Joe Satriani

On July 15, in the town of Westbury, the world saw for the first time one of the future idols of the rock scene, Joe Satriani. His path to success was not easy and not always smoothly paved, but the result that this talented person achieved and the number of awards he earned impress even those who consider themselves not involved in the guitar rock of the 20th century. Many albums, crowds of fans, worldwide recognition - all this is at his feet today, allowing him to rest on his laurels from many years of work in the field of guitar music.

The famous Jimi Hendrix had a great influence on Joe Satriani's passion for music and early work, thanks to which many teenagers in America stopped hanging around the street doing nothing, and tried to portray virtuoso passages on their guitars, hiding from strangers in their parents' garage. Having mastered the art of guitar playing, talented teenager Joe even began to teach his peers, among whom was Steve Vai, well known to fans of rock music of the 70s and 80s.

Joe's work as a guitar teacher lasted long enough - even after moving to San Francisco, after graduation, where there were also many who wanted to learn how to rock on a fashionable musical instrument. The first creative successes of Joe Satriani in professional musical groups belong to the time of his stay in San Francisco - such names as The Squares and Greg Keane's band can be mentioned here.

The first concert tours and the first fans made Joe think about his own musical career, which began with the debut mini-album "Joe Satriani" in 1984, which cannot be called a breakthrough or even a prominent musical event, due to insufficient promotion.

But already in 1986, the situation was corrected, when Joe's former student and constant companion Steve Vai was under the gunpoint of video cameras that marked the new star of the rock scene. Part of his success went to Satriani. With this moment, the release of his next major disc “Not of this Earth”, which deserved a lot of positive reviews and attracted the attention of the world community, more than successfully coincided.

In 1987, the musician consolidated the success achieved by the previous album by releasing a new disc "Surfing With the Alien". A few days - and Satriani became a star, and his new work burst into the US charts, starting its progress to the first place of the leader immediately from the 29th position. Conquering the famous Top 30 on the Billboard 200 is already serious, especially when it comes to a guitar album, which is not a very popular genre. Master Mick Jagger quickly noticed the new star, who was so rapidly breaking into Olympus, by inviting Satriani to take part in his tour of Japan and Australia.

1989 lifted Joe to a new wave of success - a new album "Flying in a Blue Dream" was released, where the performer appeared before a grateful audience as a vocalist. The work was appreciated by the audience, and one track was chosen as the soundtrack for Cameron Crowe's film with the original title "Say Anything". However, Satriani's work did not occupy leading places in the TOPs very often, while the ratings in the mainstream rock genre allowed his works to show off in the top ten.

Satriani's next disc was released only in 1992. "The Extremist" climbed to number 22 on the Billboard 200. And in 1994, Satriani's career took another turn uphill - he took the place of the legend Ritchie Blackmore in the famous Deep Purple band. Now it was possible to breathe easy - the peak of popularity was conquered. Today, Joe Satriani is one of the top eight guitarists in the world, and his albums have sold over 7 million copies, which can be called a brilliant result in the history of rock music.