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Joseph "Joe" Satriani (born July 15, 1956) is an American instrumental rock guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and multiple Grammy Award nominee.
Early in his career, Satriani worked as a guitar instructor, with many of his former students achieving fame, such as: Steve Vai, Larry LaLonde, Rick Hunolt, Kirk Hammett, Andy Timmons, Charlie Hunter, Kevin Cadogan and Alex Skolnick.In 1988, Satriani was recruited by Mick Jagger as lead guitarist for his first solo tour.
In 1994, Satriani toured with Deep Purple as the lead guitarist.
He has worked with a range of guitarists during the G3 tour, which he founded in 1995.
His G3 collaborators have included Vai, LaLonde, Timmons, Steve Lukather, John Petrucci, Eric Johnson, Yngwie Malmsteen, Brian May, Patrick Rondat, Paul Gilbert, Adrian Legg, Steve Morse and Robert Fripp.
He is currently the lead guitarist for the supergroup Chickenfoot.
Since 1988, Satriani has been using his own signature guitars, the Ibanez JS Series, which are sold in music stores worldwide.
He has also collaborated with Vox to create his own wah, delay, overdrive and distortion pedals as well as a collaboration with Marshall Amplification for the creation of his own signature series amplifier head, the JVM410HJS.Early lifeDescended from Italian immigrants, Satriani was born in Westbury, New York.
He was inspired to play guitar at age 14, after hearing of the death of Jimi Hendrix.
He has been said to have heard the news during football practice, where he then announced to his coach that he was quitting to become a guitarist.
In 1974, Satriani studied music with jazz guitarist Billy Bauer and with reclusive jazz pianist Lennie Tristano.
The technically demanding Tristano greatly influenced Satriani's playing.
Satriani began teaching guitar, with his most notable student at the time being fellow Long Island native Steve Vai (both also went to the same high school).
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 arriving in California, 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 (ex-Exodus), Phil Kettner of Lääz Rockit, Geoff Tyson of T-Ride, Charlie Hunter, David Turin and Eric Kauschen.Music careerSatriani started playing in a San Francisco-based band called the Squares, where he continued to network and make musical connections (Squares sound man John Cuniberti co-produced his second album).
He was 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.
When his friend and former student Steve Vai gained fame playing with David Lee Roth in 1986, Vai raved about Satriani in several interviews with guitar magazines, including Guitar World magazine.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.
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" was featured on the soundtrack to the Cameron Crowe movie Say Anything....
"The Forgotten Part II" was featured on a Labatt Blue commercial in Canada in 1993.
"Can't Slow Down" featured in a car-chase sequence in the Don Johnson starring show Nash Bridges.Joe Satriani also sang backing vocals on the self-titled Crowded House album.
Satriani was a friend of Mitchell Froom.In 1992, Satriani released The Extremist, his most critically acclaimed and commercially successful album to date.
Radio stations across the country 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 the G3, a concert tour intended to feature a trio of guitarists.
The original lineup featured Satriani, 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 among others: 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, which went back to a sound reminiscent of his late '80s work.
Planet was followed up with Engines of Creation, one of his more experimental works featuring the electronica genre.
A pair of 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.2000s–presentSatriani regularly recorded and released evolving music, including Strange Beautiful Music in 2002 and Is There Love in Space? in 2004.
In May 2005, Satriani toured India for the first time, playing concerts in Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.
In 2006, Satriani recorded and released Super Colossal and Satriani Live!, another two-disc live album and DVD recorded May 3, 2006 at the Grove in Anaheim, CA.
In 2006, Satriani signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock, a non-profit organization that provides free musical instruments and instruction to children in underserved public schools throughout the U.S.A.
Satriani 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 release.
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.
Satriani released a live DVD recording of a concert in Paris titled Live In Paris: I Just Wanna Rock and a companion 2-CD set on February 2, 2010.
In March 2010 Satriani participated with other guitarists in the Experience Hendrix Tribute Tour, performing music written and inspired by Jimi Hendrix.On 29 May 2008 it was revealed that Satriani was involved in a new hard rock band called Chickenfoot with former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith.
The band features Hagar on vocals, Satriani on guitar, Anthony on bass and Smith on drums.
Their debut album was released on 5 June 2009.
The first single and video released was the track "Oh Yeah," which was played on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on 5 June 2009.
Satriani received a co-writing credit on all the songs on the band's debut album.
Broken Records magazine asked Satriani about his new band, and he enthusiastically mentioned that "it was great fun" and it gives him a "kick in the music bone" to be playing with such great talent.
He said it felt quite natural to step back and play more rhythm guitar than solo guitar.
Chickenfoot's second album was titled III, and was released on 27 September 2011.
Its first single was the track 'Bigfoot'.
On its first week of release, it reached a chart position of #9.In April, Satriani and Chickenfoot voiced themselves in an episode of the animated television series Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
In May 2010, Satriani announced he was about to enter the studio to record a solo album, and dates were released for an autumn tour.
He also said that demos had been recorded for a second Chickenfoot album.
Satriani released his 13th studio album Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards, on October 5, 2010.On December 4, 2008 Satriani 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 Coldplay 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 for "Song of the Year." Coldplay denied the allegation.
An unspecified settlement was reached between the parties.Satriani released the DVD/Blu-ray of his 3D 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 is the first Blu-ray concert film available in 3D with Dolby TrueHD 7.1.Satriani completed his fourteenth studio album, titled Unstoppable Momentum, which was released on May 7, 2013.
He is also in the planning stages of releasing a career retrospective box set, which is due for release in the spring of that year.In August of 2014, Satriani will be participating in the G4 Experience - a week long guitar camp - with fellow guitarists Paul Gilbert, Andy Timmons, and Mike Keneally.
Other workSatriani is credited on many other albums, including guitar duties on shock-rocker Alice Cooper's 1991 album Hey Stoopid, Spinal Tap's 1992 album Break Like the Wind, Blue Öyster Cult's 1988 album Imaginos, band members Stu Hamm and Gregg Bissonette's solo albums.
He was credited with singing background vocals on the 1986 debut album by Crowded House.
In 2003, he played lead guitar on The Yardbirds's release Birdland.
In 2006, he made appearances on tracks for Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan's solo CD/DVD dual disc Gillan's Inn.On Dream Theater's 2007 album Systematic Chaos, Satriani contributed spoken lyrics to the song "Repentance." Satriani contributed a guitar solo to Jordan Rudess' 2004 solo release Rhythm of Time.
He composed much of the soundtrack for the racing video game NASCAR 06: Total Team Control and contributed to Sega Rally Championship, while "Crowd Chant" was featured in NHL 2K10 and Madden NFL 11.
He has starred in feature films, including 2006 Christopher Guest film For Your Consideration as the guitarist in the band that played for the late-night show.
Other films include Moneyball in which he appears as himself playing Star Spangled Banner.In the American Dad episode " Why Can't We Be Friends" it featured the song "Always with Me, Always with You".
NominationsSatriani has the second most Grammy Award nominations (15, after Brian McKnight and Snoop Dogg) of any artist without winning.
See further artists.