How did your family influence your tastes in prog?

My cousin had more of an influence on me getting into prog I would say. He was big into Genesis(as well as Yes but Genesis was his favorite)and so rather early on I think I put one and one together than Yes and Genesis were sort of similar to each other. He also told me about this band called King Crimson who "I might like if I like the early Genesis." My cousin never really went that deep into prog though even though he did like several of the major bands. I don't think he was ever into Pink Floyd, Rush, Kansas, Jethro Tull or ELP much. He did mention UK to me once but I'm pretty sure he never got into GG, Camel, Renaissance, VDGG etc. 

But there was 'indirect' influence via getting me into music that would eventually act as a bridge to prog. 

One, my dad read an article about Santana's Supernatural album in a Sunday leisure supplement of the newspaper we read.  The song Yaleo was the first time I was exposed to the idea of duels/trade off solos.  This would sound bewildering for those who do not know that I grew up in a fairly downmarket suburb of Mumbai and my only other exposure to Western music at that time had been a Beatles compilation which had mostly the songs from the first few albums (and then Let It Be ), an ABBA compilation which did NOT have Intermezzo no.1, the Yanni live at Acropolis concert which of course was heavily instrumental but in a different way and a Celine Dion concert . Oh, and some Michael Jackson songs, of course. This was long before mp3, limewire and the lot and most of our music consumption at that point was via cassette. 

The other and arguably major bridge was Ilayaraja's music. I don't know whether he did hear any progressive rock beyond Pink Floyd or whether he just appropriated Mancini and the like but looking back now, I can clearly hear the influence of prog or at least of 70s rock/funk/soul in his work.  

The passages from 11:40 to 12:10, 19:40 to 20:15 in the below video for eg (they are taken from his background scores).  There are many such but his team recently purged all the background score compilations uploaded (unofficially) on youtube, so I can't find more examples of the kind of passages I'd have wanted to show.

Dad was an avid listener of classical music and he had way over 2K albums from the earliest to the latest Stockhausen and other electronics of the day. The variety was crazy, and combined with about 50 or more operas, I ended up appreciating the variety ... and still do to this day!It explains why I don't care for bands that only have a beat drummer, and bass player. The work has very little life to show for it.

lazland wrote: It was my cousin who introduced me to Yes. Mum and Dad had little influence, aside from putting up with the racket I made from the hifi.

Ah yes, those shouts up the stairs of 'turn that racket down will you'!

Like others here, I hadn't heard the term "prog" until the 1990s. We all thought it was classic rock in the 1980s because the classic rock stations were the only ones playing this stuff.

I had no interest in any music my folks listened to. Religious, Pipe and Drum, Lawrence Welk, Hawaiian.

I did get an FM radio from my mom when I was around 9 or 10 and began to explore the dial. I like to listen to music when I was going to sleep. This also just happened to be the time that stations from the Detroit area could get picked up.  I think Arthur Brown's Fire was one of the first tunes I heard that caught my ear. A few years later it was Knife Edge by ELP, although it took some time to learn who they were. Later that same summer at a drop in centre for youth held at the local high school I heard The Three fates on the turntable and was smitten. I grabbed the album cover and saw the title Knife Edge. Now I had a name to the song and the rest, as they say, is history.

My dad did mention once that he's like to see ELP play, but unfortunately we never got that chance.

My mother couldn't stand my music. She hated the sound of a synth.

My sister (2 years older) was heavily into Elvis and Sha-Na-Na, so no influence there...at all.

My older cousin (4 years older) turned me onto the heavier stuff she listened to whenever we would visit. Stuff like Alice Cooper, Humble Pie, Grand Funk as well as the Allman Bothers, CCR and Led Zeppelin.

Just last week my son (29 yr old) made a reference to J. Geils, caught me totally off guard. I had no idea he listened to, let alone, liked them.