At 31 years old, Greek guitarist Gus G is living the life that most guitarists of all ages only dream of. Not only is Gus out on the road with his band Firewind melting faces from town to town, he is also the holder of the coveted guitarist slot in Ozzy Osbourne’s band. When Firewind was in Atlanta recently, I had the opportunity to talk with the soft spoken and humble guitarist. We talked about everything from the creative process to why it’s so important to not give up on your dream. Gus was a great guy and I hope you all will enjoy this interview as much as I did.
Gus, thanks so much for taking the time out to do this.
No problem man. Thank you for coming out.
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I honestly had never heard of Firewind until I heard that you were picked to be Ozzy Osbourne’s new guitarist. Have you seen a growth in Firewind’s fanbase because of your new gig?
Oh yeah. You are living proof of that [laughs]. Our fan base has grown and I think it will keep growing more and more. I do see more and more fans coming in and I know they’re Ozzy fans because they are all wearing Ozzy shirts to the shows [laughs]. I think it will continue to grow which is a positive thing for us being a young band in the American market.
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I’ve been an Ozzy fan for many years and I know that a lot of Ozzy fans tend to be on the older side. Are you seeing that different age range coming into the Firewind fan base?
Yeah, we are definitely getting some older fans but Ozzy has a lot of younger fans as well. The thing with Firewind is that we don’t really draw that many kids. There seems to be a pretty big age gap. There’s either going to be young kids like 16 and 17 or older fans like 40 and older. People in their 20s and 30s don’t seem to listen to what we play but that’s cool. It’s not for everybody. I think the older fans who like classic rock and traditional metal can relate to what we do. It’s melodic and it has influences from all those bands from the 70s and 80s.
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With Ozzy doing arenas and Firewind doing clubs, is there one that you prefer over the other?
Well when you’re doing a big production tour like Ozzy, you have your own PA system and you have the same sound every night no matter where you go. When you’re doing clubs you have no idea what you’re going to run into. It could be a good PA or most times it’s a shitty PA. I’m an easy going guy though so I just work with whatever I’ve got. The most important thing is that people come to the show. I just like playing shows to the fans so I like them both.
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Firewind is finally touring for “Days of Defiance” which was actually released in 2010. What took so long?
[Laughs] We couldn’t really do the tour last year because I was out with Ozzy so we’re doing it now. It should be called “The Better Late Than Never” tour [laughs].
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Firewind is a new band to a lot of people but you guys have six albums under your belt. That’s a good chunk of music right there.
The thing is we did our first tour of American for our fifth album “The Premonition.” We only did a few East coast dates for the fourth album but our first proper coast to coast tour was for our fifth album. For a lot of people here, that was our debut. Sometimes it might take a few albums but we didn’t even become a touring band until our fourth album “Allegiance.” The first three albums was just me with a bunch of studio guys. We weren’t really a touring band. It was more like a studio project.
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So Firewind started out as a collective of sorts?
That’s right. From the fourth album on we became more of a stable line up and started touring the world. We started as a studio project and then evolved into an actual band.
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That’s great. So now I don’t have to feel so bad about being late in the game.
[laughs] Exactly! It is all about touring these days. Unless you are a touring band, you can do all the records you want to do and nobody will ever know about you.
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With Firewind being more of a touring band and a more solid entity, do you find yourself connecting with and creating the music differently now?
The thing is that you mature and with every album you want to do things differently. You don’t want to repeat stuff you weren’t happy with in the past. Every musician has that in his mind constantly whether it’s writing a song or an album or whatever.
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The coveted guitar slot in Ozzy’s band is a tough slot to have. Were you met with any resistance from the hardcore fans at all?
Not at all. Ozzy told me once, “You are the first guy that hasn’t had any shit thrown at him at the gigs” [laughs]. That was an incredible thing because I had heard horror stories but I really can’t complain. The fans have been very nice to me and I also got a lot of support from Zakk Wylde (previous Ozzy guitarist). He’s been giving me props and has been really supportive and that means a lot to me because he’s one of my heroes. I met him while we were on tour and he was very nice and he told me lots of stories. It was cool.
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You have definitely joined this list of highly influential guitarists. Does this rank that you’ve come into make you feel like you needed to step it up as a guitar player or did it do little to change you?
Oh yeah. It definitely made me want to be a better guitar player. I said to myself, “This is your big chance you’ve definitely got to step it up now.” I think I’m a much better player today than I was two years ago.
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Let’s talk about the creative aspect. When you sit down to write and be creative, when that mode kicks in do you say to yourself, “I’m going to write for Firewind now” or “I’m going to write for Ozzy now”?
If I have an idea that may come to me from just fooling around or jamming, I’ll just kind of know. I mean, both bands I’m in play heavy metal but Firewind is so different from Ozzy’s style. I’ll know if it’s something that’s heavier with a kind of Black Sabbath or Ozzy vibe, it would be for him. If it’s got a more speed metal and technical vibe it’ll definitely be a Firewind song. I don’t really have this issue with deciding what to use where. Right now I’m just in the process of being creative. I’m just writing all the riffs that come to my mind and making demos out of them. In the end, I’ll just see what develops into what and which direction it’s going to take me.
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I can totally see how trying to separate yourself like that creatively can make you go a little crazy. It’s probably best to just let them flow out of you and then figure out what to do with them later.
