Joe Satriani

Joe Satriani (born July 15, 1956,) is an American guitarist, musician, composer, and guitar teacher. Considered one of the best guitarists in the world, he has taught guitar to many acclaimed guitarists including Steve Vai, Larry LaLonde, Rick Hunolt, Kirk Hammett, Andy Timmons, Kevin Cadogan, and Alex Skolnick. He has had a successful solo music career and is a recipient of 15 Grammy Award nominations.

Joe Satriani was born Joseph Satriani on July 15, 1956, in Westbury, New York. He is of Italian descent.

He grew up surrounded by music and was exposed to music at an early age. His parents often played jazz and classical music at home –– from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, and Giacomo Puccini to Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dave Brubeck, Stanley Turrentine, and Freddie Hubbard. His old bother and sisters played mostly pop, rock n' roll, and Motown, like Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Led Zeppelin. According to him, he first "connected" with music when he saw a band cover The Rolling Stone's "I can't get no satisfaction" when he and the family were on a summer vacation in Vermont.

He was initially inspired to play drums after he saw The Beatles and The Rolling Stones on The Ed Sullivan Show. He started playing drums when he was 9 and even took lessons for a year. He also tried playing the piano but gave up on it. So, eventually, he turned to the guitar. He started playing on his folklorist sister's acoustic guitar. Upon his parents' urge, he started taking guitar lessons. He felt the lessons were not advanced enough for him; he took only three lessons and decided to learn on his own.

Satriani was a big fan of Jimi Hendrix. When he was 14, the news of Hendrix's death on September 18, 1970, shook him up. In that moment, he decided to become a professional guitar player. That same day, he quit the school football team and told his coach that he will be a musician. And at home that night, he told his parents about his decision. His family was supportive; his sister Carol bought him a Hagstrom electric guitar from her first paycheck from working as an art teacher at the local high school.

Later, in his professional years, Satriani got to tour with Billy Cox, Hendrix's bass player.

Satriani began playing guitar with some older guys at his school, Carle Place High School, Carle Place, New York, and joined a group called Mihchuacan. The group's guitarist took him under his wing and taught him many guitar tricks. Satriani was obsessed with practicing; he would often stay in all day and practice all day long. Around that time, he joined a band named Tarsus, which featured Tom Garr on drums, Steve Muller on bass, and Danny Calvagna on vocals. The band covered Led Zeppelin songs.

Trivia: Steve Vai also went to the same school and was three or four years junior to him. Vai was in a band with the younger brother of Tarsus's singer. Their band was called "Susrat," which is Tarsus spelled backward.

In 1976, when he was nineteen, Satriani relocated to California and moved into an apartment with one of his sisters in Berkely. Shortly after, he rented a place across from a music store called "Second Hand Guitars," right next to Fat Albert’s restaurant. He ended up teaching guitar at the store in the backroom or during off-hours. Larry LaLonde, who later became the lead guitarist for Primus, saw the classified and signed up for guitar lessons from Satriani. Satriani also taught Steve Vai, Alex Skolnick of thrash metal band Testament, David Bryson of Counting Crows, Kirk Hammett of Metallica, Kevin Cadogan of Third Eye Blind, Andy Timmons of Danger Danger and Pawn Kings, Rick Hunolt of Exodus, Geoff Tyson of T-Ride, Emit Bloch (David Turin) and Charlie Hunter.

Squares (early 1980s)

Satriani's popularity in the California music circle was growing. At one point, he wound up with sixty students, and he would teach seven days a week, eight hours a day. That's how he made his living while he was playing with his band, the Squares, which played New Wave music. He recruited singer/bass player Andy Milton and drummer Jeff Campitelli, who continued to perform with Satriani after the Squares days. The Squares were gaining ground in the Bay Area –– they opened for Greg Kihn Band and later, also for Huey Lewis, Go-Go, and Squeeze. The band's next recruitment was that of John Cuniberti, their sound engineer. Cuniberti went on to co-produce Satriani's debut album Not of This Earth (1986) and his second album Surfing With The Alien (1987).

With time, however, the band started to fall apart. For Satriani, "...it didn't seem like we had the right ingredients to compare with the fantastic singers and writers who were ultimately going to be our competition. We got more prolific, we got more detailed, but we never quite captured that 'moment' again, and we never really got any better." On top of that, the band wasn't making much money. They were turned down every time they tried to get a record deal. In the late 1983/early 1984, Satriani decided to strike out on his own and create his own solo EP, "Joe Satriani EP."

