Finding Precious Metal: Discovering My Guitar Heroes
I can recall the first time I ever really heard a rock guitar finesse a song and it was Prince's solo on Purple Rain. While I eventually began to love all of Prince's solos (and music), it was that solo which first caught my ear and awakened the rock guitar spirit in me. Within a couple of years (1986) every recording of Prince known to me was in heavy rotation on my cassette player. During this time, I also learned of Jimi Hendrix and added much of his music to my purple collection.
As my ears and taste loosened for the music, I hungered for more and my cousin delivered. My cousin, who plays guitar, introduced me to some of his guitar heroes and this style of music called Neo-Classical Metal. Two of the masters leading the charge in this genre at that time were Yngwie Malmsteen with his Trilogy album, and Tony MacAlpine with his Maximum Security album. These two incredible recordings captivated me and brought me into a world that I never knew existed.
Previously, my only exposure to Heavy Metal was going to Performance Arts High School in New York and seeing students walking around with AC/DC shirts blasting this screeching music from their Sony Walkmans at deafening levels. It all sounded like noise to me at that time, but Yngwie and MacAlpine were anything but noise. They bridged the gap between J.S. Bach and the Baroque music that I studied and truly loved and the virtuosity of the Jazz cats that I also studied and loved. The music was energetic, lighting fast, full of time changes, key changes and chock full of melodic passages that were incredibly memorable. Although the music of Yngwie an MacAlpine were inspired by classical music, the two artists were very much different. MacAlpine's music although based on classical themes, followed more of the piano music from the classical period, while Yngwie's music was based more from the harpsichord music of the Baroque period and also inspired by the music and virtuosity of Paganini. I also considered MacAlpine's music more classically styled from the American perspective, and Yngwie's music to be styled more from the European perspective. 
My cousin also introduced me to other virtuosos playing and composing instrumental metal guitar music such as Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. My introduction to "Satch" was the Surfing with the Alien album, and Steve Vai on the Passion and Warfare album. Again these great artists were expanding my taste and opening up my palette and love for the metal guitar. Around this time Van Halen with Sammy Hager in the lineup took on a more commercial sound and was all over pop radio. While many die hard Van Halen fans say this was not true Van Halen music, it was to me, and was my introduction to Eddie. Once I discoverd Eddie Van Halen I was able to go back and appreciate the many Van Halen recordings I had missed to that point. I now love all of Van Halen's music, but am still partial to the recordings during the Hagar period.
Another of my favorite metal bands, I discovered while watching PBS television around 2:00 am in the morning. I couldn't sleep one night and turned on the public station and heard this powerful metal band playing alongside of a symphony orchestra. The music was solid, the guitars were larger than life and the orchestral arrangement was in the pocket. It was my introduction to Metallica who was performing music from the S&M album with the San Francisco Symphony. I've since become a big fan of Metallica's music and musicianship. 
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