Grunge was noted for many things, but producing guitar heroes wasn’t one of them. Yet according to Joe Satriani – a man who knows a thing or two about the subject – it had its fair share of great guitarists, with Kurt Cobain chief among them.
Speaking in the brand new issue of Classic Rock ahead of the release of the G3 Reunion Live DVD, Satch heaps praise on the late Nirvana frontman’s playing.
“I was very happy with those Nirvana records,” says Satriani. “He was a great guitar player. You go back and look at Nirvana clips, and you realise this guy is playing everything he’s supposed to play. He’s not looking at what he’s playing, so obviously he really knows the instrument. And he’s playing with one of the greatest drummers of all time [Dave Grohl], so that wouldn’t have worked if he was not a good guitarist.”
Satriani’s own career was already well-established by the time Nirvana’s Nevermind lit the touchpaper on the grunge explosion, thanks to such landmark albums as 1987’s Surfing With The Alien and 1989’s Flying In A Blue Dream. He tells Classic Rock that he was oblivious to the fact guitar solos were rapidly becoming an endangered species thanks to grunge’s rise.
“I didn’t pay any attention to that, I guess,” he says. “The Extremist [1992] came out as my love letter to the classic rock era, so it was a throwback record anyway, but when I emerged from the studio I realised: ‘Oh, it’s all Nirvana and Soundgarden.’”
The dominance of grunge didn’t stop Satriani launching the inaugural G3 tour in 1996, featuring Satch and fellow guitar gods Steve Vai and Eric Johnson. Subsequent G3 line-ups read like a Who’s Who of the guitar world, with everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to King Crimson’s Robert Fripp taking part.
“You have two extremes,” says Satriani of the demands various guitarists have made over the years. “Like, Robert Fripp, who said: ‘No lights on me, I want to sit down and I want to be behind everybody.’ So it was sort of an ‘un-demand’, y’know? And of course Yngwie… I mean, if you invite him, you have to just say: ‘I know what I’m inviting.’ To Yngwie’s credit, he always plays so great and always puts on the Yngwie Malmsteen show.
“The only problem that I would have is that sometimes he wouldn’t pay attention to other things happening on stage when his bit was done, because he’s just not used to not being the focus of the show. I’d say: ‘When Steve [Vai] is soloing, don’t throw your guitar up in the air right next to him, because he’s got his eyes closed. I don’t want him to get hit in the head.’”
Read the full interview with Satch in the brand new issue of Classic Rock, onsale now. Order it online and have it delivered straight to your door.
