In interviews Joe Satriani sometimes likes to give the whimsical diva. This time the guitarist presents himself quite relaxed to eclipsed, although we catch him shortly before Christmas in the middle of the preparations for the G3-US tour (with Dream Theaters John Petrucci and Def Leppards Phil Collen) and directly fall into the house with an internet rumour.
eclipsed: Joe, on Wikipedia you could now read that you joined Deep Purple again as second guitarist at the beginning of December.
Joe Satriani: Total bullshit. I guess someone had a good laugh again. I haven't spoken to the boys in ages.
eclipsed: On your new album "What Happens Next" you can hear ex-Purple-man Glenn Hughes and Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Chickenfoot respectively - a real power trio. Compared to the plates before, everything seems more organic and reduced.
Satriani: There was only a few precepts. No crooked bars, no progressive, please. Just pure rock and soul. Actually, it's like the first Chickenfoot album, only without vocals. I call it my inner artistic rebirth. No more sci-fi, no more time travel, no more songs about aliens or distant planets. They are songs about a real person with both feet on the ground, a pumping heart, feelings and dreams. In the life of an artist every new project means a crisis. Even if sometimes it may not look like that from the outside, but deep inside it is always a horrible feeling. And yet that's exactly what makes it so much fun.
eclipsed: This process was indicated on the tour documentary "Beyond The Supernova", which your son ZZ shot during the last world tour.
Satriani: Originally he was only supposed to capture some of this typical backstage story for a possible live DVD, but we quickly moved away from it. In the end it became a rather intimate portrait of me as an artist. The man behind the sunglasses, so to speak.
