The Gus G Interview: From Watching Ozzfest As A Fan To Headlining As A Guitar Hero

So how were you living at the time – sorry for the cliché but were you just following the music?

I was kind of living like a bum. I'd do jobs here and there, but most of the time I didn't have a job, but I would do anything. Whatever it took, whether that meant I was a dishwasher in a restaurant or working in a nightclub.

But I've got to tell ya; I was lucky. When the first Dream Evil album came out in 2002, we were getting gigs off that record right away, particularly in Japan. We weren't making much money, just enough to cover a small rent, but I was content.

So what was the turning point from “bum” to rock star?

That was right after our third album. We'd put out a record called Forged By Fire, we did a little touring, and the band starting growing. We'd just signed with a bigger label (Century Media) and right around that time, the summer of 2005, I got a call from Michael Amos. He needed a guitar player for Arch Enemy.

And I jumped at the chance. The tour would be amazing, they were doing Ozzfest, and Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden were headlining. It was a huge gig. That five months on the road with Arch Enemy was a real eye opening experience. I saw how these guys were a unit, and how professional they were when they approached making music, playing a gig and just being a band.

It was the first timed I'd joined a real professional outfit and I did a lot of thinking that summer. I came to the conclusion that if I didn't take the same serious approach to Firewind, then it would never be a real band; it'd just be a project that made studio albums.

So I decided not to continue with Arch Enemy and I went back home. I started changing the line up, and we found Apollo and Mark Cross and Firewind had it's proper line up. We recorded our fourth album and set about a world tour.

So once Firewind became a “proper” band, did the dynamic change - most people consider it to be “your band”, did you have total control?

I write most of the material, but I do co-write with the other guys. Apollo writes most of the lyrics and the melodies. Before Apollo and Bob arrived I would write everything alone, but once we settled on the line up we became a team.

Speaking of Apollo his tenure with the band has come to an end, and you’ve announced Kelly Sundown Carpenter as his replacement for the upcoming tour; will he be taking over full time?

We're taking things day by day. We're a band who've seen too many things. The core, me, Petros and Bob, we've seen a lot of people come and go and we love Kelly, but we don't want to pressure anybody into joining the band. We just wanna tour, have a little fun, and see how it goes. He's an amazing singer and the guys were really blown away, and that's how I felt the first time I heard him.

It’s an interesting move because we tend to think of Kelly as an operatic singer from his time with Beyond Twilight.

That was more the vibe of that band, but Kelly he can do a balls out, Rob Halford style too. He can nail the rock stuff. We go from heavy to melodic and he's got it down. People forget that Apollo had that operatic edge to him. He had vibrato. If you check out Times Requiem he's done that stuff, we're more of a straight ahead metal band.

The two singers have a lot in common, and hopefully it'll work out.

Back to the Gus G story for moment, your rise doesn’t end with Firewind becoming a “proper band”. Many of our readers will know you as Ozzy Osbourne’s new guitarist, how on earth did you get that gig?

I was invited to audition by an email. Somehow I'd made their shortlist. I don't know why or how, but I was on their radar, and of course I jumped at the chance. I had nothing to lose!

I went to LA learnt a bunch of songs, we jammed that day, and it was perfect. There was a really good vibe with Ozzy, and a couple of months later I was back to do my first gig with Ozzy Osbourne.

The next thing I knew I was going to the studio in his house, and he was playing me his new record, and I laid down some solos and ended up redoing all the guitar parts on Scream. It's been a pretty amazing ride so far.

What can I say, my life changed drastically from one day to the other.

Of course when you joined Ozzy’s band you replaced Zakk Wylde, one of the most iconic guitarists. How do you feel about following in his footsteps?

I don't think anyone can replace a guy like Zakk Wylde. You've just got to be yourself. You can't be Zakk Wylde, or Randy Rhodes, or Tony Iommi, or Jake E. Lee, you know?

If you look at it, each guy was a different character, but they all had a common theme (you've got to be able to play the Ozzy style) and you have to come from that school of heavy metal - but you have got to be your own man. And that's what I'm doing.

Do you get much chance to express yourself live?

