When I was growing up, my mom mostly listened to country or oldies, which means I mostly listened to country or oldies. To this day, I still hate country music. But thanks to my mom, I developed an appreciation for Motown and soul, and I'm also a huge fan of 60's surf rock, like Dick Dale, the Ventures, The Chantays, etc. and also the Beatles. Funny thing is, I didn't really like the Beatles when I was a kid. I don't think I really got them until after high school.
High school was in the 90's, so naturally, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Smashing Pumpkins, NIN, Tool, Social Distortion, Bad Religion...these were all huge influences for me. They are still my favorite bands, and likely always will be. It was also during the 90's, thanks to our local rock station in New Orleans that I started listening to classic rock. I'm a big fan of Pink Floyd, the Stones, and Zeppelin, and I dig a lot of other classic rock.
In the late 90's/early 2000's (college years) I got into really hard rock and metal. I suppose it was a natural transition. I was listening to Metallica through out the 90's, and I liked some of the older metal bands like Sabbath, but I'd never delved into the genre before. This was when I began listening to Anthrax and Megadeth, Rammstein, Sevendust. I still dig stuff like that, but one too many concerts has left me with a bit of hearing loss, so I wouldn't say I'm into as much as I was then.
Lately, as in the past couple of years, in a desire to listen to something new (to me at least; a lot of new rock bands suck nuts, and most of them all sound the same thanks to Nickelback) I started getting into punk. A lot of that had to do with XM radio. The Fungus channel introduced me to a lot of music I never heard before, and it's pretty much what I listen to now on Faction. That, and Lithium, which is all that great grunge rock from the 90's.
And interestingly enough, I like a lot of newer alternative bands, Muse, and Modest Mouse, The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, The White Stripes, Riverboat Gamblers, Awolnation.
But, after all that, if I had to name one band that I identify with the most, I'd say Tool. I absolutely love Maynard's music.