Paul Gilbert was born on the 6th November 1966 in Carbondale, Illinois. Formerly in the band ‘’Mr Big’’ which disbanded in 1996 he has pursued a successful career as a solo guitarist and has proven to be successful in this field. Currently nowadays he’s back in action playing lead guitar with the reformed 90’s hard rock group ‘’Racer X’’.

     He started guitar at the age of 5, but gave up soon after being frustrated just learning nursery rhymes. Around the age of 11 he took up the instrument again, but with a totally naïve knowledge of technique he played with only upstrokes, and fretted notes with only his middle finger! Frustrated after trying to play metal songs and failing, he decided to get a teacher which did correct his errors.

     Now with his technique corrected he continued to practise excessively, 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 J Malmsteen.

     Onto his influences, Paul has a wide range of them Including Kiss, Van Halen and Judas Priest being his main rock ones. Also, surprisingly for a shredder, he was into punk act The Ramones and has also confessed that he is a fan of Green Day. Gilbert composes music in a wide variety of styles including rock, pop, metal, blues, jazz, funk and classical, but is best known for his breakneck speed playing.