Veteran guitar whiz Joe Satriani is undoubtedly one of the most astounding and amazing guitarists to ever emerge onto the scene. His style is unique, difficult to describe, genre-defying and simply- jaw-dropping. A respected and renowned player in his own right, Satriani has sporadically, for the better part of the last 20 or so years, combined his talents with other guitar gods of his choosing to stage his G3 package tours, which offer glimpses of individual gifted players as well as a rare chance to see several guitarists improvising, bouncing ideas off each other and spontaneously jamming.
For the current round of G3 shows, Joe has invited Def Leppard ax man Phil Collen who also brings along his side band, a red hot blues/rock outfit called Delta Deep, as well as repeat guest John Petrucci, lead guitarist for the phenomenal prog-rock band Dream Theater.
On a recent tour stop, I chatted with the relaxed, friendly and affable musician who still sound just as jazzed and excited about his G3 tours as sell-out audiences are to see three of today’s most gifted guitarists on one stage, sharing their passion for the instrument.
Read our Q&A below, and get more information on the show via local.cltampa.com.
You just released What Happens Next, your 16th studio album. Is this new tour a way to promote your new release or is it strictly dedicated to the G3 project?
I think we’re doing both, really. It’s not that unusual since 1996 that a new album and the opportunity to do a G3 coincides so, going back to the last record, Shockwave Supernova started out as a brand new tour for that record and it sort of morphed into a “Surfing…” to “Shockwave” tribute tour and ended with the documentary being made, Beyond The Supernova. So sometimes these tours, they take on a double or triple sort of meaning. But we’re definitely playing half the new record in our G3 set so we’re celebrating the new stuff, we’re playing some of the more requested hits from the catalog and then of course we’re having the best time you can have with a bunch of guitarists which is when we all jump on stage at the end of the night and have a great play.
How do those requests for the more popular stuff typically come in? Do fans e-mail them to you or do they talk to you at the shows?
It’s really from everywhere. We see the fans every night, you hear the fans, you meet them in the VIP meet and greets, you see them after the shows out by the tour bus or when you’re out walking around town. Of course, social media is 24/7 and so we’re aware through all those social media platforms what people are always looking to say and I think that, anyone will tell you about tours like this, if you’re lucky enough to stick around for a couple of decades you find that there’s a large part of the audience that maybe has never seen you before and then they only get to see you once. So if you omit more of the popular songs from the catalog, it’s kind of a disservice to more than half the audience. So, sometimes it just as easy as going to Spotify or iTunes to see what the most-streamed songs are and that gives you a good indication as well.
I guess the easiest way to look at it is that I’ve always done it in threes which is, a third of the set is new music, a third of the set is favorite catalog songs and the hits, and then we leave some room for the songs that the band feels they really want to play; maybe songs that you have never played before live or ones that you think were slightly underappreciated or you pick an odd one to pull out of the hat every once in a while.
Going back to ’96 when these types of tours started, what was your original motivation for the tour? Did you think they were going to go on this long and be as successful as they’ve been?
The main thing was that I noticed the increasing success every year, which not only took me by surprise but it was kind of isolating. I found that when I was an unknown guitar player, I was always hanging out with my friends, you know, jamming and playing at clubs, peoples’ houses, parties and things like that. But once you become a well-known entity, the business kind of keeps you separate and I found that I didn’t like it so I had a long meeting with my managers back in ’95, and basically I said this is my only complaint: thanks for the success but what can we do to fix this problem of feeling like I’m never in the same place where all my friends are? And, after a few hours, we came up with literally the G3 formula and it seemed to go against what most managers would advise their clients to do which is, they say, basically, never work with someone who does the same thing as you and who might do it better. You know, sort of a vamp on the W.C. Fields’ “never work with animals and children” so not to be upstaged but I just thought, I don’t think so, because, as an audience member, that’s what I always wanted to see.
I would’ve liked to see (guitarists) Tony Iommi and Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton just drop their guard and be friends and play guitar. I thought, “Wouldn’t this be the coolest thing in the world?” and so, I thought, well, if I feel that way that means that the audience must feel that way so why don’t we give them that if we’re all feeling the same thing? And it just turned out to be a winning formula because all of the guitarists that have joined me on G3 have that same excitement, they really miss to be surprised and challenged and to be pushed in the friendliest way to play better every night and, every time we finish a tour, we always feel like we’ve learned how to play a little bit better because we’ve hung out with each other and had a great time.
So how do you decide which guitarists to invite for each tour? Is it folks that you’re into or that you’d like to work with? Or folks that you think would work well together?
