Joe Satriani
Joseph Satriani is an American rock guitarist, composer, and songwriter. Early in his career he worked as a guitar instructor, with many of his former students achieving fame, including Steve Vai, Larry LaLonde, Rick Hunolt, Kirk Hammett, Andy Timmons, Charlie Hunter, Kevin Cadogan, and Alex Skolnick. Satriani went on to have a successful solo music career, starting in the mid-1980s. He is a 15-time Grammy Award nominee and has sold over ten million albums, making him the bestselling instrumental rock guitarist of all time.
In 1988, Satriani was recruited by Mick Jagger as lead guitarist for his first solo tour. Satriani briefly toured with Deep Purple, joining shortly after the second departure of Ritchie Blackmore, in 1993. He has worked with a range of guitarists during the G3 tour, which he founded in 1995. Satriani has been the guitarist for the supergroup Chickenfoot since joining the band in 2008.
Early life
Satriani was born to an Italian-American family in Westbury, New York. His paternal grandparents were from Piacenza and Bobbio, while his maternal grandparents were from Bari. He was raised Roman Catholic. He was inspired to play guitar at age 14, after hearing of the death of Jimi Hendrix. Satriani heard the news during football practice, where he then announced to his coach that he was quitting to become a guitarist.Satriani graduated from Carle Place High School. In 1974, he studied music with jazz guitarist Billy Bauer and with reclusive jazz pianist Lennie Tristano. The technically demanding Tristano greatly influenced Satriani's playing. He began teaching guitar, with his most notable student at the time being fellow Long Island native Steve Vai. While he was teaching Vai, he was attending Five Towns College for studies in music. In 1978, Satriani moved to Berkeley, California, to pursue a music career. Soon after, he resumed teaching. His students included Kirk Hammett of Metallica, David Bryson of Counting Crows, Kevin Cadogan from Third Eye Blind, Larry LaLonde of Primus and Possessed, Alex Skolnick of Testament, Rick Hunolt, Phil Kettner of Lȧȧz Rockit, Geoff Tyson of T-Ride, Charlie Hunter, and Emit Bloch.
Career
1980s–2000
Satriani started playing in a San Francisco-based band called Squares, which he formed with his brother-in-law Neil Sheehan in the late 1970s. He was later invited to join the Greg Kihn Band, who were on the downside of their career, but whose generosity helped Satriani pay off the overwhelming credit card debt from recording his first album, Not of This Earth, released in 1986. The same year, he also sang backing vocals on the self-titled Crowded House album.In 1987, Satriani's second album, Surfing with the Alien, produced radio hits and was the first all-instrumental release to chart so highly in many years. The track "Crushing Day" was featured on the soundtrack of a low-budget film titled It Takes Two. In 1988, Satriani helped produce the EP The Eyes of Horror for the death metal band Possessed. That same year, he also released an EP titled Dreaming #11, which featured the song "The Crush of Love". In 1989, Satriani released the album Flying in a Blue Dream. It was said to be inspired by the death of his father, who died in 1989 during the recording of the album. "One Big Rush" featured on the soundtrack to the Cameron Crowe movie Say Anything.... "The Forgotten Part II" was featured on a Molson Dry commercial in Canada in 1993. "Can't Slow Down" featured in a car chase sequence in the Don Johnson-starring show Nash Bridges.
In 1992, Satriani released The Extremist, his most commercially successful album to date. The album was certified Gold in the United States and peaked at number 22 on the Billboard 200. Radio stations across the US picked up "Summer Song", which got a major boost when Sony used it in a major commercial campaign for their Discman portable CD players. "Cryin'", "Friends", and the title track were regional hits on radio. In late 1993, Satriani joined Deep Purple as a temporary replacement for departed guitarist Ritchie Blackmore during the band's Japanese tour. The concerts were a success, and Satriani was asked to join the band permanently, but he declined, having just signed a multi-album solo deal with Sony, and Steve Morse took the guitarist slot in Deep Purple.
In 1996, Satriani founded G3, a concert tour intended to include a rotating trio of guitarists. The original lineup featured Satriani, Steve Vai, and Eric Johnson. The G3 tour has continued periodically since its inaugural version, with Satriani the only permanent member. Other guitarists who have performed in G3 include Yngwie Malmsteen, John Petrucci, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Robert Fripp, Andy Timmons, Uli Jon Roth, Michael Schenker, Adrian Legg, Paul Gilbert, Steve Morse, and Steve Lukather. In 1998, Satriani recorded and released Crystal Planet, followed by Engines of Creation, one of his more experimental works featuring the electronica genre. Two shows at the Fillmore West in San Francisco were recorded in December 2000 and released as Live in San Francisco, a two-disc live album and DVD.
