“Every time we play together it takes me back to when we were teenagers… pushing, challenging and helping each other to be the best we could be”: For the first time ever, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai are working on new music together
Joe Satriani and Steve Vai have announced they are heading out together on a string of co-headline tour dates in Spring 2024, on the (functionally titled) Satch-Vai Tour.
However, it’s a small line lower down in the press release for the dates that has us very intrigued: “In additional exciting news, for the first time they will collaborate on new music with plans to release just before the tour launches in March.”
Vai and Satriani obviously go way back, having both attended the same high school in Long Island, and the latter famously tutored Vai in the mid-’70s.
They have undertaken numerous tours together under the G3 umbrella, parts of which have been recorded, but the March 2024 release would appear to mark their first studio-based collaboration.
No further details are provided in the press release, but the tour kicks off on March 22 in Orlando, FL, so we’d imagine we’ll get to hear the music by then at the latest.
It's also a pretty extensive list of shows – coming pretty quickly off the back of next year’s G3 Reunion tour with Eric Johnson – with “more dates TBA”, suggesting it's not a half-hearted project.
“Every time we play together it takes me back to when we were teenagers,” says Satriani.
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“Eating and breathing music every second of the day, pushing, challenging and helping each other to be the best we could be. I guess we’ve never stopped!”
“Touring with Joe is always a pleasure and an honor,” adds Vai. “He is my favorite guitarist to jam with, and now we have another opportunity to take it to the stage. I feel as though we are both at the top of our game and that the show will be a powerful celebration of the coolest instrument in the world, the electric guitar!”
Joe Satriani and Steve Vai onstage together in 1987 (Image credit: Paul Natkin / Getty Images)
Suffice to say, we’re excited to hear the results of their efforts, both on and offstage, particularly as the two players are enjoying a renaissance at the moment, both among traditional fanbases and a new technically-savvy generation of guitarists – the latter point being most evident in Steve Vai’s groundbreaking guest spot with Polyphia on last year’s Ego Death.
Check out the full tour dates below and keep an eye out for the pre-sale ticket release on Monday November 13, with the general sale tickets going out on Friday November 17.
Matt is Features Editor for GuitarWorld.com. Before that he spent 10 years as a freelance music journalist, interviewing artists for the likes of Total Guitar, Guitarist, Guitar World, MusicRadar, NME.com, DJ Mag and Electronic Sound. In 2020, he launched CreativeMoney.co.uk, which aims to share the ideas that make creative lifestyles more sustainable. He plays guitar, but should not be allowed near your delay pedals.
