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Got To Meet One of My All-Time Fave Guitar Heroes

 
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Tue Sep 03, 2013 7:06 am    Post subject: Got To Meet One of My All-Time Fave Guitar Heroes Reply with quote

I've had many guitar heroes in my life - starting with Ace Frehley of Kiss in the 70's to Ritchie Blackmore and Al DiMeola - but the guy in the 80's who I loved more than anyone else was, without a doubt, Joe Satriani - or more affectionately known as "Satch".

Well, knowing that Satch was kicking off his US tour with Bryan and Marco in his band, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to see him playing at the Balboa Theatre in San Diego on Aug 29.

As I had suspected, Joe was indeed a super nice down-to-earth guy and it really was a thrill to meet him in person. I bought Joe's 'Not Of This Album' back in '86 as soon as it was released and saw him live half-a-dozen times during the late-80's and the early-90's. I can truly say that I've been "with" Joe since the beginning.

Bryan hooked me up for a backstage pass with my family to meet with Joe and we had a very good short chat about the guitar music scene (including about Guthrie, of course).

The show was awesome (with Steve Morse opening up). Joe is definitely still at the top of his game. You know, he's 57 years old now and he looks as great (i.e., tip-top physical shape) as he did in the 80's. I really admire that. I looked at the food table backstage and it was all super-healthy stuff: vegetables, fruits, and grains. I'm of the same mindset and I weigh less and feel physically better than I did when I was in college.

Here's a photo from backstage. From left: my 13-year-old son, my lovely wife, Joe in the middle, yours truly, and Bryan. Very Happy


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thelordofthestrings



Joined: 23 Dec 2009
Posts: 25
Location: Los Angeles, CA U.S.A.

PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 5:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hello Ed!

Great picture with your family and Joe. I never knew you hadn't met him before this. Wondering if Joe mentioned any glimpse of hope for Guthrie to participate in any future G3's or anything similar to it? I've been attending Guthrie shows since the early Tone Merchant days, and I am so happy to see the Aristocrats begin to build momentum and create some exposure for Guthrie. Hopefully a G3 performance will be part of this natural progression soon enough.

Best Wishes,

Jairo
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Mon Feb 03, 2014 5:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

thelordofthestrings wrote:
Hello Ed!

Great picture with your family and Joe. I never knew you hadn't met him before this. Wondering if Joe mentioned any glimpse of hope for Guthrie to participate in any future G3's or anything similar to it? I've been attending Guthrie shows since the early Tone Merchant days, and I am so happy to see the Aristocrats begin to build momentum and create some exposure for Guthrie. Hopefully a G3 performance will be part of this natural progression soon enough.

Best Wishes,

Jairo


Hey Jairo,

I've seen Joe live many times since the 80's but, no, I never got to meet him in person before so this was a quite a treat.

Joe is certainly a very big fan of Guthrie and what he does. As far as G3, we'll have to see how it goes. It has to make business sense for all involved. Guthrie is still an "underground" figure from the musical mainstream perspective. I think he needs to reach another level of recognition and that takes time.

The market for virtuosic instrumental music is brutally tough. Believe me, managing the band's record label business, I see things from the inside out and outside in from all possible angles. It really is brutal. But Guthrie is doing quite well. He can play his own music (solo or with the Aristocrats) or choose his gigs as a hired gun (ex. - Steven Wilson or doing guest solos of artists he admires) and that's something very few guitarists can claim to do.

Personally, I'm not sure if a G3 gig is even "necessary" for Guthrie and I never found the whole concept appealing and never went to one. It's a lot to take in just one of these guys on a night, so to have the three of them back-to-back-to-back-and-then-all-together just seems like overkill. That's my take on it.

The current era isn't what it used to be. The electric guitar has definitely lost a lot of its mainstream appeal it had from the 60's through the earlier part of last decade. I see the big picture in the guitar industry and the electric guitar market continues to shrink overall while the acoustic guitar market is holding steady. Many people and kids are content to learn to strum a few chords to accompany vocals but they don't want to take the time or make the effort to get very proficient at it.

It's kind of a sad thing to observe but it is what it is. Guthrie and I were talking about this during NAMM. It's as though the electric guitar has become an old, established and institutionalized instrument like the violin in the classical world, the saxophone in jazz, and the banjo in the bluegrass genre. It will always be around and it'll remain very popular in a still-fairly-big genre but it has become just another instrument that longer generates the excitement it did during the peak of the rock era. Now it's more about nostalgia, it seems...

But we gotta keep flying the electric guitar flag and do what we can to fight this trend and try to develop more interest in it - especially amongst the young. Now that I'm back in the big "mainstream" mass market of the guitar industry and working at the largest retailer and with the largest guitar companies (both brand name companies and OEM factories), I'm going to do whatever I can to generate more interest while continually pushing the envelope to improve quality at ever lower price points. And, obviously, Guthrie figures prominently in such plans. Wink
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.strandberg* Guitars USA
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