By Jim Roberts
When you’ve played as many gigs as Joe Satriani, some of the memories blur—venues, crowds, even cities. But every now and then, something sticks.
Asked for recollections of his time in Hampton Roads, he doesn’t mention a show. He remembers the ride there.
The driver who picked him up at the hotel was an aspiring drummer.
“He kept his sticks in his hand as he drove us,” Satriani said. “He was playing shuffles with his sticks on the steering wheel.”
Satriani and his bandmates exchanged looks before finally asking the obvious: Could he maybe keep both hands on the wheel?
Decades into his career, Satriani is still on the road, chasing new ideas.
On May 23, he’ll return with fellow guitar hero Steve Vai in a collaboration dubbed “SatchVai.”
The two met as teenagers on Long Island, when Satriani—just a few years older—gave Vai lessons.
“He just showed up at my house one day with a stringless guitar,” Satriani said.
What followed wasn’t so much a teacher-student relationship as a shared pursuit. Both were chasing what Satriani calls “real music.”
That connection shapes their shows. On tour, they trade songs, step into each other’s material and blend their catalogs into medleys, creating what Satriani called a “tag team” performance.
It’s not just virtuosity—it’s a musical conversation.
One moment Satriani is alone onstage; the next, Vai joins in, answering and reshaping ideas. It’s less competition than collaboration—the same dynamic they’ve had since those early days.
For Satriani, that’s how instrumental music works. Without lyrics, melody has to carry the story.
“If you really want to tell a story, you really have to work hard at your melodies,” he said.
That approach carries into new material like “Dancing,” an unexpected reworking of a song by Paolo Conte. The idea—replacing vocals and horns with guitars—came from Vai.
“I thought, this is something that is so crazy, only Steve would think of it,” Satriani said.
Decades into his career, he’s still driven by the curiosity that pulled him to music. When he was in high school and heard about Jimi Hendrix’s death, he quit the football team to focus on guitar.
Since then, Satriani has built a career defined not just by technical skill, but by collaboration, experimentation and a sense of play that hasn’t gone away.
“You play a million places, big and small, and I’ve played everything,” he said. “Churches and synagogues and kindergarten classes and stadiums.”
He laughed, noting that some of the smallest gigs can be the toughest.
“If you’re lucky enough to have a career where you get invited to play in all these places, it’s amazing how every gig is just as important as the other gig,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter.”
NOTE: We interviewed Joe Satriani in February—about six weeks before the “Surfing With the Hydra” tour kicked off in Seattle. Here’s what critics have said about the show:
“It was an amazing night of guitar-driven wizardry, where the crowd was treated to a masterclass in technique, tone and performance,” The Metalverse reported. “Each musician seemed to push the others to their maximum and beyond, creating an experience that felt as collaborative as it was explosive.”
“Satriani takes command with melodic clarity, while Steve Vai conjures something more alien—and the contrast is exactly what makes the performance so compelling,” KNAC wrote. “The smiles are genuine, and all of the band members are clearly having a blast on stage, which only adds to the sense that this is as much about joy as it is about virtuosity.”
The SatchVai Band will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 23 at the Dome in Virginia Beach. Animals as Leaders will open. Ticket prices start at $30 plus fees. For tickets or more information, visit thedomebyruttermills.com.