Well, the FIRST one was Donovan with Mellow Yellow.  I was 16 and had just traded a 6 pack of Bud for my brother-in-law's acoustic guitar.  I didn't even know how to tune it, but this song hit the airwaves and I was determined to play it.  I learned:
1.)  You CANNOT tune a $5 guitar, and
2.)  There were these things called "chords".

BrFrBob
1.)  You CANNOT tune a $5 guitar, and
 

No kidding!  Whenever I get asked about buying a guitar from parents of a would-be new player I always tell them not to just get the cheapest guitar they see because it will be soooo unplayable that it may completely drain the interest from their kid.  You don't need a custom PRS right out of the starting gate, but something that has a decent neck and will stay in tune so the kid can learn (and get hooked).

Band: The BEATLES
Person: Pete Townshend
 
any others but... only one. Rules are rules!

jamesg1213

craigb

eph221
Depeche Mode is/was awesome.  It's too bad the lead singer got hooked on Heroin.  But then again who hasn't lately.  At least he survived. :D  They were one of the few openly gay bands who were able to fill a coliseum.  The perceptions of the hoi polloi were that we were either too nelly (a la liberace) or hustlers of some kind.  They made it cool to be gay, same with Freddie Mercury.

Rob Halford, Udo Dirkschneider, Boy George, George Michael, Elton John, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Bronski Beat, etc., etc.
 
I couldn't care less about their personal lives/preferences, if I like the music I like the music.

Quite. Also, Dave Gahan, Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode are all heterosexual.

Oh give me a break.

Well dang. I answered twice. Different days different moods I guess. Second answer is more about the beginning for sure. Poor memory is a blessing sometimes. You can do the same thing for the first time more than once!
 
J

No doubt in my answer:
 
Pink Floyd
Wish You Were Here
David Gilmour
 
That band, that album, that guy. I can listen to it any time of day or night. And a hats' off to FM radio of yester-year, where you could sit back and listen to a full album side without commentary or commercials. I can't underscore just how important FM radio was to opening up my musical horizons.

Yes - Fragile.   Got the album for my 12th birthday.   Up till then I was mainly listening to Zeppelin and Sabbath, with sides of Deep Purple and Grand Funk and other (now) "classic" rock.   But when I heard Fragile for the first time I knew I was hearing something "different" from anything else I was listening to, from composition to performance to production.   I had no way to understand it at the time, but there was no mistaking it.   That album started an obsession with prog that lasted for decades....   ELP, Kansas, Genesis, UK, etc., and that lead to jazz/fusion like Return to Forever, Alan Holdsworth, Billy Cobham, etc., through more recent (relatively speaking) bands like Dream Theatre, Queensryche, Tribal Tech, and others.  I did eventually expand my tastes over the years to include blues, country, electronica, etc., but never lost that love for prog and classic rock.   Some things are just in the blood...
 
I don't think I can single out one musician, but I'll take a stab at two - Steve Howe and Keith Emerson.
 
 
BTW... I still have Snowflakes Are Dancing on vinyl.  

stevec
Yes - Fragile.   Got the album for my 12th birthday.   Up till then I was mainly listening to Zeppelin and Sabbath, with sides of Deep Purple and Grand Funk and other (now) "classic" rock.   But when I heard Fragile for the first time I knew I was hearing something "different" from anything else I was listening to, from composition to performance to production.   I had no way to understand it at the time, but there was no mistaking it.   That album started an obsession with prog that lasted for decades....   ELP, Kansas, Genesis, UK, etc., and that lead to jazz/fusion like Return to Forever, Alan Holdsworth, Billy Cobham, etc., through more recent (relatively speaking) bands like Dream Theatre, Queensryche, Tribal Tech, and others.  I did eventually expand my tastes over the years to include blues, country, electronica, etc., but never lost that love for prog and classic rock.   Some things are just in the blood...
 
I don't think I can single out one musician, but I'll take a stab at two - Steve Howe and Keith Emerson.
 
 
BTW... I still have Snowflakes Are Dancing on vinyl.  

 Great, a fellow Prog fan. For me, it was in this order:
 
The Beatles
Gary Richrath (REO Speedwagon, before the record company got to them) Hey, i'm a midwestern guy...
Kansas (Kerry Livgren is my favorite composer, other than Dvorak)
Ambrosia: see REO. This was a great band turned to schmaltz.
Kings X - just a GREAT UNDERRATED BAND
Spocks Beard - Love all albums, Snow is my favorite - what a killer album with tremendous songs
Rush - got into them REAL late, say 1990 or so. I like their later stuff much more than the early, although I saw them open up for Aerosmith in 1977? Either that or '78.   
 
Now, I'm way into Big Big Train. What a truly magical band. Lou Reed wasn't too shabby, either :-) Al Di Meola is in there too.
 
One musician? SRV. Living in Texas it's hard to escape his shadow, no matter what your preferred genre might be.
 

In the early years, I was consumed by what I didn't hear in the music. I would listen to a song and think about how I would have played it differently. It wasn't that I thought the original drummer was lame, it was just that I had a different sense for how it could be played. When listening to many popular rock songs, I felt that my approach would have sounded better, driven harder, or been more interesting. In the late '70's, though, I heard Rush. I don't remember what song it was, but I knew I was hearing someone who was pushing his limits. I heard him play things I wouldn't have considered.
 
Since then, I learned more about the artistry involved and how to craft a part to enhance a song rather than to show off chops. I discovered the value of creating the right feel and building the groove for the song and that led me to funk. 

Now there's something you don't hear very often......Rush and funk together.
(I'd love to hear them do some funk though....).