Kostas Karamitroudis: gus g ultimate-guitar interview

When you received that email from Ozzy's management, did you have to take a second look so to speak? Because you possibly couldn't believe your eyes?

Oh yeah, man. I didn't sleep for two days (laughs). I was freaking out.

Once you auditioned, what happened from there?

Once I auditioned, they actually asked me if I wanted to come back and play with Ozzy at an event, which was my first gig with him. It was BlizzCon, which was in Anaheim, California last summer. BlizzCon is a convention organized by Blizzard Entertainment, the company that publishes 'Warcraft' and video games like that. That's where we played.

How did playing with Ozzy at BlizzCon in the summer of 2009 lead to you playing on 'Scream'?

It was a day-to-day situation, really. After that, I went home and then as soon as I got home, Ozzy's management said "Ozzy has another event, the Sunset Strip Music Festival. Can you come back and do that one?". I replied "Sure, of course", and I went back and did that one. While I was in L.A., I went down to Ozzy's house and he played me his new record - 'Scream'. He said "I'd love to have you record some solos", so I listened to the material, played some solos, and then went back home. Nearly a month or two passed by and Ozzy's management contacted me again, saying "We like what you did, and we'd like you to actually record everything from scratch and do all the guitars. Not only the solos, but all the rhythm tracks and everything". It was a day-to-day thing; they never really forced me to do anything. They just played it by ear.

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