Ask any guitar groupie who the six-string king is, and Joe Satriani might be the first name that comes out of their mouth. The 55-year-old virtuoso has spent decades training and working with the best guitarists in the world.
.
It all began on the day Jimi Hendrix died. A young Joseph Satriani ran up to his football coach during a training session and immediately announced he was quitting to become a guitarist.
Was it the universe's way of replacing one genius with another?
Joe says he can only guess. "In my 14-year-old brain, I felt I was losing something that I couldn't live without. That wasting my time playing sports was something I had to stop, and I had to learn how to play music so I could replace what I was going to be missing. It was a very emotional moment."
The fretboard wizard soon discovered he was blessed with a natural skill. He was playing in a band and at high school events within eight months of first picking up a guitar.
"I had a talent for being able to get through a song. I could start it and never stop, even if I played certain parts wrong. What I felt with guitar was that I was moving forward. I felt like that was room for me to grow."
Fast forward 40 years and Joe, or 'Satch' as he's known to his fans, is one of the most successful and respected guitarists of this era. His passionate style of playing has earned him significant praise, while other virtuoso guitarists are often criticised for technical wankery or speed over style.
"Jimi Hendrix was very dedicated on each and every song. He played differently on each song, he was quite remarkable that way.
"I thought you know, this is where I come from, these are the players that I admire, so I made sure that I play uniquely on each song rather than just self-promote."
Satch has sold millions of records, given guitar lessons to Metallica's Kirk Hammett and Larry Lamond from Primus, and revitalized the instrumental concert experience with his G3 festivals.
But despite the lengthy list of achievements, he's not the coke-sniffing rock star one might expect - in fact, he sounds pretty humble.
"You can't believe any of that stuff. For me, the reality is I get up in the morning and I wonder if I'm going to be able to play as good as yesterday."
Satriani's latest project is Chickenfoot, a collaboration between Red Hot Chilli Peppers drummer Chad Smith, and former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony. The poultry-inspired name was simply a temporary title for the group while they thought of something better, but thanks to the fans it stuck.
Joe disputes their status as a supergroup, and argues they're just a group of friends who enjoy playing together.
"We just sounded so good together that I think it shocked all four of us because we weren't planning on it being a band, we were just planning on having a little celebrity jam at the end of Sam's show. It just really popped out of nowhere and it was a very random event. It really surprised me."
Chickenfoot's chemistry was obvious on their self-titled first album, a mixture of hard rock and blues. The project was surprise success reaching gold status in Canada and America.
Despite recording on dozens of projects, and even providing backing vocals on Crowded House's first album, Satch seems legitimately excited for the release of Chickenfoot III.
"Although we spent less time making it, the time we did spend was much more focused.
"We all came into this second record wanting to pull certain things out of each other. Sammy was saying he wanted me to get wilder and sort of loosen up. I was telling him I wanted to write songs for him where he would sing in different registers."
It seems there's only one success that has completely eluded Satriani: he's been nominated for 15 Grammy Awards without a single win, second only to R&B singer Brian McKnight's 16.
The closest he's come is suing Coldplay for their Grammy Song Of The Year 'Viva la Vida' which he claimed used original portions of his 2004 track 'If I Could Fly'.
“I think that the nominations and not winning has contributed greatly to my success,'' laughs Satriani.
“I think if I win, it will be the end of my career. I secretly hope that somebody else wins, so that I can keep moving forward with all this good fortune that I've had.”
By Jimmy Ness
.