Michael Romeo - Early Life

Early Life

Michael Romeo's introduction to formal music training began with piano lessons when he was 10 years old. He also played clarinet. However, it wasn't until after hearing his first Kiss album that he seriously considered switching to the guitar. He ended up purchasing a cheap acoustic guitar at a garage sale.

Influenced by Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Rush, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, he became serious about the guitar after listening to the albums Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman from Ozzy Osbourne. He was also heavily influenced by the neoclassical technique and style of Randy Rhoads, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Uli Jon Roth; along with great composers such as Johan Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig Van Beethoven and Igor Stravinsky. Romeo's own influence has rubbed off on younger players, including Dragonforce's Herman Li, who listed Romeo among his Top 10 favorite guitarists in 2010.

Read more about this topic:  Michael Romeo

Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:

    “I have always had something to live besides a personal life. And I suspected very early that to live merely in an experience of, in an expression of, in a positive delight in the human cliches could be no business of mine.”
    —Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)

    “He had never learned to live without delight. And he would have to learn to, just as, in a Prohibition country, he supposed he would have to learn to live without sherry. Theoretically he knew that life is possible, may be even pleasant, without joy, without passionate griefs. But it had never occurred to him that he might have to live like that.”
    —Willa Cather (1873–1947)