Firewind mainman and Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist Gus G is releasing his first solo album I Am The Fire. Some of the guest vocalists include Mats Leven (Candlemass), Michael Starr (Steel Panther), Tom S. Englund (Evergrey), Jeff Scott Soto, Blake Allison (Devour The Day) and Alexia Rodriguez (Eyes Set To Kill). Gus tells us about the project and the latest with Ozzy.

Chad Bowar: Why was this the right time for you to record your first solo album?
Gus G: I have always been a band guy.

I have always had my band and have been in other bands as well. It was a combination of things why this happened now. I guess it was just the right timing. Mind you, I have never really wanted to do a solo album.

In 2012, Firewind's singer quit and we decided to keep on with our touring commitments in 2013. We hired a guy, but after that we said, okay let’s take a break and think about this before going back in the studio. There was no rush to do an album.

I had these ideas at the same time that were not really fitting for Firewind. It was a bit more on the hard rock side of things or there was a lot of acoustic stuff that I had on guitar. I started writing with Mats Leven, one of my favorite singers and a friend of mine from Sweden. That is how it all came together really.

I basically wrote the album over the course of a year or fourteen months in between tour breaks, knowing that Firewind was going to go on a break. That is how it came about. There was no concrete plan, to be honest with you.

I just found some free time and did this.

You said you and Mats wrote the songs and once you came to the recording part of it, you handled a lot of the instruments, but you brought in a ton of different guests too. Take me through the process of figuring out who was all going to play on this with you.
It is a bit weird the way it all happened. I wrote five songs with Mats. Then I wrote a song and sent it to another friend of mine, Jeff Scott Soto who I am also a big fan of. We did the song “Summer Days.” When I had those tracks with Mats and with Jeff, then I said, well I can probably invite more people and do kind of like a Slash type of record where I have a lot of different guests, different bass players, drummers, singers, whatever. That is how it happened.

The next person I contacted was Jay Ruston. I asked him to mix my record. He heard the demo and he loved it. Actually, Jay helped me to get a lot of the guests on this record. I didn’t really know who I was going to get. I had no idea. I knew I wanted to work with Mats. I knew I wanted Jeff on the record, but I didn’t really know who else to contact or how to do all that stuff.

Jay knows a lot of people over there in L.A. He hooked me up with Jeff Friedl, A Perfect Circle’s drummer. He is a phenomenal drummer. He played on the record. While I was out there in L.A. I also met some of Jay’s other friends, also good musicians. I met Jacob Bunton who sings for Steven Adler. I ended up doing a song with him.

When I was out there, I also go to jam with Steel Panther. I spoke to Michael Starr about doing a song, and he loved the idea. It was a little bit like that. Then Jay said, “What about Billy Sheehan or Dave Ellefson (Megadeth)?” He knows these people, he worked with them, he has mixed their bands before. That is how it came about, really.

Were most of the recording sessions actually done in your presence, or was a lot of it done via the magic of the internet and sending files back and forth?
It was both. I was there for the drum recordings in L.A. Jay engineered it. Then I came back to Greece. I went here in the studio that I use. I did all of my guitars here and bass and keyboards and stuff. Then regarding vocals, everybody else did it just in either in their home studios or local studios wherever they were in the world. Some people were in Sweden, some people were in L.A., some people were in other parts of America. That is how it happened.

Is there anybody that is on the album that you have never met in person to this day?
I have not met Billy Sheehan actually. We spoke on the phone. We e-mailed a bit back and forth and stuff. That is how we did it.

You mentioned there are a lot more hard rock influences on this album. Did it give you more freedom that you weren’t confined to a Firewind sound for this one?
Yes. The idea was to really move away from that. If I was going to do a heavy metal record or a traditional metal record, then it would be stupid not to call it Firewind. The idea was that it shouldn’t sound anything like that. Obviously, you hear my guitar that is recognizable. If you know the Firewind sound, then you will hear similar guitar playing. The riffs are different; it is just more like my hard rock background instead of my more traditional metal background.