It’s kind of a combination of what you said. From the business side, it’s difficult to put together because most of these players are in bands and they’ve got schedules that are already booked maybe a year or two in advance so I’m dealing with that. Obviously, I’m being a little selfish. I’m looking for people that I really want to play with. I have to be sensitive to the fact that maybe some people don’t want to play with other people (laughs) that always pops up every now and then. And then I ultimately put together a few ideas and it’s my responsibility to try and sell it to promoters around the world and that’s usually the most difficult part because they don’t always see eye to eye with my artistic vision or what might work. They’re more like, you know, they see hard numbers, they take the financial risks so they want to know, has every one of these players sold enough tickets to make it worth my while to bring them to town? And, it’s an expensive venture for the promoters but we work together and I’ve had good relationships with promoters around the world through the years and, you work together, you build trust in both directions. Ultimately it takes about nine to 12 months to work it out just to put together a two-month tour.
That’s a lot of work!
Yeah, but it’s all worth it.
I talked to Phil Collen recently, too and he felt like there was a great chemistry between the three of you (including Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci) on this tour. Is that something you’d tend to agree with?
Yeah, I mean, it’s hard not to have a great chemistry with Phil. He’s just one of the most incredible human beings ever. You know, once you meet him, you just realize that it’s just like he radiates sunshine and confidence and friendship and it’s really quite nice. I think that Phil surprises everybody every show with how, what’s the right word, I’m gonna have to use many but, he’s such an impressive musician, performer, personality and he’s one of those performers that, he’s huge and monumental and iconic but at the same time he is the most easy-going, friendly, fit-in-with-anybody kind of guy and that’s because he’s confident and he’s got this great wealth of musicianship to draw upon and incredible experience.
I'M CALLEN PHIL
Phil Collen talks Def Leppard, rediscovering guitar and keeping up with Satriani on the G3 tour
And I go way back with John and so the three of us just seem to get along so well together onstage and every time we start to jam and improvise, we’re like three little teenage guys with guitars trying to outsmart each other and have the best time. I did a G4 experience camp with Phil last August and I was just so knocked out at how great he was with the campers and what a fantastic improviser he was. This G3 has been a real dream come true because my instincts are proved right that he has really stepped into this role with fantastic results.
I know every tour is a little different. What would you say is different about this current version of G3 that makes it different from the previous ones?
Because it’s 2018, I have a new record and I think in many ways Phil and his band Delta Deep are sort of just really trying to or ARE actually achieving a fair amount of impact on the scene that it’s a big deal. And John as well, through Dream Theater, has grown. I mean, they’re an iconic band now; they’re one of the leading progressive rock bands and it’s pretty remarkable. So the obvious things are, we’re different people, we play different jam songs, we’re very different musicians and bands but I think the fact that we have a lot of music behind us is really defining this G3 concert run as being really vital.
I know you’ve had John Petrucci on other G3 tours before so you obviously like to bring him back on these tours.
Yeah, I think John has done as many of these as Steve Vai so he’s like a senior member. We were joking that we should start issuing green jackets or something like that. Like on SNL, you know, like if you do enough G3 tours you get to wear a special G3 jacket! (laughs)
Like a G3 hall of fame?
Yeah! That kind of thing. Exactly. It’s really interesting because I think that both John and I are really curious, still, about how each other plays guitar. We have a lot of similarities in our roots but the way we play is so difficult and the kind of music we make is difficult and different as well. So those differences I think fascinate us and like I said before, after every show, we stand around in a circle and we talk to each other about what each other played and we ask each other, “How’d you do that?” and “Have you ever done this or tried that?” or “Wasn’t that cool?” So we’re still very excited and interested in the way that each other approaches the instrument and very curious and that’s what’s great. I’ve always had that feeling with John; he’s such a monumental player. He plays great, he sounds great…he’s just a consummate professional and he’s still one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met backstage. He’s just as relaxed as you can be.
So, what would you say is the appeal of this kind of tour for someone who, say, doesn’t play guitar or isn’t as deep into the instrument as others who might attend?
Well, it’s silly to be put in a position to defend art period. It’s just wrong. I can’t help thinking, if you don’t wanna go, don’t go. You can’t put somebody in front of a Picasso and say. “You have to learn to like this!” It just doesn’t work that way with art and music. But I could say that Phil Collen’s set is all vocal-oriented. He sings and (Delta Deep lead singer) Debbi Blackwell-Cook is an amazing vocalist in his band and, in fact, everybody in that band sings and he plays guitar, but he’s the only guitarist in the band so…there’s drummers and bass players and keyboard players on tour and it is music, after all. I don’t like being in the position to defend it because it’s kind of a skewered question but I think people will really enjoy the energy of the concert and I think the music is damn good!
This article appears in Feb 1-8, 2018.