Joe Satriani EP (1984)

The Joe Satriani EP was ready and released in 1984. Originally self-released in a limited run on vinyl only, the majority of the EP was later reissued on the first disc of Satriani's 1993 studio album, Time Machine, with the exception of "Talk to Me", which was not included due to its master tape having been damaged. The EP used only the sounds made by the guitar –– including the sounds from tapping on the pickups for drums, to detuning the guitar for bass. The EP was reviewed by Guitar Player magazine, which treated Satriani as an avant-garde guitarist –– not a typical rock group with vocals, but an instrumental artist. This inspired him, and gave him the confidence, to consider a career in purely instrumental music. This was a significant departure from the contemporary idea of a rock band having a typical four/five-piece setup of guitar/bass/drums/singer, maybe a keyboard player.

Not of this Earth (1985-1986)

Satriani then left the band he was playing with after the Squares and decided to figure out a way to make a record with real bass and drums. He wanted some of the traditional rock band attributes, like bass and drums, that people relate to, but wanted the sound to be led by his guitar, not the vocals.

Thus, came the idea of his first studio album, Not of this Earth.

But there was a problem: how to get the recording deal for an album with "instrument rock," which is not an in-demand genre? As luck would have it, the next day he received in the mail a credit card that was pre-approved for $5,000 credit limit. He invested $4,700 in the album production and got started on the project. They decided to use the electronic drums instead of acoustic drums. On the album, he used what's known as "pitch axis theory, " a musical compositional technique used in constructing chord progressions, which he learned from his high school music teacher Bill Westcott. Jazz legend John Coltrane also used this technique in his compositions.

The mastering work on the album was provided by Hollywood-based audio engineer Bernie Grundman.

The album was released in 1986 through Relativity Records and carried 10 tracks.

1. Not of This Earth
2. The Snake
3. Rubina
4. Memories
5. Brother John
6. The Enigmatic
7. Driving at Night
8. Hordes of Locusts
9. New Day
10. The Headless Horseman

The track "Rubina" is named after his wife, Rubina.

By the time the album was released, Satriani was in debt and unable to pay back $5,000 to his credit card company. Miraculously, he gets a call from Steve Wright, the bassist for Greg Kihn Band, looking for a guitarist to help with their record and touring. He used the money from the gig with Greg Kihn Band to repay the debt and went touring with the band.

Cliff Cultreri at Relativity Records introduced Satriani to Swedish bass player Jonas Hellborg, with whom he did a Scandinavian tour.

Surfing with the Alien (1987)

His next project was the album Surfing with the Alien. With the album, he wanted to create a sound that would showcase all the styles that made up his musical roots. He wanted to incorporate all the guitar styles he had seen played by his favorite musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Billy Gibbons, Eric Clapton, Brian May, Tony Iommi, Allan Holdsworth, and John McLaughlin among others.

The original title of the album was "Lords of Karma," but changed later to "Surfing with the Alien" after a journalist expressed his displeasure about it.

The album was recorded on a budget of $13,000 and released on October 15, 1987, by Relativity Records. It charted at number 29 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 75 weeks. Three tracks stood out:  "Satch Boogie" charted at 22 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart; "Surfing with the Alien" at No. 37; and the track "Always with Me, Always with You", received a nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Performance at the 1989 Grammy Awards. This last track was a love song he wrote for his wife Rubina.

The track "Crushing Day" was featured on the soundtrack of David Beaird's film It Takes Two.

The album's success established Satriani's reputation as a respected rock guitarist.

In 1988, Satriani was recruited by Mick Jagger as lead guitarist for his first solo tour.

Flying in a Blue Dream (1989)

High on the success of Surfing with the Alien, Satriani and the group planned their next venture, Flying in a Blue Dream. Satriani was now a hot new rock star and was in a position to take risks and be adventurous. Money was not a problem this time.

The album was released on October 30, 1989, through Relativity Records and became one of his most popular albums and his second highest-charting release to date. It reached number 23 on the U.S. Billboard 200, remaining on that chart for 39 weeks, as well as reaching the top 40 in New Zealand, Australia, and Sweden. It also received a nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 1991 Grammy Awards.

The track The Bells of Lal (Part One) was featured in Billy Bob Thornton's 1996 film Sling Blade.

The album sold over 750,000 units and includes Satriani's vocals on six of its 18 tracks.

The Extremist (1992)

On 21 July 1992, Satriani released his fourth studio album, The Extremist, again through Relativity Records. The album turned out to be his most popular releases and his highest-charting to date. It reached No. 22 on the U.S. Billboard 200, remaining on that chart for 28 weeks. It also reached the top 50 in Switzerland, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Australia, and New Zealand.

