Influence of parents' love for music was huge: Milind Deora

On CNBC-TV18's Vh1 Club Class, meet Milind Deora, corporate CEO, Parliamentarian and politician who plays the blues guitar.

Below is an edited transcript of the show on CNBC-TV18. Q: You come from a family that has a strong link to politics. How did you choose something like playing the blues guitar Wasn’t it like vastly different from what you grew up listening to? A: The guitar really came in to my life when I was about seven or eight years old. Like any young child with eager parents, my mother forced my brother and me to learn the guitar. Q: So you actually imbibed a certain musical sense? A: When we grew up, my parents had a huge interest in music. My mother, I remember, played the sitar and my father loved all genres. So we would always listen to music at home- everything from Earth, Wind & Fire to Mohammad Rafi to Hindustani Classical – one of our favourite albums I remember was Ustad Bismillah Khan jugalbandi album. I never really understood the influence on my musical taste until much later in life. The guitar really came in at the age of seven or eight and we were taught by a teacher living right across our building. Then when I moved to the US in 1995 to study I was exposed to the blues guitar and blues music. The first person who really initiated me into blues guitar was a Turkish friend of mine. In his dorm room, I remember listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan from his Austin City Limits- a classic album. He was really the turning point for me to start playing the blues guitar and jazz.