As a kid I was brought up on a staple diet of my Dad's Beatles, Queen, Simon & Garfunkel and Santana albums.  I was always into mainstream pop that was heavy on keyboards like Go West, Howard Jones and Ultravox and was lucky enough to take keyboard lessons to get a good musical foundation.  Then as a teenager a very good friend of mine got me into Rock and Heavy Metal and regularly brought round Iron Maiden, Megadeth,  and Black Sabbath tapes. I began to take a big interest in a new type of metal, coined "Neo-Classical / Heavy-Metal Fusion" and was listening to Cacophony, Vinnie Moore and in particular one of the most impressive players of all time, Yngwie J Malmsteen.  Then in 1987 I was truly inspired by Joe Satriani's "Surfing with the Alien" and Not of This Earth albums. They are required listening for anyone who loves guitar.  I credit Joe Satriani's music as my main motivation for learning guitar and one of the reasons it's mentioned so much on this page.

I immediately went out and got a £100 Washburn electric guitar for my 18th birthday, plugged it into a DOD FX-59 "Thrashmaster" pedal, ran it through my crappy home stereo system and proceeded to teach myself every tricky shredding guitar piece of music I could lay my hands on.

I bought books and albums from Steve Vai and Yngwie J. Malmsteen to Van Halen, Hendrix and of course, Satriani, studying note-by-note in some cases.  Over the years I've got marginally better through practice and repetition :-)

These days I'm influenced by a broad musical taste from Creed, Incubus, Nickelback, Linkin Park, Silverchair, through to Pete Murray, John Maher and Red Hot Chili Peppers as well as all the classics and anything that I think is cool (like Queens of the Stone Age).

My main axe is an Ibanez 10th Anniversary JS Series "Chrome-Boy" guitar signed by Joe.
 
I also play an Ibanez JS100 (also signed), my original Washburn which is currently being customised.  For "unplugged" songs and  when writing, I reach for my Suzuki Steel String and Admira Nylon String Classical.

For amplification I use a 1980's tube-powered Fender Champ 25SE amp which is supposed to be 25W but puts out volume like its a  Marshall 100W on steroids so I use that for foldback and pump the main signal through to our 1800w PA system (remember opening scenes of Back to the Future?)

ow what I would really like to get is a Marshall Quad Stack, a couple of JSX signature Peaveys and maybe a flame model Ibanez JS (below)
 
You can never have too many guitars!

For effects a Dunlop 525Q Cry Baby Wah-Wah Pedal and thanks to Jim I invested in a Behringer LX1200H amp modeler which is cheap as hell and enables me to customise a different amp/effects patch for every song.  A truly brilliant product for $300 bucks -- Mr. Behringer, can I have some free gear too please :-)

After 18 years of dilligently following his music, I was finally lucky enough to meet Joe Satriani in March 2005 when he played at Enmore Theatre.  Some friends and I signed a hat and threw it on stage and he wore it during the gig (see photo below and read about it here). I also got Joe to autograph my JS100 which was awesome.

Playing gigs with JK is an awesome experience every time and certainly up there at the top of my list.