The track "Rubina's Blue Sky Happiness" was dedicated to his wife Rubina. "Summer Song" was a massive success and probably one of his best-known songs. The song was used by Sony in a commercial for the Walkman.

In 1993, when Deep Purple was on a tour, Ritchie Blackmore suddenly walked out after a show on 17 November in Helsinki, Finland. Satriani was then recruited to complete the remaining tour and stayed on for a European summer tour in 1994. He was asked to join permanently but declined because of his contract with Epic Records.

G3 tour

After Time Machine (released October 13, 1993) and an eponymous album (released October 1995), Satriani came up with the idea for "G3 tour," in which he would tour with two other guitarists. Concert promoters, initially, were not fond of the idea to have three headliners play on one night, in one venue. And, it was also very expensive. The idea turned out to be a success.

The first tour, featuring Steve Vai and Eric Johnson, took place from October 11, 1996, to November 8, 1996. Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Adrian Legg were the opening acts. In the following years, Satriani toured with many celebrated guitarists including Marco Ciaravolo (Satriani's teacher), Yngwie Malmsteen, John Petrucci, Robert Fripp, Paul Gilbert, Steve Morse, Steve Lukather, Uli Jon Roth, Michael Schenker, and Adrian Legg. The list of special guests is equally impressive: Tony MacAlpine, Johnny Hiland, Keith More, Chris Duarte, Neal Schon, Gary Hoey, Andy Timmons, Billy Gibbons, Johnny A, Brian May, George Lynch, Patrick Rondat, Eric Sardinas, Guthrie Govan, and Alejandro Silva.

Crystal Planet (1998) and later years

Satriani released several albums over the following years:

• Crystal Planet (1998)
• Engines of Creation (2000)
• Strange Beautiful Music (2002)
• Is There Love in Space? (2004)
• Super Colossal (2006)
• Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock (2008)
• Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards (2010)
• Unstoppable Momentum (2013)
• Shockwave Supernova (2015)
• What Happens Next (2018)

Crystal Planet and Strange Beautiful Music were major successes. Crystal Planet (released March 3, 1998, Epic Records) was produced by Canadian record producer Mike Fraser, who had also worked with Metallica, Aerosmith, Zac Brown - The Dave Grohl Sessions, The Cult, Enter Shikari, Chickenfoot, Van Halen, Elvis Costello, and Led Zeppelin. Strange Beautiful Music, released on June 25, 2002, through Epic Records, got him his twelfth nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, at the 2003 Grammy Awards. Strange Beautiful Music is also the name of his publishing company.

In parallel, he continued his G3 tour and album tours. In May 2005, he toured India for the first time, playing concerts in Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai.

Chickenfoot

In 2008, Satriani became a member of a new hard rock band named Chickenfoot, with former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith.

Shapeshifting (2020)

Shapeshifting, released on April 10, 2020, through Sony Music, is his latest studio album (seventeenth.) The album was co-produced with Jim Scott and features Chris Chaney on bass guitar and rhythm guitar; Eric Caudieux on keyboards, percussion, whistling, handclaps, editing, sound designing; Kenny Aronoff on drums; and Lisa Coleman on piano (tracks 11 and 13).

[Video] Satriani's homage to Ali Farka Touré and Dick Dale - an Alien and Me (from Shapeshifting)

Kirk Hammett, lead guitarist of Metallica

I learned a lot of things from Joe, a lot of things about technique especially. I also learned that feel is better than anything and everything. So I've always strived be a player with a lot of feeling rather than a player with a lot of technique.

Larry LaLonde, lead guitarist of Primus

Joe was very good at assessing what your level as a player was right off, which for me at that time was still very low. The way it worked was: He would give you an assignment to learn over the next week, which was some form of exercise, a scale, for instance. When you came back in for the next lesson, he would also have you bring in a song you really wanted to learn, which he would figure out in two seconds. And the deal was, if you could pull off whatever technical lesson he'd given you to learn the week before, he would show you how to play whatever Van Halen or Randy Rhoads riff. So it was kind of a motivation to practice and learn the things he wanted you to, and it really made me want to practice, practice, practice whatever the technical lesson was that week.

John Cuniberti, sound engineer

I remember one night, this band from Berkeley called the Squares was opening for Greg Kihn, and their manager came up to me and said, "Hey, it’s our first gig, we're really nervous, the house sound guy here isn't very good, we like what you're doing with Greg, these guys are all from Berkeley, you may even know some of them—would you be willing to mix for them?' And I said, "I'd be happy to." And when they walked out onstage and started playing, I was instantly blown away! I said, "Who are these guys?" and specifically that guitar player—"Who is that?!”