Right. You can’t really say, “I’m going to write something like “Suicide Solution” [laughs]. You got to just let the ideas flow naturally.
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Speaking of the creative process, how does the creative process work between you and Ozzy?
I played guitar on his last album “Scream” and it was a situation where I didn’t get to write stuff because it was already done when I walked in. They just needed a guitar player. I went in and Ozzy was very open and told me “Just go in and what you gotta do. If you wanna change something go ahead!” I did change some parts and make them more guitar player style because the producer wasn’t a real guitar player but he wrote the songs. While we were on the road we started writing some stuff together and it sounds really killer. I can’t wait for us to go back into the studio and do another album.
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When coming up with material for both Ozzy and Firewind, do you do any writing on the road?
Usually, not on a club tour like this. On the Ozzy tour we had a lot of off days in hotel rooms and there’s so much free time. In the end I just started getting all these ideas and then when I had a break from touring I went back home and started recording everything in my home studio.
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Man, I feel like we’ve had some good serious questions here so lets have a few fun ones.
[laughs] Ok, sure!
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If you could have a 30 minute guitar lesson with any guitarist a live or dead, who would it be and why?
Oh man. Probably Gary Moore. I wish he was still with us as he passed on not too long ago. Either him or Michael Schenker.
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Great choices and two pretty obscure guitarists.
Yeah, they were both big back in their heyday. A lot of those 70s guitar players and bands aren’t really up to that level any more. Ozzy is an exception I guess for being huge for almost 40 years now. Most of them are club level musicians these days and there’s nothing wrong with that. If you consider the musical legacy that they left behind them and how influential they’ve been. All that matters is that they touched me and were very important to me as a guitar player and musician. I don’t care if they’re playing arenas or playing clubs.
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I heard that you had gone to Ozzy and requested that he add “Killer of Giants” to the set list on the “Scream” tour.
That’s true. We did “Killer of Giants” on that tour and Ozzy had forgotten how much he liked that song. He hadn’t played that one since “The Ultimate Sin” tour in 1986. I know he doesn’t have the fondest memories of that album but I said to him, “This album has so many great songs on it. You have to revisit this one.” He said he didn’t like the way it sounded but it’s a totally different sound when you play it live. There are some brilliant songs on that album. The mix of that album may sound a bit dated today but the songs are like diamonds.
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What other obscure Ozzy classic would you love to see added into the set?
I was actually on Ozzy’s ass on the last leg of the tour about playing S.A.T.O [laughs]. We actually got him to get in and rehearse it but we never played it live. He’s never played that live [Gus then plays the song for me on his guitar]. That’s such a great song. I hope that we can do it one day. Maybe on the next tour.
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C’mon Gus. You gotta strong arm him a bit and get him to play that one.
[laughs] He loves that stuff. He goes back and listens and says, “This is some great fucking stuff man.” I’m sure we’ll get to do some more obscure songs. I know he’s open to that because he knows he has the right band to back him up. Whatever he requests and whatever he feels like doing we’ll do it. We’re there to make him happy.
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You are obviously living the dream by playing with Ozzy but is there any other artist you’d love to work with in the future?
I can’t think of any to be honest. When you’re in Ozzy’s band you don’t even look left and right. Playing with Ozzy is the ultimate fucking thing and it’s the biggest mountain you can climb as a guitar player. I think after playing with Ozzy, to play with anyone else would just be a downgrade. If I’m going to downgrade, I’d rather do it with my own band where it’s at least our own stuff and we do it our way and how we like it [laughs].
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Is there one particular guitar solo that just gives you goosebumps every time you hear it?
Hotel California. The Eagles was actually my first concert. [Gus plays solo from “Hotel California on his guitar]. I just love that solo so much.
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So what are you going to be for Halloween?
[laughs] We don’t have Halloween in Greece so I don’t know.
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Maybe you could dress up as Ozzy.
[laughs] Right! That would be good.
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If Hollywood was to make a movie about Gus G, who would you want to play you?
Denzel Washington [laughs]. Ozzy said that once. Someone asked him once, “Who would you want to play you?” and he said Denzel Washington. They asked who would play Sharron (Osbourne; wife/manager) and he said, “Denzel Washington” [laughs].
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Some people will say that you are too old to pursue your dreams. Do you have a message out there for all the dreamers?
I’d say you are never too old to rock n’ roll. We all have our dreams and it’s good to dream. You’ve got to set goals and focus on achieving them one at a time. You just have to be happy. If you do what makes you happy than you’ve succeeded. Succeeding with your goals is basically a result of how well you are able to focus on the goals you set. Work hard. I guess I am a living example of that. You may think shit like this doesn’t happen but it does!
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To close out, what does the rest of 2011 and into 2012 look like for Gus G?
I’m going to Japan next month for a series of guitar clinics and then Firewind goes into the studio in December to work on the next record which will come out next Summer or Spring.
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Next time you’re in town maybe you can come by the house for dinner!
[laughs]. If I have time! I haven’t had time to even take a shit today [laughs]. I actually have to make an appointment to do so.
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Well don’t let me keep you from that appointment man. Gus, thanks so much for doing this interview. It was a lot of fun.
[Laughs] Thank you for coming out. It was a pleasure. Enjoy the show tonight!
The Brainfart & Gus G Backstage in Atlanta, GA
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