“Joe Satriani said, ‘Every time I do an album, I feel like the first song I have to prove that I can play guitar. I wish I could let that go.’ I thought, ‘I know exactly what you mean’”: Paul Gilbert on why it’s so hard to resist the urge to shred

Paul Gilbert and Joe Satriani jam at the 2012 Marshall 50 Years of Loud Live anniversary concert.

Paul Gilbert is not naive. He is not stupid. He knows that when the audience come to see him play, they arrive in their seats with a certain expectation that he will perform some kind of pyrotechnics on the electric guitar.

Similarly, when they buy his records, the audience expects moments of the spectacular. Gilbert wants to give them what they want. But he also wants to give them what he wants, too, or rather, what the song needs.