Guitar Superstar


Guitar Superstar is a yearly competition hosted by the Guitar Player magazine in which 10 finalists compete for the title of Guitar Superstar or Guitar Hero for the year. The competition started in 2005 as the Guitar Hero Competition but was changed in 2008 to the current title, probably to avoid confusion with the Guitar Hero video game series.

Guitar Hero '05

Held at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 10, 2005.

Finalists:
  • Dominic Frasca
  • Rodney VerBrugge
  • Marcus Deml
  • Juan Carlos Coronado
  • Scott Jones
  • Ulf Högberg
Judges: Joe Satriani, Steve Lukather, Trevor Lukather, DJ Munch, and Jude Gold.

Guitar Hero '06

Held at the Great [American Music Hall] in San Francisco, California, on September 23, 2006.
Finalists:
  • Trey Alexander
  • Patrick Woods
  • David Powers
  • Joshua Karickhoff
  • Joe Cefalu
  • Nathan Hahn
  • Ed DeGenaro
  • Ron LoCurto
  • Sergei Roudzinski
  • Anton Tsygankov
Judges: Joe Satriani, Steve Lukather, Richie Kotzen, Rafael Moreira, Shredmistress Rynata, and Steve Read.

Guitar Hero '07

Held at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, California, on October 12, 2007.
Finalists:
Judges: Joe Satriani, Steve Lukather, Nuno Bettencourt, Elliot Easton, Greg Howe, and Mike Varney.
Host: Brendon Small.
Guitar Hero 06 winner Trey Alexander also came back to battle Guitar Hero III expert Mark Johnson. Johnson played Lay Down by Priestess on GH3 while Alexander played the riffs with his Peavey HP Special.

Guitar Superstar '08

Was held at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, California, on September 13, 2008.
Finalists:
Judges: Joe Satriani, George Lynch, Steve Vai, Elliot Easton and Brendon Small.
Host: Andy Summers

Guitar Superstar '09

Finalists:
  • Steve Senes
  • Krisz Simonfalvi
  • Brian Davidson
  • Dave Benzinger
  • Brodie Cumming
  • Hercules Castro
  • Danny Jones
  • Steve Langemo
  • Doug Towle
  • Jeff Zampillo
Judges: Steve Lukather, Elliot Easton, Jennifer Batten, Earl Slick and Greg Hampton.
Host: Brendon Small

Guitar Superstar '10

Finalists:
  • Don Alder
  • Eric Clemenzi
  • Charlie Crowe
  • Angel Vivaldi
  • Dan Kumar
  • Jodee Frawlee
  • Karim Khorsheed
  • Kevin Zugschwert
  • Ignacio Di Salvo
  • Val Kostadinov
Judges: George Lynch, Elliot Easton, Reeves Gabrels, and Gary Hoey.
Host: Nikki Blakk

Guitar Superstar '11

Finalists:
  • Mark Kroos
  • Fredrik Strand Halland
  • Arek Religa
  • Jeremy Ore
  • Forrest Lee, Jr.
  • Kevin E.Holdren
Judges: Muriel Anderson, Carl Verheyen, and Reeves Gabrels.
Host: Larry Carlton