Slipknot guitarist Mick Thomson recently spoke with Music Radar and offered up his five tips for aspiring guitar players. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

Watch The Classic Paul Gilbert Videos

Thomson: “Early on, a lot of my picking development came from a Paul Gilbert video on VHS. That three-note per string thing (9, 10, 12 on the D, 9 on the G and back) is something I did a lot when I was younger. You can probably go back and find it on YouTube somewhere - people can still learn a lot from those. I remember seeing it when I was around 14 because a friend had it and at one point he pulled out the drill. We looked at it each other like, ‘What the fuck just happened?’ That’s not even human. That’s not even real. How can anybody do that, which was so far beyond my comprehension.

Once you dive in and start, obviously it takes a while to practice, you’ll get better. It’s different for each individual. Think about Usain Bolt: if he didn’t have something special about him, everyone would run like that!

I always tended to play too fast because it felt fun, but unless I was jamming along to Master Of Puppets, I was playing too fast. My speed was above a lot of that stuff because I was doing so much practising. Instead of legato, I gravitated towards every note picked - though it’s one thing to rip on a string and another to make your hands sync up properly.

I like a lot of those ’80s shred guys - the Chris Impellitteri tuitional is insane: it’s like watching Yngwie’s lessons doubled in speed! When I first saw that, I spat my drink out wondering what the fuck just happened.

I loved Tony MacAlpine on Maximum Security. I was thinking Maximum Overdrive for a sec, but that’s a terrible movie. There are some fucking songs on there that just build to blinding speed. He also had these mindblowing piano pieces on those albums.”

Read the complete interview here.

On Wednesday, September 6th at 7:30 PM, members of Slipknot will be on hand to proudly premiere their 90-minute documentary film Day Of The Gusano at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theater in Los Angeles; watching the film along with fans, and taking part in a Q&A session where fans will get the opportunity to have their questions answered directly by band members.

Watch a new clip of “Duality” from the doc below:

Day Of The Gusano will launch as a "one night only" cinematic event in theaters around the world on September 6. The film, directed by Slipknot's own M. Shawn Crahan aka "Clown", traces the band's first ever excursion to Mexico. A blend of exclusive interviews with the band members and first-hand fan accounts mesh with livewire footage from Knotfest Mexico, presenting fans with the full experience of this important moment in the band's history.

 

Ahrya Fine Arts is located at 8556 Wilshire Blvd in Beverly Hills.  Tickets to this event are very limited, and are available here.

For tickets to Day of The Gusano premieres around the world, visit this location.

Slipknot. A genuine sonic phenomenon, a nine-piece force of nature and one of heavy music's most important, recognizable, uncompromising and creatively ingenious bands. Yet to their millions of fans across the world, affectionately known as 'maggots', Slipknot aren't just a group, they're also a counterculture and a way of life. Those fans play an important role in a new documentary brought to you by MusicScreen, entitled Day Of The Gusano. The 90-minute documentary is to be premiered in more than a thousand screens across the world as a 'one night only' cinematic spectacle on September 6th.

Directed by Slipknot's own M.Shawn Crahan, aka 'Clown', Day Of The Gusano documents the Iowa band's first ever visit to the country in December 2015 and features exclusive interviews with Slipknot's members talking about the importance of their fanbase and the band's long awaited first ever show in Mexico City.