Paul Gilbert: a potted history... by paul gilbert

News:
23-12-2008:
Spotted on the racer X forum:

I am so honored that anyone would care about my teenage rock bands, that I thought I would give a detailed, chronological list of them. I think the years are accurate, give or take 6 months:

PENNSYLVANIA BANDS:

1978: PARADISE
We played "It Don't Come Easy" by Ringo Starr at a talent show and lost.
I remember playing and singing "Rain" by the Beatles and "Take the Money and Run" by Steve Miller. We also did "Hold the Line" by Toto and "D.O.A." by Van Halen with some other guy singing. I quit because the drummer couldn't get the fill at the beginning of D.O.A. right.

1979: SUNSTROKE
I answered an ad at a music store that read "Wanted: Lead Guitarist. Must be at least 13 years old." I was 12, but they let me try out anyway and I got the gig. We played "The Cowboy Song" by Thin Lizzy, "Head First" by The Babys, and an instrumental version of "We Will Rock You" by Queen. We played a gig at a high school. My mom came to the show and asked my why I had my back to the audience the whole time. I had no idea I was doing that. I was just used to looking at the drummer at rehearsals. After that show I made it a point to turn around.

1980: THE ATOMIC BASEMENT BAND
I found a drummer who hit the drums hard and could sing, and a bass player with a Rickenbacker and an SVT. Together we played "Letting Go" by UFO, "School's Out" by Alice Cooper, and "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC. We rehearsed in an abondoned room above a record store(not a basement), until we were kicked out for being too loud. Then we moved to a friend's basement and changed our name to...

1981: MISSING LYNX
This band was the Atomic Basement Band plus the drummer from "Sunstroke". We added him because he could play the fills in 2112. Our original drummer became our full time vocalist. We played "Hot and Ready" by UFO, "2112", "Tom Sawyer", and "Red Barchetta" by Rush, "Wanna Rock" by April Wine, and "American Girls" by Triumph. We also did "Day of the Eagle" by Robin Trower which impressed the guys in...

1982: TAU ZERO
This band had their own P.A. system, lights, and a truck for moving stuff around. They told me that they would be playing lots of shows, so I joined up. We played "Feels Like the First Time" by Foreigner, "Kill the King" by Rainbow, and "Hold On Loosely" by 38 Special. We had a keyboard player with a B3 organ and a Moog synthesizer and these songs sounded great with him. But he loved Judas Priest and always wanted to add B3 parts when we played "Head Out to the Highway". We also played "Rock Candy" by Montrose. I did an unaccompanied solo at the end which was the first thing I ever sent to Mike Varney.

1983: GIANT
This four-piece band had the drummer from Tau Zero, a new singer and bass player, and no organ player to mess up the Judas Priest songs. We played "Entre Nous" by Rush, "Shout At the Devil" by Motley Crue, "All Hell's Breakin' Loose" by KISS, "Number of the Beast" by Iron Maiden, and "I Don't Know" by Ozzy Osbourne. We wrote and recorded two songs that would later be done by Racer X: "Living the Hard Way" and "Let's Split the Light" (Which Jeff Martin re-wrote to become "Hammer Away".)
We had some good shows and even opened up for FOGHAT, but our drummer was drinking a lot and becoming unreliable, so I joined...

1983: YIELD
Another four-piece band. We played "Digital Man" by Rush, "Little Guitars" and "Hear About It Later" by Van Halen, "Let Me Entertain You" by Queen, and "Easy Livin'" by Fastway. Our drummer had to leave over the summer to go to a music school, so the singer played drums on half the set, and I play drums on the other half. That was FUN. When the drummer came back, we started rehearsing at his house and one day he said, "Hey, I've got this junky old guitar in my closet. Do you want it?" It was my first Epiphone Olympic.

1984: SCOTLAND
A four piece band with a singing bass player and second guitar player. We took advantage of the two guitars by playing "Bringing On the Heartbreak" by Def Leppard, and "Waiting for an Alibi" by Thin Lizzy. While in this band I wrote "Loud and Clear" and "On the Loose" which later became Racer X songs.

PRE-RACER X LOS ANGELES:

1984: DRAGONSLAYER
This band featured original Vanilla Fudge keyboardist/singer Mark Stein. I tried to steal the drummer from this band, but he wouldn't leave, and he recommended that I try to steal the drummer in...

1984: BLACK SHEEP
I stayed in this band long enough to do a few shows and record a demo that became an album. When we did the recording I insisted that we not mic my amp, but only use the direct out from my amp. This decision of mine was totally WRONG, and the result was that my guitar sounded like a giant buzzing bee.


AND FINALLY THERE WAS...

1985: RACER X
The real metal begins!

1988: MR. BIG
The rock supergroup with that giant acoustic hit.

1991: THE ELECTRIC FENCE
The original purpose of this band was to avoid showing boring picking exercises at a Musicians Institute seminar. I thought it would be more fun to play songs. So Jeff Martin, Russ Parish, and I learned about 25 songs in 3 days. We had a lot of fun doing it, so in between MR. BIG tours, we would continue to challenge ourselves to learn large numbers of songs in short periods of time.

1997: I GO SOLO

1999: RACER X
Reforms to record some new METAL

2008: AC/DC
Hires me to play drums. Boom Chak Boom Chak Boom Chak...

In my dreams.

Thank for being interested in the early stuff!

Paul