Joe Satriani, Grew up in Long Island and briefly lived in Japan before settling in San Francisco, Joe came from a musical family, his mother and sister played piano, and his sister Marion played folk songs on guitar.  Joe experimented with the piano but never received any instruction on it.  Joe saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, and decided that he wanted to play the drums.  He received  his first set of drums and started to play.  Joe started to listen to rock guitarists, some of his favorite players were Led Zeppelins Jimmy Page, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbeth, Eric Clapton with Cream, Johnny Winter, Jeff Beck, Joe Walsh.  But it was the music of Jimi Hendrix that had the most profound effect on him, when he heard of Hendrix' death.  Joe decided to abandon the drums and on September 18, 1970, he started to play guitar. Joe took music lessons with Bill Wescott, who taught him about music, modes and scales, and how to read music.  Satriani became a technical wizard on the guitar. and supported himself as a guitar teacher.  Some of his students include Steve Vai, Kirk Hammet of Metallica and Larry Lalonde of Primus. In 1983 he sold his self-produced  E P Joe Satriani out the trunk of his car, and came to the attention of Relativity Records, 1985 he Records  his first album Not of this Earth, 1987 Joe Records Surfing with Alien selling over two million copies making it one of the most successful instrumental albums of all time.  He wins "Best Guitar Record of 1989"  in guitar player magazine.  He toured the World as lead guitar for Mick Jagger before following up with another million selling album "Flying In A Blue Dream"  his 1992 album "The Extremist" was co-produced by Andy Johns brother of Glyn Johns.  In 1993 Joe released Time Machine a double disc, one with unreleased tracks, and one live.  In 1995 he released the self titled disc Joe Satriani, followed by G3 live in concert with Steve Vai & Eric Johnson 1997.  In 1998 Crystal Planet was released followed in 1999 with the remastered, Surfing with the Alien.  Moving into the year2000 Joe released a controversial album Engines of Creation, "Joe reckons this album might be a shock to some guitar fans" this was a totally different kind of guitar record, the response was overwhelming.  Engines of Creation can be said to mark a new era in the career of this eccentric composer, Joe Satriani.  Today Satriani, is the hottest guitar player in the World,    "Joe Satriani is the greatest living exponent of the electric guitar" Kerrang Magazine.

Check out Joe's Five guitar tips Here

  Alien Visitors