2000–present
Satriani released Strange Beautiful Music in 2002 and Is There Love in Space? in 2004. In May 2005, the musician toured India for the first time, playing concerts in Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai. In 2006, he recorded and released Super Colossal and Satriani Live!, another two-disc live album and DVD recorded May 3, 2006, at the Grove in Anaheim, California. In 2006, Satriani signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit organization that provides free musical instruments and instruction to children in underserved public schools throughout the US. The artist has personally delivered instruments to children in the program through a charity raffle for the organization, and like Steve Vai, sits on its board of directors as an honorary member.On August 7, 2007, Epic/Legacy Recordings re-released Surfing with the Alien to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its publication. This was a two-disc set that includes a remastered album and a DVD of a never-before-seen live show filmed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1988. Satriani's next album, Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock, was released on April 1, 2008.
On May 29, 2008, Satriani revealed that he was joining hard rock supergroup Chickenfoot, composed of former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. They released their debut, self-titled album on June 5, 2009. A second album, titled Chickenfoot III, followed on September 27, 2011.
On December 4, 2008, he filed a copyright infringement suit against Coldplay in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Satriani's suit claims that the band's song "Viva la Vida" includes "substantial original portions" of the Satriani song "If I Could Fly" from his 2004 album, Is There Love in Space? The Coldplay song in question received two Grammy Awards. Coldplay denied the allegation. The case was dismissed in September 2009, with each party paying their own trial costs.
File:20080612 Joe Satriani with Stuart Hamm in the Rijnhal Arnhem.jpg|thumb|right|210px|Satriani with Stuart Hamm in the Rijnhal, Arnhem, 2008
The artist released a live DVD recording of a concert in Paris titled Live in Paris: I Just Wanna Rock and a companion two-CD set on February 2, 2010. In March 2010, he participated with other guitarists in the Experience Hendrix Tribute Tour, performing music written and inspired by Jimi Hendrix.
In May 2010, Satriani announced he was about to enter the studio to record a new album, and dates were released for an autumn tour. He also said that demos had been recorded for a second Chickenfoot record. Satriani released his 13th studio album, Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards, on October 5, 2010.
He issued the DVD/Blu-ray of his three-dimensional concert film Satchurated: Live in Montreal on April 24, 2012, after its limited showing in theaters. The film was shot in December 2010 in Montreal and was directed by award-winning filmmakers François and Pierre Lamoureux. Satchurated 3D is the first Blu-ray concert film available with Dolby TrueHD 7.1.
On May 7, 2013, Satriani released his 14th studio album, titled Unstoppable Momentum. A career retrospective box set titled Joe Satriani: The Complete Studio Recordings, which contains remastered editions of every studio album from Not of This Earth to Unstoppable Momentum was released on April 22, 2014. A book titled Strange Beautiful Music: A Memoir was also published, to coincide with the release of the box set.
In August 2014, Satriani participated in the G4 Experience—a weeklong guitar camp—with fellow guitarists Paul Gilbert and Andy Timmons, and keyboardist Mike Keneally.
In February 2015, the first dates were announced for the Shockwave World Tour, in support of Satriani's 15th studio album, slated for release in July. Shockwave Supernova was released on July 24, 2015. The album was conceived after Satriani found himself playing guitar with his teeth a lot during the Unstoppable Momentum tour, and had a daydream about an alter ego, "Shockwave Supernova", making him do it.
On September 16, 2017, Satriani teased his upcoming 16th studio album, What Happens Next, through social media. The album was released on January 12, 2018. He collaborated with former Deep Purple bassist Glenn Hughes and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, two Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members.
On April 5, 2019, the guitarist released an eponymous retrospective collection of songs he had recorded in the 1970s with his band Squares. The following April, he published his seventeenth solo album, Shapeshifting.
On January 19, 2022, Satriani released "Sahara" as the first single from his eighteenth album, The Elephants of Mars. The record was released on April 8, 2022, by earMUSIC, making it Satriani's first since his 1995 self-titled album to be released by a label other than Epic Records or its parent company, Sony Music.
In late 2022, Satriani announced a continuation of his G3 touring project, under the title G4 Experience V6.0, which took place on January 3–7, 2023. The event was led by Satriani, together with Peter Frampton—among his final performances before retirement, Steve Lukather, and Steve Morse, and included workshops and jam sessions led by Alex Skolnick, Andy James, Cory Wong, Eric Gales, John 5, Mateus Asato, and Nili Brosh.
In early 2024, Satriani, Steve Vai, and Eric Johnson embarked on a limited-run "Reunion" tour of the original G3 lineup. Subsequently, Satriani and Vai continued touring as a double bill under the name SATCHVAI. After more than fifty years of professional and personal friendship, the pair wrote and recorded their first single together, "The Sea of Emotion, Pt.1", which was released on March 29, 2024. In December 2025, it was announced that Animals as Leaders would support SATCHVAI on their 2026 North American tour.