When Mick Jagger needed a guitarist back in 1988 who could effortlessly play parts originated by Keith Richards, Brian Jones, and Mick Taylor, he called up Joe Satriani. Five years later, when Deep Purple needed to airlift in a guitarist at the last second after Ritchie Blackmore quit the band, they also went with Satriani. And when Alex Van Halen wanted someone that could somehow stand in for his brother Eddie Van Halen on a possible 2022 tribute tour with David Lee Roth, he too reached out to Satch. The Van Halen drummer’s proposal to honor Eddie, who died in 2020, never got past the idea stage, but Satriani nonetheless finds himself furiously learning the songs of VH.
That’s because Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony — who previously worked with Satriani in Chickenfoot — recruited him, along with drummer Jason Bonham, for the next summer’s Best of All Worlds Tour. The concept is to give fans a super-serving of Van Halen classics from all eras, along with a smattering of tunes from Hagar’s first band Montrose, his solo career, Chickenfoot, and Satriani’s own extensive catalog of work.
We hopped on a Zoom with Satriani to talk about the genesis of the tour, his history with Van Halen, how he’ll approach Eddie’s playing, and his upcoming G3 reunion tour with fellow shredders Steve Vai and Eric Johnson. Tell me your first memory of ever hearing Van Halen’s music.
I was in my apartment in Berkeley. I had my guitar on, and I was doing an early morning practice. Usually what I do is I turn on the radio, have my coffee, and I just play along with anything that comes on. And all of a sudden, without any introduction, “Eruption” comes on. I was shocked, transfixed, overjoyed. I was so happy that somebody decided to really do it. I heard all these elements that were part of my upbringing as a guitar player. At the same time, I was feeling like guitar playing was under siege. People were always saying, “Play less, turn down, clean that up.” And here comes this guy who pushed all those comments aside. He said, “No, I’m just going to do what I want to do, and I’m going to put it all in there.”
Then I saw Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony’s proposal to honor Eddie, who died in 2020, never got past the idea stage, but Satriani nonetheless finds himself furiously learning the songs of VH. That’s because Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony — who previously worked with Satriani in Chickenfoot — recruited him, along with drummer Jason Bonham, for the next summer’s Best of All Worlds Tour.
I only met him once. Sad to say, I never got to know him. He walked into the studio around 11 in the morning. I was working on [1992’s] The Extremist album with [producer] Andy Johns, who had been working with Van Halen at the time. And unfortunately, we were working on a song at that moment that was not working. I eventually left it off the record. But Eddie walked in with a cigarette, a beer, the whole thing. I was just deep into this track, and then all of a sudden, one of my heroes walks in. We just sat there and listened to this song for five minutes. He made a couple of cool comments, and then Andy came in the room and called him out, and they went and they got in some trouble. And I never saw Andy for the rest of the day. That’s the only time I ever met Eddie.
When we first got together in Sam’s studio, we started fooling around just playing covers. That’s how the band got started. And I forget what happened, but at one moment, everyone looked at each other and said, “You know what? No Chili Peppers, no Van Halen, no Surfing With the Alien. We should just do what we did the other night in Vegas,” which is we played Zeppelin and Traffic and the weirdest group of cover songs. This was an opportunity where we could step out of our main gigs and connect because of our shared influences. That’s what it was. We made it a rule. And then my son ZZ called me and said that he wanted to make a film about starting his touring life at four years old, which coincided with the first G3. I thought, “Well, I have to get the reunion happening so that we can get the film and the tour and integrate everything together at once.” It just gained momentum from there. I was just watching a jam of the three of you playing “Red House” back on that first G3 tour. Any idea what jams you’ll play on this one?It’s interesting. Steve’s not a blues player, but he loves trying. He loves putting himself in there and subverting the genre with his bizarre take on it. Eric’s a real traditional blues player. I’m in the middle. And so there are things like that where we have to come to grips with our differences. When we started, I said, “The jam songs are not going to be our songs. They’re going to be songs from our past that everybody knows, but they are going to be shocked to see us playing them because they only know us from the songs that have made us popular.” Related I want to go back to the Mick Jagger tour you did in 1988, since that’s the first time you did anything like this Sammy Hagar tour coming up. What did you learn from that experience?It was totally out of left field that I got that gig. I thought, “Oh, I don’t play like Brian Jones and Keith Richards and all these great players that have been part of the Rolling Stones.” And I just put it to Mick one day in rehearsal, “I don’t play like any of these guys. What do you want me to do? How close do you want me to get?” And he went, “Oh, just forget about that. Just get into the song and do your thing. That’s all you got to do.” And he was not looking for me to replace anything unless he thought I was really feeling it. When you play “Sympathy for the Devil,” I can’t get that great Keith Richards solo out of my head. But you play around it. I think what I found way back in ’88 was that if you quote the most important moments, then you trigger something in the audience, and they become very receptive to your approach to playing it. Did you ever meet Eddie Van Halen?I only met him once. Sad to say, I never got to know him. He walked into the studio around 11 in the morning. I was working on [1992’s] The Extremist album with [producer] Andy Johns, who had been working with Van Halen at the time. And unfortunately, we were working on a song at that moment that was not working. I eventually left it off the record. But Eddie walked in with a cigarette, a beer, the whole thing. I was just deep into this track, and then all of a sudden, one of my heroes walks in. We just sat there and listened to this song for five minutes. He made a couple of cool comments, and then Andy came in the room and called him out, and they went and they got in some trouble. And I never saw Andy for the rest of the day. That’s the only time I ever met Eddie.
When you formed Chickenfoot in 2008, with Chad Smith on drums, you never played even a single Van Halen song when you toured. Why was that?When we first got together in Sam’s studio, we started fooling around just playing covers. That’s how the band got started. And I forget what happened, but at one moment, everyone looked at each other and said, “You know what? No Chili Peppers, no Van Halen, no Surfing With the Alien. We should just do what we did the other night in Vegas,” which is we played Zeppelin and Traffic and the weirdest group of cover songs. This was an opportunity where we could step out of our main gigs and connect because of our shared influences. That’s what it was. We made it a rule. You’ve talked before about Alex Van Halen approaching you about possibly doing a tour with him and David Lee Roth. Did it go anywhere besides a few conversations on the phone?Almost. When they first called me, I said, “Why me? I don’t play Eddie at all.” But I think I said yes before the rest of my brain informed me that it was a bad idea. I was thinking, “They’ve probably asked all the other proper candidates, and they had the good sense to say, ‘No way.’”