Guitarist Paul Gilbert (RACER X, Mr. BIG) is featured in a new interview with Classic Rock Revisited discussing his latest album, Fuzz Universe. An excerpt is available below.

Q: Fuzz Universe is yet another amazing release from you. Which is harder, writing songs that have lyrics or writing instrumentals?

Paul: "I've been making albums for more than twenty years now, so I've had a lot of chances to say what I want to say both musically and lyrically. The challenge now is to find new things to say, or to take ideas that I've worked with before and try to improve them or refine them. Basically, at the start of a record, I plug in my guitar and think, 'How I am going to compete with all the things I've done before? I've played with drills, human capos, and a band that had a number one hit single. NOW what should I do?' It's a scary thought. But after an hour of playing my guitar, I've forgotten all my troubles, and I'm just into the music."

Q: Unlike Vai, your instrumentals feel like songs and not just alien musicians conquering the electric guitar. Unlike Satch, your instrumentals are not so smooth they feel worked on a long, long period of time. How do you differentiate yourself from the other Shred Masters?"

Paul: "I'm actually not that familiar with most modern 'shred' music. I have enormous respect for both Steve and Joe, as well as Eric Johnson, Yngwie [Malmsteen], Tony MacAlpine, Joe Bonamassa. Is he instrumental? Either way, all those guys play so well. But as a listener, I find myself listening to very different music. For this album, I was listening to Melody Gardot, Justin Currie, old Georgie Fame records. You've got to do a YouTube search for Georgie Fame doing a song called 'Seventh Son'. It's in 7/8 and there are a bunch of dancing girls dancing to it. I've never seen anyone dance in 7/8 before; the whole song is pretty cool. I took the basic groove and played it Charlie Watts-style on my drum kit. This was the inspiration for the song, 'Propeller'. What else? I listened to a lot of Silvius Weiss lute music, a lot of Bulgarian female choir music and old Johnny Cash folk ballads. My biggest guitar influence was probably B.B. King. I pulled up an old live video of his every morning and bent strings along with him to try to improve my vibrato. Oh yeah, and there's the Bach piece. I got some great licks from that violin Partita. Bach is always good."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

As previously reported, Gilbert will bring his Fuzz Universe to life, during his return to Europe in late autumn and early winter of 2010. His most recent album, Fuzz Universe contains 12 guitar-driven songs, and demonstrates Paul’s love of rock, blues, classical, pop, and jazz – all with an intensity that keeps his shred-guitar fans satisfied, according to a press release.

VIP Tickets are available for this tour. A 90-minute guitar lesson with Paul in the same small group (6 max. students per city) format as before is the core experience. If you are seriously interested in taking advantage of this very rare opportunity, head on over to Gilbert's sister site Elite VIP Ticket to reserve your spot with TJ (the coordinator) today.

Gilbert will be accompanied on tour by bassist Craig Martini and drummer Jeff Bowders. As a special bonus, Tony Spinner will be included in the band as guitarist and vocalist. Tony is known for his powerful mix of rock, blues and shred guitar as well as his stunning vocal abilities. Tony has toured with Paul on his solo tours of Japan in the '90?s.

In addition to presenting his new songs for the first time live, Gilbert will be performing favorites from Racer X, Mr. Big, his solo career, and other surprises as well.

For Gilbert's complete European itinerary visit Paulgilbert.com.