Joe Satriani Quotes

I assume most guitar players are like me. They're playing, having fun; then they get a magazine in the mail that says "Shred Is Dead" and they say, "What the Hell?" They throw it away and keep on playing.

When you hear an instrumental song someone is singing over, you know right away it's wrong.

There's a fine line between giving the sense of freedom and being too free.

I'll tell you one thing: I will always play the sh** out of my guitar.

If someone can relate my guitar solo to an exercise in a book... that's no fun at all.

Guitars are fun. There are plenty of different kinds to play. They look cool. They sound cool. Don't you want to play guitar?

R.I.P. Steve Jobs. I bet you're busy right now revolutionizing and redesigning the afterlife for all of us to enjoy when our time comes

Some of us are going to play faster than others. Hitting the right notes and getting your technique right is so much more important than speed.

Song ideas have come to me in the middle of interviews, in the shower, or while I'm writing another song.

Guitarists shouldn't get too riled up about all of the great players that were left off of 'Rolling Stone Magazines' list of the Greatest Guitar Players of all Time' ... Rolling Stone is published for people who read the magazine because they don't know what to wear.

When these guitar mags bring up that stuff up and say such and such came up with this and that which is pushing the boundaries, I just say, "let's step back for a minute and admit something: nothing has happened for the last 100 years." And it's okay. It's not a bad thing ... We're all working with "tools" that have been in existence for the last 100 years and there hadn't been a new "tool" for a long long time.

I write the songs first and in most cases teach myself the technique second.

When you're a guitar teacher, you teach people for a few years, and you become comrades after a while. Because everybody eventually catches up to everybody else, and you want to help each other out - to see if you can make the dream a reality.

When you think about where guitar playing is going today...: it's going everywhere at the same time.

My inspirations don't come from outer space, they just come to me. I have no idea why they come when they do.

It really sucks when music is so perfect you just don't need to hear it anymore.

I'm ready to take the heat.

When you hear something you don't like, don't ever play it again.

I always use the Jeff Beck model. Jeff Beck is just a genius, and he keeps getting better ... If there's anybody in your field you want to aspire to be like, it is a guy who does what he wants to do. Every record at least he comes out with one thing that makes everybodys' jaw drop ... I would hope that Jimi Hendrix would have done that, although, man, the odds are against him because he did so much in such a short amount of time.

I started out playing guitar because Jimi Hendrix was my hero, so my roots were really based on Jimi Hendrix and his style of playing.

Relax. Be yourself. Play a lot.

Eee-nee-mee-nee-my-nee-moe

When I want to play music, you've got to get me on tape or else it goes.

It's funny how you can struggle with one piece and write a better one in a minute. When things come easy, it means it's good.

Satriani's Law: There's at least a 30% chance that someone will print the name Satriani incorrectly

I see something in her eyes, sends me to a better place.

Basic anatomy. That has got to be the ongoing frustration: Why can't my fingers do what I want them to do? Not being able to play what I hear in my head - that is the ultimate source of frustration.

I can embarrass myself very easily on guitar. It's funny because people say to me I can play anything; I'm God on the guitar. But I could make a big list of everything I can't play... I'm grateful that people don't notice that.

I pride myself on being incorrigible. I have a very hard time being told what to do.

18th September, 1970; Jimi Hendrix dies. I'm still on the football team when I get the news. So I take my helmet off and confront the coach to tell him I'm quitting the team. In a moment of brilliance he gives me one look and says "OK".

I've always done 'the wrong thing' and had a pretty wonderful time doing it.

I started learning to sing what I liked, to experience it in a visceral way. Then it's inside. Get rid of the neurosis and then you can improvise.

Just as a blues player can play 20 blues songs in a row but find a way to make each one different, ... I always want to find different ways to do something

Each artist attracts his own different set of fans. And G3 over the years has created it's own audience as well... they know it's something unusual and special that they're not going to get anywhere else ... young and old, both sexes, all come out. They all look at each other like, Wow, what are those people over there ? ... They're surprised at their own diversity.

Solos I kind of [couldn't] care less about. I know most people probably think that's what I care most about, but it's really the melody playing that is the cornerstone of what I'm working on.