Alexi Laiho (born Markku Uula Aleksi Laiho) on 8 April 1979 in Espoo, Finland. He showed virtuosic signs at an early age, learning to play violin at five and listening primarily to classical music as a youth. His parents even told him that he was singing before he could talk.
“It’s a little weird, I know, I was 10 years old and watching MTV when the video for Steve Vai’s For the Love of God from the Passion and Warfare album came on. That was the moment I knew I had to start playing. Not only did it blow me away, it also opened up a whole new world for me.”
As Laiho’s interest in music shifted from classical to glam metal and shred, his parents were fully onboard with his transformation; his father even bought Alexi his first guitar when he was 11, a white Tokai Stratocaster. “A good guitar,” Laiho stated later. “Every day I’d run home from school and play it until my parents would almost have to physically knock me out to get me to sleep.” Laiho took his obsession with the guitar to new heights while in high school, ultimately cutting classes to stay home and woodshed and teach himself heavy metal and shred techniques from instructional videos.
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