GUS G.: I'm A Bigger BLACK SABBATH Fan Than OZZY OSBOURNE Fan

Guitar Player magazine recently conducted an interview with FIREWIND/OZZY OSBOURNE guitarist Gus G. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Guitar Player: How big an influence was Ozzy's music on you?

Gus: Very big. I'm a huge BLACK SABBATH fan. I'm a bigger SABBATH fan than Ozzy fan, to be honest. Not to put any of Ozzy's music down, because I grew up with his solo records as well, and I studied all the guitar players that have played in his band. But I have a certain love for BLACK SABBATH and Tony Iommi. I think I totally come from that school of guitar — that traditional, heavy, hard rock guitar playing.

Guitar Player: What are the challenges to playing parts that were originally laid down by Tony Iommi, Randy Rhoads, and the others?

Gus: For a Tony Iommi part, you need to sound fucking heavy, that's for sure. That's what BLACK SABBATH is all about — being heavy and dark. As for Randy, Jake [E. Lee], and Zakk [Wylde], they're all great players. I love them all and everybody was different. I grew up with that stuff so it's great just being able to play these songs. I stick to the originals the way they were recorded. I feel that I have a very important spotlight here next to Ozzy Osbourne so I need to play this music accurately because it's all classics — the stuff that defined heavy metal and hard rock. There's always a little bit of space to do your own thing obviously, but "Crazy Train" is "Crazy Train". You don't fuck with that.

Guitar Player: How does FIREWIND's music differ from Ozzy's?

Gus: It's more of a band environment in the sense that we're playing our own songs and not backing a solo artist. The Ozzy gig is the coolest job on earth, but FIREWIND is a different scenario. We've been around for a while. We have five albums. We have a keyboard player who also plays guitar. The music has some power metal influences, as well as our SCORPIONS-meets-SABBATH-meets-JUDAS PRIEST kind of thing.

Guitar Player: Who did you listen to growing up and who do you like these days?

Gus: Early on it was Tony Iommi. Later, Yngwie Malmsteen was a big influence. The first record I heard from him was "Trilogy", and that's what really got me into the whole shredding thing. The '80s shredders like Paul Gilbert, Vinnie Moore, and Marty Friedman — I love all those guys. I also love European players from the '70s like Uli Jon Roth, Michael Schenker, and Gary Moore. As for newer guys, Jeff Loomis is great. The guys from DRAGONFORCE are very good. Michael Amott from ARCH ENEMY is a great player and he's definitely from the '70s school of guitar. I'm glad to see newer guitar players bring in that element. If young players do some digging and find out who Ritchie Blackmore and Gary Moore are and listen to THIN LIZZY and great bands like that, they can find a lot of amazing guitar stuff there. Hopefully we can be the new generation that carries that torch.

Read the entire interview from Guitar Player magazine.