Growing out of his teen bands, Greg and his brother formed a band and tried hard to get discovered and signed, but to no avail. So I just started to expand my view: first it was Van Halen, then Randy Rhoads and all those LA guys, and then I moved into Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Lee Ritenour and Scott Henderson, and that led to Allan Holdsworth - I became totally immersed in it all.” Listening to Howe today, you can hear the legato in his playing that comes from Holdsworth, and the quirky note choices that speak to the Scofield influence, to name just a few attributes. But then I really fell in love with music. Until then, it was just a typical adolescent ‘guitar is cool, I want to be the guy that looks cool, and plays cool.’ Plus, I was kind of shy, and it made it easier to make friends and meet girls. “I knew at that point that I just wanted to do that. Epiphany #2! He remembers racing up to his room when he got back from the concert and playing for hours, perfecting his newly acquired technique. It wasn’t until he got to see the band live that from his nosebleed seats, with a pair of binoculars, he saw Eddie tapping on the strings. But although his teacher could play the notes, Greg knew it didn’t sound right. He found a tablature book that defined how to play “Eruption” as flamenco fingerpicking, so he spent a summer taking classical guitar lessons in hopes of learning the technique. So Howe (and countless other guitar fans) had no way of knowing how Eddie was getting that sound. This was back in 1978, when there was no MTV to see your favorite bands play and no Internet to watch videos.
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