Guitarist Joe Satriani recently had a conversation with Guitar World, where he discussed the challenge of playing Van Halen songs on next year’s summer “Best of All Worlds” tour along with Sammy Hagar, bassist Michael Anthony, and drummer Jason Bonham.
During the interview, Satriani opened up about playing Eddie Van Halen’s guitar parts, comparing the job to standing in for Ritchie Blackmore in Deep Purple:
“I have to get over arguing with myself that it doesn’t sound right. I’ll have to go through some mental therapy and be okay with sounding a bit different. […]
“I spent decades sitting way back in the pocket because I was playing melodies. To get melodies to work, you’ve got to sit back and let the band get things established to where the groove and rhythm guitars push.
“But suddenly, I’ve got to play these parts that Eddie wrote, where he was functioning differently.
”He was pushing with this incredible architecture of chord work, like in a song like ‘5150’, where Sammy gets to sit back as he’s doing the melody.
“So, the most awkward thing was suddenly not doing the melody and stepping in first on top of the beat. Eddie did that, but he never sounded like he was rushing.”