Paul Gilbert
Paul Gilbert Paul Gilbert (November 6, 1966) was the former guitarist for the band Mr. Big. After he parted ways with the group in 1996, Gilbert pursued his career as a solo guitarist and has evolved into a successful solo artist/singer/songwriter. He formed a group called Racer X in the 80's, but currently he is soloing.Born in Carbondale, Illinois, he started playing guitar at the age of 5, but soon gave up, becoming frustrated with just learning simple nursery rhymes. Around age 11, he took up the guitar again, but with a skewed memory of the technique; he played only with upstrokes, and only used his middle finger to fret notes. Frustrated after trying to play a fast metal song with a galloping rhythm using this technique, he took lessons, and his teacher explained the error of his ways. His technique corrected, Gilbert continued practicing, and by the age of 15 he was not only touring local clubs with his band Tau Zero but was even spotlighted in Guitar Player magazine alongside fellow up-and-comer Yngwie Malmsteen.Talking about his influences, Paul mentions many different artists, including Judas Priest, KISS, Van Halen, and, rather surprisingly for a guitar shredder, the Ramones. He is also a great fan of Green Day.Gilbert composes music in a wide variety of styles including pop, rock, metal, blues, jazz, funk and classical, but is perhaps best known for his versatility and speed, which helped him be named as one of the "Top 10 Shredders Of All Time" by Guitar One Magazine.He did one album with Jimi Kidd, his uncle, in 2001 called Raw Blues Power.Contrary to much speculation, Paul Gilbert is not Buckethead. Buckethead was actually a student of Paul for a period of a year.Paul Gilbert writes his own section of the Britsh guitar magazine, Total Guitar. He normally demonstrates techniques for shred music in the magazine and the accompanying CD.