During a conversation with Ultimate Guitar's Justin Beckner, Firewind guitarist Gus G. looked back on his 2009-2017 tenure in Ozzy Osbourne's band. He also talked about dropping out of Berklee College of Music after two weeks, his top influences, and more. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

UG: What is your fondest memory of those years with Ozzy? Did you get any advice from any of his former guitarists - Jake or Brad or Zakk, when you got the gig?

Gus: "Ozzy always told me, 'Just be you. Be Gus. Be yourself, man.' It was really hard to understand what he meant back then. Now, I totally get it. But back then it was hard to understand, in a way, like, 'What does he mean? I am myself.' But yeah, maybe in a way, there is this ghost of guitar players past in such a band like his, and covering that position, it's a heavy position for anybody who would accept it. I think it was his way of telling me it was OK, just do your thing and don't worry about it so much, in the end, it's rock 'n' roll.

Also, at the same time, while saying things like that to me, he was also the most professional guy. He was always on time. He took his performances really seriously. He would always do his warm-ups. That was very inspiring. I was surprised by the stamina he had on stage. I mean, back then he was 60 or 61, and I was 29 or 30. So we would roll through two-hour long - or longer - shows and I'm like, 'How the fuck does he jump up and down and keeps doing frog jumps and like, throwing buckets of water, for two hours?' I needed to hit the gym seriously on days off just to keep up with him."

Read more here.

Gus G. recently uploaded a new video describing how to play the new Firewind track “Rising Fire”.

The guitarist states:

“I decided to make a little video and walk you through each part of the new Firewind single ‘Rising Fire’ that is off our upcoming self-titled 9th studio album. On this video I'm explaining all rhythm and lead parts.”

Download the guitar tab for FREE at this location.

Firewind's new album, Firewind, will be released on May 15 via AFM Records. Pre-order the album here.

With his charismatic voice, new member Herbie Langhans (Avantasia, Radiant, Seventh Avenue, amongst others) refines each and every last one of the ten new songs and infuses them with an expressive force that is remarkable.

Gus G and Herbie Langhans got to know each other back in the autumn of 2019, when the Firewind leader was looking for a suitable replacement for Henning Basse after the tour with Queensrÿche. Just a few weeks later the recordings for “Firewind” were a done deal, ready for Swedish sound engineer Tobias Lindell (Europe, Avatar, H.E.A.T.) to mix them in Lindell Audio Studios.

The result is impressive indeed. “Firewind” boasts 11 prime examples of melodic metal songs. The skill, craftsmanship and power bleeds through every note, a passion you can almost taste, with hymnal melodies as a particularly outstanding feature.

Tracklisting:

"Welcome To The Empire"
"Devour"
"Rising Fire"
"Break Away"
"Orbitual Sunrise"
"Longing To Know You"
"Perfect Stranger"
"Overdrive"
"All My Life"
"Space Cowboy"
"Kill The Pain"