Been playing since early 80's. Just as a hobby, No bands. Skills sort of fell into disrepair after the wedding and kids. Kids now old enough that I can pick it up again. When I started playing, shredding was what you did to documents and tone was the knob on your guitar that gave you that Black Sabbath sound. When I started playing again ( about three years ago ) it took me some time to figure out what the hell every one was talking about. In some ways it's as if I never stopped playing 'cause most of the bands I was listening to are still around or are making a comeback. Black Sabbath (Heaven And Hell ), Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC. Unfortunatly there is a lot more crap out there to weed through to find the good stuff in new or newish music. Some of my new favorites are, Annihilator ( yes I know they've been around since the late 80's, but some how I missed them. Trivum and Atryeu ( not the screaming stuff though ), Avenged Sevenfold, Firewind, Iced Earth, Fireball Ministry, Coheed and Cambria, Primal Fear ( it's like Judas Priest from an alternate universe, you can never have too much Priest ), and one other band that I never hear anything about even though they absolutly ROCK!!! ( sorry that sounds gay ) FOZZY!!