Since my wife threw me in the mix here, I guess I could elaborate. Sorry in advance for the long winded history
Started with piano at age 8, made my way to 7th grade level on it but always loved playing by ear far better than reading sheet music. So I wrote more music than I learned about it back then, if that makes sense.
Gave it up in my later teens to play guitar. Took 2 lessons and instantly went to books of scales/modes after that, far cheaper and could learn from home at my own pace. Had friends that taught me the basics with chording, but Dave Celantano's books showed me the soloist side of guitar with hammer-ons and pull-offs, scaling, harmonic techniques, augmented/diminished chords, etc....the rest I've dug up myself. YouTube makes that far easier today than what I had back in my youth
Been playing guitar for 22 years now, and I sadly dont know much about theory itself. Always favored playing by ear, learning through covering other's music, and writing my own pieces. Had a passion for heavy music, all metal all the time - but the older I got, the more variety I learned to appreciate. Now I play an old acoustic more than my electrics just for simplicity's sake, and to help me broaden my musical palette. Found more taste in music, is probably best to say. Metal all day? Cant do that anymore. Love talent too much to just listen to technical skill without the melody, but some metal bands pull off both very well.
Equipment was quite the fetish in my first 7 or 8 years, seeking a tone I could love through random stacks/racks/instruments.....think I spent about $15k in that time, starting with low end Crate to the higher end of Orange/Bogner class A's. Now my current stage rig is a Crate Black Voodoo Celestion V30 - 4/12 cabinet and a Bogner designed Line6 SpiderValve 100 watt tube head. Podfarm style effects built right into it, and a Line 6 Shortboard floor controller. Way easier to handle than a 200 lb rack of amps/processors/compressor limiter/tuner/gate. Band mates hated gigging with my old setup, but the SpiderValve does it all at an easy to lift 40 lbs.
Electric guitars have ranged from USA H&M Strat, USA Custom Jackson, BC Rich, and a metric ton of Ibanez RG's. Gotta say, the Ibanez Wizard necks are the devil. I learned on one, and haven't found anything that is as fast and thin to play on. Acoustic I have now are a '68 Yamaha FG, and a cheap Fender squire....but I'd like to get a higher end acoustic eventually.
Never went full professional, but was signed to a smaller independent label back in '96-'97 until we landed a bigger, semi-corporate deal with Cardena/Aurora Records. But alas, metal doesn't pay all that great, so with a mortgage and a child I had to keep full time employment. First year with Aurora was brutal, we played almost 140 shows that year. Hit our peak at Milwaukee Metal Fest in '98 playing in front of about 1500. Our album actually did better overseas through Nuclear Blast distribution than it did here in the states, and we never left this continent! After that, we discussed changing things up to veer towards the new Linkin Park phase that was coming on strong. Label didnt like that one bit, so they sat on us until we lawyered up to get out of the contract. Dream was done at that point, been a hobby since and have played with several local bands the last 12 years or so.