I certainly contributed to the record – a lot of the songs were based on riffs I wrote, but some of the ideas were really foreign to me. “What I did, was kind of step back and listen, watch, and learn from the other guys in the band. Big album was a transition for me,” Gilbert reflects. His teaming with bassist Billy Sheehan was the stuff of music store chatter in 1989, although it was becoming clear that the songs were Gilbert’s focus. Gilbert’s initial run with Racer X held to 1989, when he would form Mr.

The Racer X albums Second Heat in 1987 and Live: Extreme Volume in 1988 would further cement Gilbert’s status as a guitar wizard.

As long as people are listening to it, they can call it whatever they like.” To be a musician that people will pay attention to is really an honor and a very valuable thing to me. If I step back from it, I’m really fortunate that people are calling me anything. “When I was a kid, I wanted to be a ‘heavy metal’ guitar player – that term resonated with me. “It was a little strange to be labeled something that didn’t exist,” he says, due to the fact that the term ‘shred’ had yet to be officially coined in the mid-80s. Gilbert himself has an interesting take on his shred ‘guitar god’ status. Mr Big performing live in 2014 (Image credit: Getty) Because Racer X songs are challenging, they’re ‘technically difficult.’ Most of all, they’re a blast to listen to and to play – that’s what I like most about them.” By the end of it, we’re both smiling and laughing. “Now, years later, Alice’s (Cooper) drummer Glen Sobel and I play Racer X songs at soundcheck from time to time. “It was the joy of shredding, not taking themselves too seriously,” she explains. Strauss notes that in the often frustrating world of “shred” guitar, Gilbert and Racer X heralded a more celebratory tone within the music. I was totally blown away watching it not only by the technical proficiency of the song, but how much fun it sounded to play!” I immediately showed it to my older bandmate, who matter-of-factly said, ‘Oh, that’s Scarified (from Racer X’s Second Heat). “I saw a VHS tape of another guitar player shredding on this insane song. “I was 13, and just starting to play guitar,” she recalls.

Strauss, an admitted Gilbert devotee, recalls the first time she heard the inspirational licks emanating from her speakers. Gilbert’s fretboard antics have crossed generations, as evidenced in younger players like Nita Strauss, currently guitarist for the Alice Cooper band. He’s as devoted to his students as he is to performing.” “His enthusiasm for knowledge and education never stopped. “Paul still showed up for class on Monday, and soaked it up like a sponge,” Wyatt notes. Even though Racer X were packing clubs on the weekends, he’d always head back to the woodshed after the parties ended. Big’s Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy).

“He had skills and musicality far beyond his years,” begins Wyatt, “he was passionate about learning, and he had a wild imagination and sense of humour about the whole thing.” Wyatt lists examples as describing shred guitar in terms of “playing cards on bicycle spokes,” which would later materialise as a power drill attached to a pick (check out Mr. Wyatt says that Gilbert stood out from the hundreds of other aspiring guitar heroes for a few good reasons. Wyatt was an instructor at GIT during the time Gilbert arrived at the school, and the two have remained close to this day. “GIT classes were packed solid in the mid-1980s,” recalls Keith Wyatt, guitarist for roots/Americana act, The Blasters.

Paul gilbert shred