Inquirer Jeff Waters Of Annihilator

My mother told me we would walk by this shopping mall where we lived in Ontario, Canada, and there was a guy playing guitar all the time out in the street.

- Randy Harward

What influenced you to pick up a guitar?

My mother told me we would walk by this shopping mall where we lived in Ontario, Canada, and there was a guy playing guitar all the time out in the street. I sorta had little temper tantrums when I wanted to stop and listen and she would pull me away. So she picked up really quickly that, out of the piano, which she played, and other instruments, nothing sort of got my attention [like the guitar]. I was a real ADHD kid. It just seemed like guitar was something I could focus on. I was a zombie, staring right at it. So she got me into lessons when I was probably seven, eight, nine years old.

What was your first guitar that you owned? 

The first decent guitar I got was a Yamaha classical from 1974, which I used on the song “Crystal Ann” on my band’s first album. I still have it in my studio today. I guess my first electric was from Sears. My mom got me this totally cheap Les Paul copy. I’d gotten into Van Halen and started striping my guitar right away!

What was the first song you learned?

It was called “Big Rock Candy Mountain,” a two-chord, simple song. I remember Elton John’s “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”—tryin’ to figure out those notes.

What do you recall about your first time playing live?