Like most kids 20 years ago, my first guitar was a complete piece of crap. I bought it 2nd hand from a pawn shop for about 45 Irish pounds – wow, showing my age here more and more! The currency in Ireland now is the Euro. They guy who sold it to me was fat and eating chips behind the counter.

It was a black and white Les Paul copy with an action so high that I could hardly press the strings down. But none of it mattered… I was consumed with an uncontrollable passion to teach myself how to play guitar. That was all there was to it and nothing was going to stand in my way.

Think that’s dedication? Well get this…

I also quit school early so that I could spend all my time practicing. That’s dedication. I can’t explain it really. I just knew what I wanted in life very early. It was simple, a no-brainer.

In those days I really wanted to play like Slash from Guns n’ Roses so i worked on learning all their songs, especially the solo from “Sweet Child O’ Mine“. What a masterpiece.