Kostas Karamitroudis (born 12 September 1980), better known as Gus G, is a Greek heavy metal guitarist. He currently plays with his band Firewind. He has also played in Mystic Prophecy, Nightrage, Arch Enemy, Dream Evil and Ozzy Osbourne's band. Biography Early life Konstantinos was born on 12 September 1980 in Thessaloniki. His father was a part-time singer who sang Greek folk music at bars and taverns. He was also a fan of rock music. He was introduced to bands like Pink Floyd, Santana and the Eagles by his father's album collections. Gus G was inspired to start playing guitar after listening to his father's copy of Peter Frampton's album Frampton Comes Alive. Gus has stated, "Frampton Comes Alive, specifically, was the reason why I picked up the guitar and started playing." He was drawn in particular by Frampton's use of the Talkbox. Gus stated, "I was like 8 or 9 years old and my dad had the vinyl at home and was playing that song 'Do You Feel Like We Do,' and when he was doing all that talkbox effects and making the guitar talk...I somehow thought it was a robot talking...I was just amazed by it. It was one of those epiphanies we get in life." At the age of 10, Gus asked his dad for a guitar. His father bought him a classical guitar and he started to take lessons from a local music school. When he finally received his first electric guitar at the age of 14, he got heavily into practicing and took lessons from a rock guitar teacher at a local conservatory. Career The stage name "Gus G" has two sources of origin. "Gus" is a common Greek American English translation of the name "Kostas", and "G" was a nickname given to him by a friend during his time living in the US. At the age of 18 he left Greece to enroll in the Berklee College of Music, but left after only a few weeks and began working on making a name on the metal scene. During his brief time at Berklee Gus came into contact with Joe Stump, who he credits as a great influence on his career. In 1998, Gus G decided to record a demo with some close musician friends in the United States. The project was entitled Firewind, and was used as a showcase for Gus's guitar skills in