How you got into prog?

By 1977-1980 I was listening to Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, The Beatles, etc., and all the classic bands and I met an older guy had all this arsenal of LP's by all these "rare bands"and I remember he used to lend me his LP's. My first prog lesson was listening to A Live Record by Camel, In The Land Of Gray And Pink by Caravan, Tales From Topographic Oceans by Yes, Playing The Fool by Gentle Giant, Seventh Sojourn by Moody Blues, Foxtrot by Genesis, and Thick As A Brick by Jethro Tull. This music along with some Anthony Phillips and the first live collaboration by McLaughlin, De Lucia, and Di Meola opened my mind and ears to Progressive Rock. I was only 12 at the moment but I can fairly say that great music can be listened at any age.

The Mars volta baby!!!!!!1

Ah, the story. I was pretty much raised on Rush, Scorpions, Supertramp, Kansas, The Police and popular late 70's bands of the sort that my parents enjoyed when they grew up in that era and they played it in the car on trips. I know Permanent Waves inside out because of that, it's still my Mom's favorite album. I wasn't really a prog nut though, in fact I started to get heavily into hair metal in my mid-teen years. However during that time, my best friend Justin was a pretty much bred into progressive music, and he showed me Yes and I showed him Rush. They would become among our favorite band because of that. Also my brother and I were discovering power metal, like Kamelot, developing my taste for prog metal as well. Justin gave me Close to the Edge almost exactly year ago, and that album made my intellectual nature click and I have been obsessed with progressive rock ever since. He let me borrow Gentle Giant as well; I didn't like them at first because of the vocal style but I soon acquired the taste for them. Quite soon he and I were the progressive rock fanatics of the school, along with our already pogger friend Kent, and the three of us have exchanged prog albums and discovered what band we like and don't. My more metal loving friends Josh and Anthony and I have come to like progressive metal like Dream Theater, Opeth, and  Symphony X. Now pretty much all of my band geek friends at my school are becoming coverts with stories of their own to tell. It's just wonderful!

My English teacher in 9th grade was doing a poetry unit, and we were allowed to bring in some albums that we believed had poetic lyrics. Someone brought in The Dark Side of the Moon, and we listened to a couple tracks. I loved it.

David Bowies Pin Ups album w/ See Emily Play > Pink Floyd and Arnold Layne > Pink Floyd in general > King Crimson > SOLD! for 1 million dollars!

Through guitar I knew Satch and Vai, Malmsteen, Johnson etc.. and Then I found Petrucci. For a while I was convinced Dream Theater was the best band ever but ofcourse that doesn't last once you get into other prog (so through guitar I guess).

i used to be a massive fan of classic rock like led zep and guns n roses, then i heard november rain and stairway, and fell in love with the epic. then my dad introduced me to echoes by floyd, then yes's yours is no disgrace and finally rush - natural science. they didn't really appeal to me at first, but after my dad took me to a yes reunion concert at the NEC when i was 12, i've liked prog a wanted to find more ever since.

I listened to Pink Floyd when I was a kid (8 years old), I simply liked them. Didn't know what type of music they perform.

But Dream Theater turned my direction into prog seriolsy (and jazz also). I think that Dream Theater has this "special ability" to make people love prog.

My former piano teacher once said that people often have the same pattern  of musical development:

metal -> prog rock -> fusion -> jazz  -> classical music

Maybe that's true for some people, but not for me. Even if he is right to some extent, I think most people who are really bitten by the prog bug, never stop listening to prog. In many cases they wouldn't listen to other music either. Not in my case by the way: there was a lot of classical music being played at our home when I was a kid, and prog did open my ears for fusion, and fusion opened my ears to jazz a bit... Hey, my piano teacher was right in some way after all

I think I got in from the back door...

seriously, I did not know that Images and Words was called 'prog' back in 1992

obviously, through metal and then prog-metal