Paul Gilbert

Paul Brandon Gilbert (born November 6, 1966 in Illinois) is a guitarist best known for his work with Racer X and Mr. Big. Following his departure from Mr. Big in 1996, Gilbert pursued a solo career.
Born in Carbondale, Illinois, into a middle class family, Paul started playing guitar at the age of 5, but soon gave up, becoming frustrated with just learning simple nursery rhymes. Around age 9, he took up the guitar again, but with a skewed memory of the technique. Paul revealed at an Ibanez sponsored guitar clinic August 12, 2005 in Concord, CA at Spitzer's Music, that he "played only with upstrokes, used only the low 'E' string and only used [his] middle finger on the fretboard." Frustrated after trying to play the intro to "Barracuda" by Heart, he took lessons and his teacher explained the error of his ways. His technique corrected, Gilbert continued practicing and by the age of 14 he developed a local band in Greensburg, PA named Missing Lynx. They played together for approximately two years and wrote their own material. After Missing Lynx he then went on to join another local band called Tau Zero, but left shortly after, and headed for California. He was spotlighted in Guitar Player Magazine alongside fellow up-and-comer Yngwie Malmsteen

Racer X
Formed in Los Angeles, Racer X originally comprised Paul Gilbert (guitar), John Alderete (bass), Harry Gschoesser (drums) and Jeff Martin (vocals). They were heavily influenced by Judas Priest and Gilbert's playing was reminiscent of Yngwie Malmsteen, displaying fast-driven solos with extreme-level technique. Gschoesser was replaced by Scott Travis (later known for being the drummer for Judas Priest) in 1986, and Bruce Bouillet was added as a second guitar player. Bouillet was a very skilled player, as he had to play over Gilbert's always difficult and challenging phrases. Paul Gilbert gained recognition as one of the fastest guitar players in the world due to incredibly technical pieces like "Frenzy", "Scarified", "Technical Difficulties" and "Scit Scat Wah". Gilbert left Racer X in 1988, but he eventually would rejoin the band in 1999. Currently the band is inactive, but Gilbert hasn't issued any statements that he has left the band.

Mr. Big
When Billy Sheehan left David Lee Roth's band in 1988, he joined with Paul Gilbert, who had left his former band, Racer X. They founded Mr. Big, with Pat Torpey on drums and singer Eric Martin. The band was a huge success in Japan, and became famous in 1991, with Lean Into It, their second album, which featured the ballad "To Be With You", which received strong media play and reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Gilbert continued playing in Mr. Big until the late 90s. He left the band in 1997 to pursue a solo career, and was replaced by Richie Kotzen.

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 is also considered to be one of the best proponents of alternate picking and string skipping.

* Like guitarist Eric Johnson, Gilbert suffers from tinnitus, primarily in his left ear, due to playing at excessive volume, and now wears headphones on stage to prevent further hearing damage. When Johnson and Gilbert each did their first G3 (tour)'s, (Johnson in 1996 and Gilbert in 2007) they both were wearing headphones during the closing group jam.
* In the track "Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy (The Drill Song)" by Mr. Big, the final 16 bars of the solo were played using a cordless drill with three picks attached to the end. After playing this song, Mr. Big got a sponsorship from Japanese power tool manufacturers, Makita, whose drills were used on all occasions from then on.
* He appeared several times on Marty Friedman's Japanese music show Rock Fujiyama as they are good friends.
* On the 31st of March 2006 Paul got married to Emi, a Japanese woman from Tokyo. She has been playing keyboards during Paul's tours in 2007. This is Paul's second marriage, the first was in the late 90's.
* On April 14 2007, during the G3 tour of 2007 at Sayereville, New Jersey, Paul orchestrated a small prank on stage during John Petrucci's song "Glasgow Kiss". He and his entire band dressed up in kilts and came on stage unexpectedly just after the guitar solo, performing a mock Scottish highland dance during the song's main theme melody.