Guitarist GUS G.: How I Landed OZZY OSBOURNE Gig

Greek guitarist Gus G. (real name: Kostas Karamitroudis) recently spoke to Guitar World magazine about how he landed the gig with OZZY OSBOURNE as the replacement for longtime axeman Zakk Wylde.

In between albums with his main band FIREWIND, Gus played with various other groups, including ARCH ENEMY. When the latter act played the 2005 Ozzfest, Gus ran into his future employer. "That summer Blabbermouth had announced that Ozzy was looking for a new guitarist," Gus said. "So I went and knocked on the dressing-room door and gave his people my FIREWIND CD." Zakk was back in the band a couple of days later, but when Wylde and Osbourne parted ways last summer, Gus received an e-mail from Ozzy's office inviting him to audition.

"Initially, I was a bit stressed," Gus admitted. "But we jammed for a couple of hours, and then Ozzy came in and we did 'I Don't Know', 'Bark At The Moon', 'Crazy Train' and 'Suicide Solution'." Gus got the gig and almost immediately went into rehearsals for a show in August at the closing ceremonies of the BlizzCon gaming convention in Anaheim, California.

"I didn't have any problems learning the songs, technically speaking," he said. "But all of Ozzy's guitarists have their own unique styles, and you have to pay attention to that when playing songs from each guy's era. For example, Randy Rhoads would do all these weird little fills here and there. The first two albums he plays on are just pure genius; he was very ahead of his time. Jake E. Lee is underrated, maybe because he was in the band during Ozzy's big-hair era. I think he's phenomenal — a very unorthodox player. And Zakk is a really tough player — in order to live up to that, you have to have a really big sound. He's the bluesiest player of them all."