Paul Gilbert

A master of the electric guitar in heavy metal and hard rock idioms, Paul Gilbert earned widespread recognition for his technical command as co-founder of Mr. Big and as guitarist in the Los Angeles group Racer X. His solo recordings began appearing in 1996, encompassing such well-received titles as Alligator Farm (2000), Silence Followed by a Deafening Roar (2008), Vibrato (2012), and Behold Electric Guitar (2019). Additional projects have paired him with fellow guitarists Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, and Steve Vai.

Born November 6, 1966, in Carbondale, Illinois, and raised chiefly in Greenburg, Pennsylvania, Gilbert took up music at age five. By fifteen he was already performing in clubs with Tau Zero and receiving notice in Guitar Player magazine together with another emerging player, Yngwie Malmsteen. After moving to Los Angeles in 1984 to enroll at the Guitar Institute of Technology, he joined the faculty the next year while leading Electric Fence, the ensemble that became Racer X by 1986. The band’s first album, Street Lethal, came out later that year; following the release of Second Heat in 1987, Gilbert left to join Mr. Big, whose ballad “To Be with You” reached number one on the pop charts in 1992.

Mr. Big dissolved in 1996, and Gilbert issued his first solo album, King of Clubs, the following year. He also revived Racer X, whose albums Technical Difficulties (1999) and Superheroes (2000) proved highly successful in Japan. Over the next decade and a half he maintained a steady output of solo work while continuing to perform with Racer X; in 2011 he rejoined Mr. Big for the album What If. Vibrato, his twelfth solo release, appeared in 2012, succeeded by the covers collection Stone Pushing Uphill Man in 2014. I Can Destroy arrived in 2016, and the largely self-produced Behold Electric Guitar followed in 2019. His sixteenth solo album, Werewolves of Portland, was issued in 2020, with the holiday set ’Twas released in 2021.