“Joe Satriani said,‘Every time I do an album, I feel like the first song I have to prove that I can play guitar’”: Why Paul Gilbert thinks it’s important to practice restraint when it comes to shredding

It’s been 10 years since a Paul Gilbert album featured vocals, and the stalwart shredder says he’s back behind the mic because it helps him resist the urge to litter his music with too many backflips and arpeggios.

He's released four albums since 2016's I Can Destroy, including an acrobatic Dio tribute, and the most virtuosic Christmas album we're likely ever going to hear. For a guitarist whose reputation has been on testing the limits of what the electric guitar can do, he admits it's far too easy to get carried away.

“It was funny, I did a [guitar] camp once with Joe Satriani, and he said something like, ‘Every time I do an album, I feel like the first song I have to prove that I can play guitar,’” Gilbert tells MusicRadar. “And he said, ‘I don’t like that. I wish I could let that go. But it’s just really hard!’ I thought, ‘I know exactly what you mean.’”

Gilbert understands the one-upmanship of guitar solos; there’s a fierce competitiveness that comes with the territory. On his new album, WROC (Washington’s Rules of Civility), he’s trying to show a little restraint.

“There’s this athletic element where you want to prove that you can still swim – like you’re [23x Olympic medalist] Michael Phelps, ‘I can still swim just as fast as I did when I was 22!’” he laughs.

“That’s a hard thing to resist. And obviously, there are a lot of places where I didn’t resist and went crazy.”

For evidence of him behaving himself on the album, he points to his U2-coded solo on Orderly and Distinctly, which sees “playing a three-note melody over and over again,” rather than treating his trusty Ibanez Fireman guitar – complete with a slide magnet – as if it owes him money.

As someone who has been teaching guitar for decades, he understands the sex appeal of shred. But he also wants to instil the right mindset into his students.

Paul Gilbert - Go Not Thither (Music Video) WROC - YouTube

Watch On

Speaking to Guitar World in 2024, he explained: “Whenever a guitar student of mine brings up BPMs, I’m like, ‘Oh no!’ That mindset is not a musical mindset. That’s the wrong door to get in the building!”

He’s taught some notable players, too, including some rather unexpected clients. Wolfgang Van Halen has raised eyebrows by revealing that his dad, the late great Eddie Van Halen, was an awful guitar teacher.

Accepting defeat, he says his dad once asked Paul Gilbert to give him a lesson instead, which he did once he’d picked his jaw up off the floor.