Erik Turner was 8 years old when his parents bought him his first guitar. He hated it.

It was an acoustic—not horrible, but definitely the kind you get a kid when he’s learning to play. Young Erik took lessons, but he couldn’t bring himself to practice and, like so many hobbies gone awry, lost interest and stopped picking up the guitar entirely.

“Fast forward… I’m 13 years old and I saw the movie, ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,’” said Turner, now 61. “I was already an Alice Cooper and Aerosmith fan. I saw Aerosmith’s performance, and when I left that theater, I was like, ‘I gotta get in a band.’ But I was too shy to sing and didn’t even know if I could sing. I tried playing drums. My dad’s girlfriend had her son’s drum set at our house, so I tried playing that, but quickly reali

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