"My first electric guitar, it was like from Sears – it was a [Gibson] SG…" he said. "My parents just didn't really seem too supportive of it in the beginning, because they figured it's either gonna sit in the closet and collect dust, or 'he's gonna play it and it's gonna be loud and annoying.' It was kind of a difficult thing to convince them that I was gonna be serious about it, and I wanted this…" He added that, yes, he still has that guitar!

Donegan earlier this year told Gibson.com that classic metal guitarists inspired him to delve into guitar playing in the first place: "I can't really single out any player, but I liked going to concerts and the idea of being in a band where you see the impact four or five guys on stage have over thousands of people. So, that power and the scenario of the lead guitar just pummeling through the speakers were two things that caught my attention. Early on, I got into a lot of the classic metal players: Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath; the guitarists in Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Queensryche, Pantera. These bands all had great guitar players, so it definitely inspired me to go down that road."