Guitar great’s one meeting with Van Halen didn’t strike a chord
Before Joe Satriani played Eddie Van Halen’s riffs, he played some music for the guitar great.
The best thing that can be said about this session is Satriani didn’t break a string.
Satriani met Van Halen once, “In the old days,” as he says, of 1992. Van Halen happened by the studio during Satriani’s sessions for “The Extremist,” which would be released that year.
“It’s like 11 in the morning, and Ed came in, and we’d just put up a song,” says Satriani, the guitar virtuoso in Sammy Hagar’s “Best of All Worlds” residency at Dolby Live, the series wrapping Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. “In those days, when you put up a song, it took a long time. It might take 15-20 minutes to get the tapes on the machine and get everything set on the desk. This just happened to be a song that wasn’t working for us.”
Producer Andy Johns and engineer Bart Stevens were the other members of “us.” Neither expected Van Halen, who was working with Hagar in those days, to show up at all.
“This was the last song I’d ever want to play for Edward Van Halen, but there he is, and he’s like, ‘Hey Joe, nice to meet you,’” Satriani says during a band Zoom interview with Hagar, Michael Anthony and Kenny Aronoff. “Then he says, ‘What do you got? Play me something.’”
Satriani said, “OK,” but with a caveat.
“I told him, ‘I gotta preface this by saying, I’m sorry, this song’s not working,’ and we listened to it for a while,” Satriani says. “He had some good comments, and then he was out of the room. It was like, three minutes. Bart and I looked at each other and said, ‘What just happened?’”
Van Halen was in rocker mode.
“He’s going a million miles an hour. He’s got a can of beer and a cigarette. I literally could not get a word in edgewise,” Satriani says. “I never got to anything to him, like I’m a fan or anything else.”
Hagar is following the tale. The Red Rocker says, “What a story, Joe. I kind of heard a piece of that story before, but I never really knew how trippy it really was, that meeting with Eddie. That’s (screwed) up.”
Satriani has since grown into a musician many experts consider among the finest guitarists in the world. He pulled a riff from a dream Hagar had about writing with Van Halen, co-creating, “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight,” played to start the Dolby Live show. He’s also roaring through such “Van Hagar” favorites as “Right Now,” “Top Of The World,” “Why Can’t This Be Love,” “5150” and “Love Walks In.”
Satriani says stepping into Van Halen’s position musically “is a scary thought.”
“I approach it from being a kind of super fan, I love what he’s playing just as like a rock and roll fan, without even thinking about what he was doing,” the 68-year-old rocker says. “All those years, I made a conscious effort never to figure it out, because I was afraid I might just start stealing licks. You want to respect your peers, so you’re careful not to pick certain things up.”
Satriani looks back at his Van Halen encounter and just laughs.
“It was my brush with greatness,” he says. “That was about it.”
Fly guy
Josh Groban showed off his characteristic sense of humor in his opener at the Colosseum on Wednesday night. He joked that he’d brought so many bottles of water to the stage, “This show should be sponsored by Fiji.” He ran a lap for the crowd, “Look at how big this stage is!”
Just before the closing number, which we knew would be the closing number because Groban had burned his encore, the crossover star looked down. Then, “Sorry, I just had a moment where I thought my fly was open … But Adele played this room, and she’s one of my vocal heroes. She just always gets it right. And now, here’s ‘Skyfall.’”
It was such a radical turn of messages, clearly not all of it could be true. It wasn’t. No wardrobe malfunction here. And Groban did sing “Skyfall,” an Adele signature number in her “Weekends” series, boosted by an orchestra filled with Vegas musicians and a choir. Nice landing.
Yo time
Two-time Emmy nominee Michael Yo is the featured comedian in “Mad Apple” at New York-New York through the end of the month.
A recent Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club headliner, Yo was a panelist on “Chelsea Live,” a finalist on “America’s Got Talent” and is host of “The Yo Show” podcast. The comic appears intermittently in “Mad Apple,” which rotates its stand-ups and tends to get it right.
Cool Hang Alert
We’ve known Skillz Hudson as Luenell’s opener at Kimmel’s club. The moment where he pulls his hat of is comedy gold — gold, I tell you! Hudson appears at The Bagelmania Backroom comedy showcase at Siegel’s Bagelmania at 8 p.m. (doors, drinks and food at 7 p.m.) May 22.
The comedy couple Noah Gardens Ester Steinberg, who tour nationally while living in Las Vegas, return as hosts. Louie Cardon and Lauren Rochelle are featured, setting the table (as it were) for headliner Mary Upchurch. Unique format, lots of laughs, specialty menu, for ages 18-over. Tickets are $20, go to siegelsbagelmania.com, and try the pastrami.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.