper : To Hell with the Devil (Hollywood,1986)
"It made me feel pure unadulterated hate. Absolutely inspired me to be a musician."
Kirk Hammett > Jimi Hendrix :"The Star Spangled Banner"(from Woodstock, Cotillion,1970)
"It made me feel realize the range of emotions possible on the electric guitar, from the theme to the dive dive bombs to human cries and screams. I f*&%ing can't listen to it anymore,though,because I've just played it so much.
J.Yuenger (White Zombie) > Public Enemy : It Takes A Nation Of Millions to Hold Back (Def Jam,1989)
I'd never heard music with that many facets before-angry,socially aware ,funky, funny and noisy at same time! It was the first time I realized that heavy music could be made with something other than a guitar
Lou Reed > Ornette Coleman : Change of the Century (Atlantic,1959)
To this very day, my favorite song would have to be 'Lonely Women' , along with a track called 'Ramblin'. I can't get that album out of my mind.
Pete Townshend >Bob Dylan "The Times Are a-Changin" (Columbia,1964)
Nobody that I knew wrote songs with brain in gear prior to 1963 . I loved The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan [Columbia,1962], but I thought it was a bit fluffy. To me, Dylan is the fulcrum of modern music."
Dime Darrell (Pantera)> Kiss :Alive (Casablanca,1975) Van Halen :Van Halen (Warner Bros.,1978) Ozzy Osbourne : Blizzard of Oz (Jet/Epic,1981)
This is gonna be a three-way split,man.First,of course,there's Kiss Alive! 'cause that's what turned me on to hard rock. That album influenced me to go out and buy other heavy records by bands like Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. It led me down the right path, brother. The next one I would have to say would be,Van Halen. Eddie is the breakthrough guitarist of the last 20 years. The third would have to be Ozzy Osbourne's Blizzard of Oz Randy[Rhoads] was a killer lead player and his riffs were unbelieveable. I mean, the first I heard 'Crazy Train,'I was like, "Goddamn, I gotta learn this!"
Paul Stanley > Led Zeppelin :Led Zeppelin (Atlantic,1969)
"The first time I heard 'Good Times, Bad Times,'I thought someone had unleashed an animal in the speaker. Something was goin' on in there that hit everything primal, sonic, intellectual, visceral.
Steve Vai > West Side Story [original cast recording] Led Zeppelin :Led Zeppelin II (Atlantic,1969)
"My parents had a collection with all these old polka things that didn't do anything for me. Then one day, when I turned seven or nine, they played this album, and I was just stunned. West Side Story was an adventure from beginning to the end. It had aggression, attitude, virtouso cadenzas and absolutely historical melody. " In terms of guitar playing-and singing-the record that changed my life was Led Zeppelin II. I was into the Patridge Family-mainly because I thought it was cool that kids my could actually be in a band. But my sister was into stuff like Led Zep and Alice Cooper. I used to stand outside her door and listen and one day, standing there, I heard the song 'Heartbreaker'. I thought it was the coolest I had heard all my life. I started listening to any and all Led Zep I could get my hands on. That led me into my sister room so I could actually play her eight-track machine myself. She had a copy of Hendrix's 'Star Spaangled Banner'on it. I've never been the same since."
Slash > Aerosmith Rocks (Columbia,1976)
Kenny Wayne Shepherd > Muddy Waters Hard Again (Blue Sky,1977)
"It's one of the most incredible blues record I ever heard-maybe one of the best of all time.It's absolutely killer. Not too many people talk about it, and I don't know why. They did it all live in the studio, with James Cotton on harmonica, Pine Top Perkins on piano and Johnny Winter on guitar. It was an incredible band and they kicked ass".