There's a fine line between expressing yourself and honouring the song. You've got to play "Mr Crowley" note for note, but there are little parts here and there, where if you listen, you'll even hear Randy doing his own thing. There are little spaces all over the place where you can do your own thing, around the riffs. That's the good thing about this gig - it really showcases the guitarist.

That said, when it comes to the core track, you cannot change it. You know, it's not like you go in there and decide your going to play "Bark At The Moon" different. It is what it is. That's it.

It’s pretty incredible you’ve come full circle from getting your first taste of a real band at Ozzfest to headlining with Ozzy Osbourne. What’s it like being metal’s biggest headliner?

It's mind-blowing man. I first saw the Ozzfest in 98 in Miami. Joe Holmes was playing guitar then and it was just "Wow".

It was like a kid's dream to see let alone play on a stage like that, but then fast forward 5 years and I'm a part of band that's really happening now (Arch Enemy) and just getting to play on that stage is incredible…but fast forward another 5 years and you’re headlining Ozzy's own festival. It's fucking....words can't describe how awesome it is.

You know that movie Rockstar with Mark Walhberg. It's like that, it's that big a change, not that I was playing in cover bands, but going from fan to headline, it's indescribable.

That sounds unbelievably cool, but what’s it like in the studio? Are you part of a team or does what Ozzy says, go?

Well you have to understand when I joined the band the record was already written, they just didn't have the guitar player to play the parts. I had to treat the songs that were there with respect. It was very last minute. Now we'll have the chance to start from scratch. We've been writing together on the road, but nothing is set in stone. I can't say this is what's going to happen because it's not my call. When he's done with Sabbath he might want to go back to what we worked on, but if he wants something completely new that's cool.

I'm a guitar player you know, if he wants riffs, I have them, and I'll always be there to jam.

So back to Firewind, your last record Few Against Many was a real success. It felt like you changed your sound becoming more immediate and tub-thumping, was that a conscious choice?

I guess it was intentional because I wanted to make a different record. After Days Of Defiance I felt like we were copying what we were doing before. I wanted to create an album that would refresh our sound and revamp everything, without really getting away from who we are. The elements that were missing were the heaviness and the groove, I felt that we needed a more guitar-orientated sound and that's what we did.

Did you record this record Few Against Many while you were working with Ozzy?

I wrote a lot of the riffs while I was on the road with Ozzy. I sat down in hotel room while we had a break from the tour with Ozzy and I realized I had six or seven songs, but we didn't really go into the studio until after Ozzy was done.

Metal has this great ability to capture a sense of frustration, outrage and pain, and your home country has endured a torturous five years since the financial crash. Does that suffering and political outrage affect your music, or do you keep your music and politics apart?

It has affected all of us. I was on the road with Ozzy so I wasn't really home much, so I'd read the news and not really understand what was happening, but then I'd return home and you'd see how it was affecting the people who are close to you in their everyday life. They just don't have any money any more, all the wages are cut down, and businesses are closing every day.

It affects you subconsciously, even though I don't have a 9-to-5 job because you feel it from the people around you. And maybe it bleeds over and made the riffs more aggressive. It's funny because we called the record Days Of Defiance 3 years ago, before the crisis had really broken out here in Greece, but it was already in the stars.

We're not really a political band but we have tracks that talk about how people are like sheep and have been voting for the same crooks over and over again…and, well, you saw where it brought the country.

I think people looked at the album title "Few Against Many" and took it be about their country, but for us it was more personal, but it had a universal quality. Everyone has their own fight: whether it's against your own personal addictions or just to get to a better place, everyone has their own fight.

That’s certainly fair. On a lighter note what have you got in store for us in 2013?

I plan to be on the road until August touring the last Firewind record. We're mixing a live record from our Greek anniversary shows and I'm also working on a solo record that will hopefully come out this year.

What should we expect; instrumental/full band/vocals?

Ha I've not made my mind up. I've got some instrumentals that are heavy, and I've got some more traditional rock with vocals. I might try and blend it but I'm not sure, but what I can say is that the sound will be very different, and definitely refreshing.