What was the first serious guitar that you bought with your own money?
“Now, ‘serious’ is debatable. I bought a 1985 Gibson Les Paul Custom, a Pearl White one. I bought it because it looked like the pictures I had seen of Randy Rhoads playing one. I bought it for $500 and I had to borrow the money from my sister. I kept it for about five years or so.
“I’d started to play in bars – illegally, because I was underage – and played cover songs, so we would play all the bar band favourites: Roadhouse Blues, Honky Tonk Woman, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Highway To Hell… I actually got a little adventurous then because I was really into Aerosmith and so I had us do Walkin’ The Dog and Mama Kin.”