08/15/06 - Vivian Campbell Finally Offers Insight It has long been known, Vivian has always struggled with his "guitar-hero status", but he finally sheds some light on the subject in his latest interview with Gibson.com, an excerpt from the interview follows: "I look back now and go, "Geez, that music was really, really big." Metal ruled the world in the early- and mid-80s, but I didn't realize it was the glory days. It was just that I was there and I was a part of it. I was spinning from the whole thing. I went from being in Belfast to being in L.A.! It was massive culture shock, hanging out at the Rainbow on the Sunset Strip on a Friday night and all these women hanging around. It was very distracting. From a musical and guitar playing point of view, what I remember most about coming to L.A. is that I genuinely thought I was a good guitar player until I landed in Los Angeles and then it was a massive blow to my confidence. GIT [Guitar Institute of Technology] was going on. Everywhere I turned I was meeting other musicians. It wasn't like in Belfast, where I knew maybe three other guys who played guitar. You come to LA and everybody is either an actor or a musician. And every musician was a guitar player and every one of them had these monster chops! Sweep arpeggios, alternate picking, it was mind blowing to me. It was very disturbing. I couldn't understand why Ronnie Dio had flown all the way to Europe and picked me as a guitar player, when he had all these technically gifted guitar players on his doorstep in L.A. But it turned out that is exactly why, because Ronnie didn't want that kind of guitar player, because they were everywhere. But I really wanted to play like that! And I was really frustrated that I couldn't. I spent most of the 80s spinning my wheels as a guitar player, just being really frustrated that I couldn't play like Paul Gilbert or Yngwie Malmsteen. I really wanted to do that, but it was too late by then. I was entirely self-taught. I learned all my bad habits early on, and spent several years reinforcing them. But now I am very much at peace with the kind of guitar player I am and I accept it." Click Here to read the rest of the interview. Search Fibits for Vivian Campbell Cd's & More Other Recommended Music: Dio Holy Diver cd Dio Last in Line cd Helix - Walkin' The Razor's Edge W.A.S.P. - Self-titled cd Dio - Sacred Heart cd