I heard joe satrianis surfing with the alien in 1996 aged 12, was hooked straight away.
never even thought about guitars before that. Had a strat copy bought and played some Beatles stuff under tuition, obviously I hated it and wanted to be able to play like JS. Decided it was to hard and sacked it off.
picked it back up aged 18 and learned some nirvana etc easy and recognisable, I was a rockstar
been at it ever since, 38 now, don’t push myself as hard as I used to, don’t have the time I did when I was younger but happy at the level I’m at and spent many, many thousands of pounds!