During a new interview with Classic Rock, Joe Satriani revealed that he needed to get Yngwie Malmsteen to be mindful of others on stage while performing together.
“Some guys are really straight ahead. Like Eric, Steve and myself, we’re not demanding when it comes to what we need before we head out on stage,” the guitarist replied when asked how he manages the different personalities on his concert tour G3. “And then other performers need a little more stuff.”
He continued, “You have two extremes. 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 [Malmsteen]… 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,” Satriani said of Malmsteen.
Then, Joe shared why he needs to be careful about Yngwie, “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.”
“So as showleader, I just take a deep breath and say: ‘I have to understand that Yngwie’s not used to this kind of thing.’ So we’d be as gentle as possible. Like, I’d say: ‘When Steve’s 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!'” Satriani added.
Satriani, Malmsteen, and Steve Vai toured across North America in 2003 in Satriani’s G3 tour. Still, Joe isn’t the only musician who wants to tour with Malmsteen. Alex Skolnick talked to TotalRock about Metal Allegiance last month and said he’d like to invite Malmsteen.
The rocker revealed, “There are others, I won’t name, who are maybe terrific musicians. But it might not be that easy to bring them into a project. Listen, I’ll name one. I don’t know him personally but I love him. Yngwie Malmsteen.”
Skolnick noted, “He’s a great influence of mine and he’s a great person. He’s one of a kind. I don’t know, bringing somebody like that in… I doubt he would even want to do it. We would totally love to have him. But there is somebody like that it really shows all about them.”
G3 has had many great guitarists over the years, including Brian May, Neal Schon, Robert Fripp, Steve Lukather, Billy Gibbons, and Phil Collen. The G3 2024 U.S. tour had 13 shows with Vai, Satriani, and Eric Johnson, leading to the ‘Reunion Live’ album.
