Playing Van Halen Songs Is ‘Really Frightening’

Joe Satriani has admitted the problem of enjoying Eddie Van Halen’s guitar components is “really frightening.”

Satriani will probably be becoming a member of Sammy Hagar for a 2024 tour centered on basic Van Halen materials. Michael Anthony and Jason Bonham will spherical out the band, but it surely’s Satriani who will probably be tasked with dealing with Eddie’s complicated riffs.

In a latest dialog with Forbes, the guitarist admitted he can’t be anticipated to fill Eddie’s footwear.

“You can’t fill them. You can put them on, but you can’t fill them,” Satriani famous. “You have to respect the genius of the architecture of his guitar parts and how he built the songs and you’ve got to get in there and just enjoy what he was building cause he would weave in and out of his original composition every time he played it live and bring new amazing little nuggets to each little section.”

READ MORE: Top 10 Eddie Van Halen Guitar Solos

Though he’s broadly considered one of many biggest guitarists on the earth, Satriani admitted enjoying Van Halen materials affords a problem in contrast to the rest.

“It is really frightening because I don’t play like [Eddie] and I’ve had to learn to anticipate all his quirky accents where he likes to push things and turn things upside down,” the rocker defined. “Just when you think they’re going to go left, they go right or up or down.”

The Eddie Van Halen Riff Joe Satriani Says Is ‘Impossible to Play’

“Playing this much Van Halen you’ve got to have Joe Satriani,” Hagar declared to Forbes. “There’s nobody else that I think understands Eddie the way he understands him.”

Indeed, rock followers have each motive to imagine that Satriani – a guitar god in his personal proper – will probably be in glorious type throughout the 2024 tour. That doesn’t imply there received’t be a studying curve.

READ MORE: Underrated Van Halen: The Most Overlooked Song From Each Album

When Hagar introduced the Van Halen-focused tour throughout an look on The Howard Stern Show, he and the band carried out a handful of songs, later revealing it was the primary time they’d performed the tunes reside collectively.

In a video that’s made the rounds on social media (and will be watched under), Stern requested which of Eddie’s riffs was probably the most troublesome to play. Satriani responded by trying the intro to “Mean Street.”

“It’s impossible to play,” the guitarist insisted as he tried to carry out the riff.