Greg Prato, reporting for Ultimate-Guitar.com:
As the old saying goes, we all stand on the shoulders of giants who came before us. In Paul Gilbert's case, one pair of these shoulders was that of Randy Rhoads. Back on February 2, 1982, over at Music City in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Gilbert was just another enthusiastic teenager wanting to learn a thing or two from one of the most influential guitar players of the era.
Aged only 15 at the time, what Paul didn't know was that he too would become a guitar giant. Just recently, while awaiting Mr. Big's new album Ten, we caught up with him and asked about the clinic. He shared a few details from the occasion, as well as Randy's performance with Ozzy Osbourne on the same day.
Ultimate-Guitar.com: You attended Randy Rhoads' clinic shortly before his passing. What do you recall about that, and what did you take away from attending it?
Paul Gilbert: "Mostly, he didn't play that much. I think he did, like, I don't know, six or eight clinics that day. He'd do, like, a half an hour, and then the next group of people would come in. So I think I was in the early group, and he hadn't really warmed up to playing yet. I think he played more later when I wasn't there. So, it was mostly just answering questions. And to me, the coolest thing was just being in a room with him and seeing him. He was like a beautiful human, glowing in kind of an angelic way.
"I remember asking him about picking because I was struggling with that at the time. And he told me the truth, which was he just does what he does. Which wasn't particularly helpful in helping me copy him. But in a way, that's an honest answer.
"I think a lot of players, they stumble upon things that work for them, so they don't have to go through this painful 'metronoming thing.' It's like, 'Oh, I found one thing is working, and I just use that.' So, sometimes that's good advice.
"And the thing that indirectly I learned was I knew the guys at the music store, and they were able to spend a bunch of time with Randy before or after the clinics. And he showed them, like, his exact fingerings for 'Diary of a Madman' and all these different riffs. And so when I hung out with my buddies that owned the store, later, they're like, 'Oh yeah, this is what Randy showed us.' So, I could get some of the fingerings that way."
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(Photo - The Record Plant 1977, by Ron Sobol)
