The first milestone in life - Picking up the Guitar

The seventies and the eighties are widely accepted as the golden era of guitar-based rock music with bands like Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Scorpions, Queen, etc. We had guitar gods like Ritchie Blackmore, David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page to inspire us.

Apart from aspiring to be able to play guitar like their idols, every teenage boy’s fantasy was obviously to impress the opposite sex. In those financially challenged times, the only way to impress the girls was to either flaunt a sculpted physique or zip around on a motorbike or play a mean guitar. Gyms were limited and often inaccessible. Also gymmers were ridiculed as dumb beef cakes – the most vociferous critics being their secretly envious (and less fit) contemporaries.

Motorbikes were expensive and driving licenses were hard to come by for 17-year olds. The cheapest option was to buy a guitar and pull a few strings hoping that would tug on some heart strings. Thus began my life long affair with the guitar which kickstarted the affair with the lady who later happened to become my wife. Of course, when the wife asks me why I decided to pick up the guitar, I am always politically correct and say I did it to follow in the footsteps of my heroes. I never ever say I picked it up to impress the girls. As most married men are aware, sleeping on the couch is not very comfortable!