The Right to Rock!

I stood up and took the black Gibson in my hands - caressing the smoothness of its exterior - as I prepared to step up against one of rocks guitaring Godfathers - the superior Slash. He looked at me with disdain before laying down an opening riff that shook me to the core of my being. This was serious - I had my reputation at stake, yet here I was, standing front stage with a rock idol, about to do battle on our axes of choice. I had no time to dwell any further on the absurdity of my situation - I had to step up and raise the roof with a metal-grinding retort - so I did.

The fingers on my left hand moved deftly and swiftly across the fretboard, as I strummed for all I was worth with my right hand. The notes came thick and very fast. As soon as I was finished, Slash came back with an awe-inspiring shred of intensity that I had to sum up all my rock'n'roll instincts to respond with a solo that blew him and the hard-rocking audience to the walls.

This was a modern-day electric duel that could only have one winner. Slash cut my strings and dealt me some cruel double string notes which I had to rectify quickly before I threw him some amp overdrive and put him off balance.

The audience went wild and I knew I was on a roll. Sweat poured down my back as I shred like I'd never shred before, as I thought of my 'shredder' heroes - Yngwie J.Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Paul Gilbert.

Slash was hurting - I could see it clearly - so I ripped off an awesome powerslide and backed it up with a full head tilt and pull of my whammy bar. The guy went down on his knees acknowledging his defeat with a tip of his hat and he backed off graciously and left me up front, accepting the applause from the totally bodacious crowd.

'So this is Guitar Hero?' I thought to myself. 'I think I like it!'

Cheers Bill, dude!