Are you able to do lead vocals if you wanted to?
I can do backing vocals, but I never felt my voice was strong enough to be a front man. I never say never. I might try it in the future, but once you start working with all these great singers, you are like, “Why bother?”

You have some tour dates lined up. Who is going to be in your backing band for those live shows?
Mats Leven is going to be the singer. I am actually changing up the backing band on each tour. I am doing some shows in Greece with Uli Jon Roth. We are going to be using the same backing band. It is going to be Uli’s band. I am going to be going out there playing my own set with his band. Then he is going to be doing his own set separately. Then at the end I am going to jam.

In May I am doing a European tour with Marty Friedman. We are putting a band together that is going to playing for both of us, for both our sets.

As far as your set list, is it going to be just exclusively material from your solo album, or are you going to pull from some other places as well?
The main thing is to play those new songs. That is why I am going out and doing a tour with it because I want to play the new songs live. Of course I am going to be throwing in some stuff from my back catalog and maybe some covers and stuff. It is going to be fun.

You mentioned that Firewind is on a break. Will there be more Firewind stuff in the future?
Oh, yeah. We haven’t split up or anything. We are just taking a break. We have been making records and touring album tour and album tour thing for ten years now nonstop. We are just taking a break. Since we've had lineup changes over the years, we just thought that we should really think this over and pick the right guy to front the band the next time we come back. There is definitely going to be another Firewind record.

So Kelly Carpenter was just a hired gun just for the touring dates?
Yes, Kelly was just out there to help us with our dates that we were committed to doing. He has got his own stuff as well. He is doing his own thing. We need somebody to fully commit to this and then be ready for this. We are not in a rush right now. We will take our time. If it takes us a couple of years or more than that to do it, that’s what it takes.

I know Ozzy is busy with Black Sabbath at the moment. Is work with him kind of on the back burner for now?
It's hard to say because you never know with him. I know they don’t have too many dates planned this year. They have some stuff in the summer. After that ends, who knows if they are going to continue or if he wants to go straight back into his solo thing? I have been writing riffs and sending him some riffs over time, but I am not even sure if he has checked that stuff out. I know he is very busy these days.

Whenever he is ready, he will let me know. He will let the whole band know that we are getting back together. It is not up to me to say when we are getting back together.

When you were asked to be in Ozzy’s band, I am sure you had some preconceived notions and expectations, what is the actual experience been like compared to what you were thinking going in?
It was a lot smoother and easier than I thought. Nobody really sat me down and told me oh, you need to do this and this and this. The only thing that both Ozzy and Sharon told me make sure you go out there and own the stage and be yourself. That is the best piece of advice I ever got. It was as simple as that, but it meant everything.

When you go out there and do a gig, you obviously need to respect who was there before you and me being such a big fan of all those guitar players being there before me. At the same time, you have to approach the gig with being your own man, not really trying to copy somebody else.

Tell me a little bit about the Randy Rhoads Remembered Event that you played back in January.
It was fun. Brian Tichy, the drummer, contacted all these guitar players. He was a huge Randy Rhoads fan. He was putting this event together. He asked me if I wanted to go out there and play a song. I was out there for NAMM just like every other musician in the world that weekend. I said hell yeah I will come down and jam.

I went down there and it was such a great vibe. Everybody played great. I played “Crazy Train” It was fun. I got to meet and jam with Rudy Sarzo. It was great. I had a great time that night. I know his family was there as well and they were watching and they gave their blessing. It was a great evening.
Since you have been playing with Ozzy, I know he has embraced you. Have the fans embraced you as well?
Oh, yeah, of course. I thought it was going to be much harder than it was. I thought people would throw stuff at me on stage. I have heard horror stories from back in the day when Jake E. Lee had to step in and replace Randy. He had a very tough gig to follow up. But it has been nothing but love from the fans. Ozzy has really helped me with everything. He’s got my back on this. No complaints whatsoever. It has been a great ride so far.