1. Ween... brilliant
2. The Smiths/ Morrissey... tongue in cheek, sensitive, cool as a cucumber
3. The Cars... great sound, lyrics... very beatnik and very eighties
4. Laurie Anderson... original as hell
5. David Byrne... great lyricist, great showman, still making great music at 55 or whatever. My hero.

I mean, there are more... way more... but this is a start, yknow?

5) Howlin' wolf
4) Willie Nelson
3) Johnny Cash
2) SRV
1) Metallica

evan taubenfeld
hayley williams
josh farro
alex deleon
john o'callaghan
avril lavigne

in no order

jerry jeff walker
ani difranco
the allman brothers
stoney larue
neil young

as a guitarist/music in general
Clutch
Mastodon
Jimi Hendrix
RHCP
Frank Zappa

as a bassist
Jaco Pastorius
Flea
Dan Maines
Mike Dirnt
Charles Mingus

compositionally
Frank Zappa
Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal
Ian Anderson
John Coltrane
Charles Mingus

as you can see there's a few repeats

In reverse order...

5. Francesco Gucchini
Beautiful Piedmontian accent and very powerful lyrics. "Auschwitz" is a masterpiece both vocal and lyrical.

4. Mark Knopfler
Some of his songs are, to put it cliche-ic, entwined to my soul. I think "What it is" was the song that sparked my musical interest.

3. Andrea Bocelli
I was never really excited by Pavarotti, so why Bocelli? I think it is Bocelli's softer, more intimate voice that does it. "L'ultimo Re", "Canto della Terra" and Mille lunde mille onde" are among the favourites.

2. Bob Dylan
After Knopfler ignited my interest, and later passion, for music, Dylan made me pay attention to the lyrics. And for a long time I thought of Dylan as the ultimate master of lyrics, until I discovered...

1. Fabrizio de Andre
He changed the way I think about music, poetry, everything lyrical and musical. Had he written in English he would be world-famous. My inspiration number 1, 2 and 3.

In no real order...

David Bowie
Made me realise how shit nu metal and just about every other band I listened to at the time truly were.

New Order
My introduction to electronic music.

Steel Pulse
My introduction to the wonderful world of reggae.

Elvis Costello and Nick Cave
And I wouldn't be who I am today without the influences of these two.

1. Nirvana
2. The Beatles
3. The Rolling Stones
4. The Ramones
5. Bob Dylan

1. Iron Maiden
2. 10 000 Maniacs
3. Dire Straits
4. Bob Marley/Peter Tosh (began something out of this world)
5. The Clash

No particular order.

Aphex Twin
Beck
The Beatles
Joy Division
Outkast