PINK'S guitarist Justin Derrico runs his fingers up and down the strings of his gold Gisbon Les Paul with incredible speed.
Completely at ease in front of the camera in the small Geelong studio, the surprisingly down-to-earth musician talks and plays between flashes.
"Like this?" he asks with a goofy smile, suddenly swinging the body of the guitar over his shoulder. "Or I could hold it like a gun, like this!"
Being the permanent guitarist for one of pop's biggest singers could lead to a big head, but five world tours have done nothing to inflate the ego of this humble artist.
Despite being Down Under to tour his own debut solo album, Derrico answers the obvious first question what's Pink like? without a trace of bitterness.
"Oh, she is just the most awesome person. So supportive and talented and really normal," he says.
"She even offered to help me move the other week. She's my bud."
Derrico first picked up a guitar at 15 without any thought of making it his career.
"I didn't think that was possible but that didn't matter at the time," the 29-year-old says. "I barely graduated because I would leave school at midday to go and play."
But his natural talent and determination saw him begin his rise to guitar legend status in 2004 by touring with The Calling.
Other tours then followed with Robin Thicke as well as performances with Lil Wayne and Pharrell Williams from NERD.
Then, in 2006, the guitarist got a call asking him to audition for Pink's I'm Not Dead tour.
"I was a fan of her style already so I was so psyched to audition," he says. "I met her on the day and we just hit it off.
She's so cool. She hired me straight away."
Derrico had just one week to learn every song in Pink's show and didn't even have time to rehearse with her before their first show in Budapest.
"They told me it was just a little gig in Europe so I wasn't that nervous but it turned out to be in front of 125,000 people," he says. "It was crazy but luckily we bonded on stage straight away and it was really natural."
Since then, Pink and Derrico have shared more than an onstage connection, forming a close friendship.
"She really is my bud, man. I give her guitar lessons on the road and she's so happy to learn. She picks everything up so fast even though she'd only played a little bit before that," Derrico says. "And the other week I went down and met the baby when she threw a surprise party for Carey (her husband). We had a big softball game and a barbecue, it was so fun."
But their friendship isn't what stops Derrico dishing the dirt on Pink it's the fact that there just isn't any.
"The paparazzi can never catch her doing anything wrong because she doesn't do anything stupid," he says.
After performances, rather than the typical rock star party, the musicians usually just hang out and get something to eat, Derrico admits.
"We just want to relax and have a bite and a beer and talk about the show," he says.
And despite the many stories of stars' outrageous demands, their riders don't scream superstar either.
"I just ask for VB and Pink gets fruit and vegetables and some red wine," Derrico says.
Derrico is touring Australia this month with his first album, Boldly Going Nowhere.
"Sometimes with acoustic guitar albums there is just a whole lot of shredding but the way I did my record I tried to make it more of a pop format," he says. "It's really melodic so people have something to latch onto and remember. Hopefully it's something people haven't seen before."
* Justin Derrico is playing at The Bended Elbow,
Geelong on August 19.
Tickets from Oztix: www.oztix.com.au or 1300 762 545.
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