Joe Satriani recently spoke with Eddie Trunk on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation. During their conversation, Joe reveals how he prepared for the “Best of All Worlds” tour, if he has spoken to Alex Van Halen or David Lee Roth recently, and the advice he got from Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar.
SiriusXM's Trunk Nation, hosted by Eddie Trunk, airs daily at 3 PM, ET on SiriusXM’s Faction Talk. Audio clips and transcriptions below, courtesy of SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation.
On how he prepared for the Best of All Worlds tour, Satriani reveals, "I can start with like the guitars. I had to kind of change the setup of my guitars for some of the things that Eddie achieved. I started working with Dylana Scott at 3rd Power Amps to create an amp that would allow me to capture what I described as a 1986 live without a net, with a little more juice. That's kind of like how I describe it. I'm not an amp designer or an engineer, so when I work with an engineer, I use colorful poetic language to describe what I'm looking for and hope that the engineer can figure it out. And Dylana did just an amazing job of creating these dragon amps that really got me to relax and achieve the right sounds. So there's that, and I gotta say, I could never have done this without this amazing community of guitar players out there.
"They're online, they're posting on YouTube and their own sites, and they've dedicated so much of their time to figuring out how to play Eddie Van Halen guitar parts. And so I just started to go online and look and I'd see, you know, 20 different versions of playing “Good Enough” or “Poundcake” or, you know, “Judgment Day.” And I've learned so much just from watching other players really attain those magical moments in certain parts of the song. And then I was able to just to watch other people play them. And some of them out there just, I mean, some of those players nail it. It's so close it blows my mind. I knew that, you know, hey, I've been like Joe Satriani for a long time, so there's no chance that I'm going to suddenly sound like somebody else, but I wanted to do it right. I just learned everybody's version, including Eddie's, of how these song went. And then I just sort of absorbed it all."
On if he's talked to Alex Van Halen or David Lee Roth: "I haven't spoken to David in quite a while. I guess it was just about that week, where we were on your show and Howard's show. And then I've spoken to Alex a few times, but not recently. And I mean, not since the, you know, the tour really got up and running. We've just been sort of inundated with doing the shows, doing all the press that comes with it and everything. And so yeah, I don't know. I mean, you know, the bittersweet part of this whole thing was that I was not ever in the band Van Halen. I was never part of the family. I was never friends with anyone other than, you know, Mike and Sam and there's some issues that they have, you know, in that camp. And I've got nothing to do with it, and I don't, I really don't wanna get involved in it, whatever it might be. I'm here just like the fans. I just wanna celebrate this music. I want to do it right. I'm gonna give it a hundred percent every night I walk on stage. And all the rest of that stuff's got nothing to do with me, you know. I'm here to celebrate and respect Eddie's legacy as best I can."
On advice he got from Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar: "Michael's been really just fantastic in, you know, being the sounding board when I have these questions. And you know, I hit him up all the time, like, 'How did Eddie do this? How did he handle this part? That part?' And so he's got real, you know, real anecdotal evidence, great stories about how every time Eddie would play a certain song, it would be kind of different. And you just have to, you know, follow him because he was a fountain of creativity, you know, he just kept changing, kept expanding on parts all the time. It was, you know, when you hear all these stories and you take 'em in, you realize how unique that unit was. Each iteration of Van Halen was really super creative and it started with Eddie, and his unique approach to music and guitar playing.
"Um, so yeah, I definitely hit Mike up a lot and he always has great advice, you know, based on the experiences that he had playing with Eddie and Sam as well. But they've always given me, you know, free reign. I think it's just been really fortunate that we all kind of have the same feeling about how close to get to the original and how to make it fresh and new for today's audience. You know, part of that was bringing Ray in, because when we started talking about this, right from the first phone call I got from Sam about doing the tour, I said, “Can we please have a human being, you know, playing the extra keyboard and guitar and vocals and, you know?” And he said, “Yes” right away. That he really wanted to do it, and I knew Ray was the perfect guy."
Produced by Live Nation and featuring special guests Loverboy, the 28-date The Best Of All Worlds tour will conclude on August 31 in St. Louis, MO. For tickets and more details, go to RedRocker.com.
Tour dates:
July
29 - Cuyahoga Falls, OH - Blossom Music Center
31 - Toronto, ON - Budweiser Stage
August
2 - Clarkston, MI - Pine Knob Music Theatre
3 - Tinley Park, IL - Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
9 - Las Vegas, NV - MGM Grand Garden Arena
11 - Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
13 - Spokane, WA - Airway Heights, WA BECU Live at Northern Quest
14 - Ridgefield, WA - RV Inn Style Resort Amphitheater
16 - Wheatland, CA - Toyota Amphitheatre
17 - Concord, CA - Toyota Pavilion at Concord
19 - Los Angeles, CA - Kia Forum
20 - Phoenix, AZ - Talking Stick Resorts Amphitheatre
22 - Dallas, TX - Dos Equis Pavilion
23 - Houston, TX - Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
25 - Rogers, AR - Walmart AMP
27 - Cincinnati, OH - Riverbend Music Center
28 - Nashville, TN - Bridgestone Arena
30 - Noblesville, IN - Ruoff Music Center
31 - St. Louis, MO - Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
(Photo - Timothy Morris)
