Watch Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Slash, Zakk Wylde, John McLaughlin and more wish Neal Schon a happy birthday
Paul Rodgers, LL Cool J, Dolly Parton, Sheila E., Huey Lewis and Narada Michael Walden also stop by to wish the Journey guitarist many happy returns in a video organized by his wife, Michaele
Last week (February 27) electric guitar legend Neal Schon celebrated his 68th birthday.
Over the last five decades, Schon – through his work with Journey and Santana – has influenced countless guitarists, some of whom went onto become A-list players themselves.
Quite a few of those guitar all-stars came forward last week to wish Schon many happy returns in a special video that was organized by his wife, Michaele. You can watch the video above.
On the guitar hero front, the video includes well-wishes from John McLaughlin, Slash, Steve Vai, Tommy Emmanuel, Joe Satriani and Zakk Wylde. Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers, LL Cool J, Dolly Parton, Sheila E., Huey Lewis and Narada Michael Walden also give birthday well-wishes.
Randy Jackson and Deen Castronovo, both of whom currently play with Schon in the latest incarnation of Journey, also make appearances in the video.
For his part, Schon recently revealed on Instagram that Journey will soon release Freedom, their fifteenth studio album, and first since 2011's Eclipse. Of the album, Schon simply said "It’s coming and it’s loaded."
Journey are also currently in the midst of a lengthy North American tour with Toto. Having begun at the end of February, the tour will run through mid-May, taking the groups across the continent.
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For tickets and more info, visit Journey's website.
Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.
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