English guitar icon Guthrie Govan (The Aristocrats) recently spoke with Ultimate-Guitar.com on  several different subjects, one of them being his time with rock legends Asia from 2000 - 2006. An excerpt from the interview is available below:

UG: How did you get involved with Asia? 

Govan: "Asia, that happened when I was teaching in a school in Guilford called the ACM. The head of the drum department there was Mike Sturgis, who had been drumming with Asia for some time. They were recording an album called Aura, and they were running late and over budget. All the guests who had promised to come in and record guest solos on the album, people like Brian May and Steve Lukather, all of them couldn't do it for some reason. So they needed an affordable guitar player who could do a lot of different things to come in and fill in all the gaps. Mike recommended me, so we recorded the album, and we just got on and they liked my playing, so they invited me to go on tour with them."

UG: You recorded two albums with them. Why did you leave? 

Govan: "Yeah, it just kind of disintegrated. When I joined Asia there was only one original member in the lineup. Then one year an important anniversary came around of the first major album, the one that sold nine million copies worldwide. So all the original members decided they would do a reunion tour, and it would just have been weird to have two bands claiming to be Asia, and one of them didn't have any original members. So we found a different keyboard player, a guy called Ryo Okumoto of Spock's Beard. We made a band called GPS, and we recorded an album. So Asia kind of faded out of my life, rather than I left them."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Watch below and see Govan, Joe Satriani (Chickenfoot) and Tosin Abasi (Animals As Leaders) sit down in a video conference with Guitar World Senior Editor Andy Aledort and discuss their approach and thoughts about guitar, technique, inspiration, and the upcoming G4 Experience.

From June 28th - July 2nd, 2015, the G4 Experience will be the center of the guitar universe. More than a show, more than a seminar, more than a backstage pass, the G4 Experience will give you musical inspiration and guitar ideas that will keep you playing for years to come.

The intimate G4 Experience is available for a maximum of 175 attendees. The event size is limited so every guest will have the opportunity to spend time with each of the featured artists. This unique music camp is open to guitarists of all ages and levels and provides an entertaining and educational once-in-a-lifetime vacation experience.

As an added bonus, if you register by December 31st, 2014 you’ll receive a free Pigtronix Class A Boost pedal and West Coast Pedal Board when you arrive at camp... and everyone gets a bag stuffed to the top with items from D’Addario.