When it comes to vibrato, a lot of people look at their hands when they do it. Which is pretty much of no use. Because vibrato is one of those things you have to hear. There are some guitar things where the visual is really useful, like seeing chord shapes or scale patterns. But vibrato isn't one of those things.

I've realized that, as the years have gone on, I have become completely impatient with the demo process.

As far as pedals are concerned, the test for me is if I step on it, do I seem to be playing better?

I did take some cooking classes in high school. Boys weren't really supposed to take them. I had to risk being made fun of.

There's always more than one way to play the same notes because of the nature of guitar.

A scale is just the notes that are in a chord played one at a time instead of together. That's what has allowed me to go through the possible notes that work with a chord and make choices about which ones I like best. I go through by ear; you can do it by theory too, but the best way is to learn by ear.

When I sing, there is an almost constant struggle with pitch and with reaching notes in the higher register.

The band that made me want to be a musician in the first place was the Beatles. And I think John Lennon used to say something like, 'We're just a singing group,' when he talked about the band. So that's what I say about Mr. Big - we're a singing group!

My life is a glorious tornado of musical projects!

As always, my influences are diverse and not what you might expect from a 'heavy metal' artist.

On 'Fuzz Universe,' I think I've taken a giant step closer to the ultimate rock guitar sound and playing of my dreams.

Rock shows are loud, so I try to use a sound that is warm on the high frequencies.

It is the universe where all rock players live- we all use distortion, overdrive, gain and saturation. I call it 'fuzz.'

Mostly, I'm much more of a guitar player than I am a singer.

Yeah, my very first teacher when I was 6 was a big influence, because it was so boring that I quit guitar.

You could take any four people, no matter how wonderful they are, and if you make them live together on a tour bus for eight years and don't give them any time off, after a while everybody gonna start going crazy.

Every Mr. Big album is an event.

My basic setup is my Ibanez Fireman guitars and for pedals, the TC Electronic MojoMojo is the mainstay of my board, along with a Catalinbread Calissto Chorus.

When you record an album in six days, you don't have time to work out a lot of stuff.

I've found that as I've learned to improvise melodically, it seems like I can come up with a bigger variety of stuff. I kind of selfishly enjoy it more, because I'm in the moment so much.

That's the nice thing about being in Mr. Big, is I'm not only the guitar player. I'm the background singer, and so I get to do both of those things. Sometimes we even switch instruments and I get to be the drummer.

Before I even became a guitar player, I wanted to be a Beatle. That was my first dream as a musician, was to be like a Beatle.

I turn complaining into music! I'm thinking I might have invented a new style. I call it 'cantankerous rock.'

My brain has been programmed to listen to music a certain way because of the Beatles.