The time Joe Satriani was an absolute... 

I should have mentioned that this was the first time that I’d experienced the amp failing like this, as I’d only had it a little while before this gig. And remember, we’ve all had bad days 👍🏻

Would be awesome if you met up now and he still just stared at the floor until you left.

This is why I'm wary of meeting my heroes. I've met Paul Gilbert a few times and Billy Sheehan and they were awesome human beings. :)

Being like that to a 14 year old is not cool at all full stop! Don’t care who you are! Glad it didn’t affect you though bro 🔥🙌 That would mess with my head for sure!

Oh boy, I clearly remember the story. I read an interview of Satch to a french magazine at the time, in the early 90s, where he was mentioning this gig. He was complaining about the lack of maturity and respect of the young generation, with the example of the Bad4Good guitarist whom he invited onstage, who did not play a single note during the song, and ended up with a demonstrative shred. The way i understood it at the time, he interpretated it as some kind of stupid provocation. Thank you anyway for the story, brings back so many memories!!

Tom, your ego-free open mindedness and your inner strength are what makes me enjoy listening to your music and I was blown away the other day during one of the McR/H live feeds that you took the time to answer questions and converse with the other cats on the line. I dig how we got to see your wallpaper in the kitchen in another video! Keep being that honest open eyed shredder that you are, dog

Oh damn that feeling of nothing working and nobody helping...ugh I felt shivers down my spine

Man I couldn't even imagine after all that time on stage with no tone that Joe would be upset at you. If anything you should have been mad at his roadie. But you handled it very well. I think I might have lost my cool. Please keep making these I'm loving these stories!

I have never seen before so much interesting guitar content on RU-vid! McRocklin, you are definitely my favourite!

I would have told Joe...."Hey boy , you look at me when I'm talking to you"

Awesome of you to share this, Thomas!

That’s mental man! Joe must have had a bad day. I had a gig years ago where a crazy drunk chick jumped up on stage and stomped on all my pedals while I was playing. Another time the fire alarm went off in the middle of a solo, couldn’t hear it of course, I look up to see everyone walking out. I’m thinking - my playing’s not that bad!

Yes, more old stories please. Love your content, Thomas.

Mr McRocklin!! Finding this channel makes me feal like I found an old friend or favorite guitar player from childhood. When you came on the scene I was 18 or 19 and was a huge Vai fan. So when I heard he was gonna produce your record in Bad For Good it got my attention. Loved the record!! Even made a somewhat 4 track cover of Slow and Beautiful. Ive been playing guitar for 44 years now. Started when I was 3. Was raised listening and studying all the greats including yourself. Lots of life later it popped in my head I wonder what Thomas is doing these days and found your new record and was blown away!! Then your channel and your vids are great! All the licks during the Gem series were Fxxxxxg Awesome!! Anyway good to see you and hear you again. Keep up the good work! Hope to someday record a track with you! Cheers from Beautiful Sunny Central California!!

Joe doesn’t talk to me either.

The part that really bugs me is the fact that you were 14 at the time, why would he act so pissy towards a 14 year old who had technical difficulties, it seems like the right thing to do as an adult would be to slap you on the back and say it's okay kid, we've all have had equipment problems at one time or another, it's no big deal I'm not mad at you, the fact that he would treat a 14 year old kid in that manner makes me question his character.

I would love to hear Joe’s response these days. He’s the sweetest guy and I’d be shocked if he didn’t forget about it. U Rokk man!

Love the stories!! Please keep 'em coming.

Insightful and honest! Thank you so much for sharing this. 🙏

My friends and I saw Phil Collen do an interview pre Def Leppard show by a radio van 20 years ago, we were 13.. He saw us, came over and security had to come GET HIM because it was getting so close to show time, must have talked to us for 10min. He was very kind and enjoys meeting his fans!

I'm so very sorry to hear this, mate. Vai and Satriani are also heros of mine along with Andy Timmons, Joe Petrucci and Guthrie Govan ... and this behavior simply doesn't make sense. Satch never gave the impressions of having a temper. You said you toured with him and his band and he definetely knew you as being reliable. This can be really crushing. I've had a gig once and didn't sleep even a full hour the night before. We were all studying music that time and were evaluted by our tutors that night. And I completely fucked up and could get a single line right ... didn't play for a while after then but picked it up after that again ... like two weeks later. Love from Germany :-)

I think we need these experiences in our lives. Everything bad that happened to me ended up being for the better.

Don't feel bad my pants fell down on stage show

Its always great to hear about your stories. Please keep them coming ;)

I think he got jealous of your extra shred lol another great story, keep em comin.

I don't think it was fair the way he reacted you were a kid and obviously he was an idol that you looked up to and respected quiet a bit and I can only imagine how it must have fucked with your head I hope that Joe reaches out to and clears the air your a really nice guy and for sure didn't deserve that

Wouldn't it have been easier for him not to invite u? I mean no one is gonna wonder why u aren't on the stage.

EVERYone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about ! Be kind ALWAYS ‼️ 🌟

Joe Satriani’s music is pretty much what you’d expect in an elevator or a Sim’s game.

Joe is a perfectionnist i guess and je likes to keep things under control. I understand your reactions both parts. The best thing to do is to talk with him about what happened that night. I dont know but i think he probably loves what you're doing with your guitar today. There's place for everyone here. Love you both guys.🌈😎

I remember when I got backstage during the Crystal Planet tour and met Joe. There was this drunk guy in front of me and literally grabbed Joe and hugged him and Joe just kind of laughed but when I brought my guitar to him to sign, he was like this thing should be cleaner and it was one of his own signature JS guitars! I was kinda hurt but I shook Joe’s hand and said thank you and he still is my biggest influence so I think Joe is a perfectionist and wants things to turn out the way he wants. I remember seeing his guitar strap fail during a show once and he was clearly pissed because it made him mess up. I still love Joe and I still want to meet him again! I think you are really great and handled it well even though you were young and Joe should have at least made eye contact and talked with you about what happened. Hope Joe gets a hold of you!

Omg thats all on the tech man, It's his job to recognise these things on the spot but he probs slacked off a bit considering it was the last song. I remember being scolded for my tone (rightly so, it was baaaaaaad) during music class around the same age and it basically stopped me playing with gain for a decade, I felt so embarrassed in front of the whole class playing Dr Feelgood hahaha. Funnily enough it made me a much better guitarist learning to play well clean and I fell in love styles way out of my atmosphere to what I was influenced by at the time.

Jeez, never thought Satriani would be behaving like that towards a young kid, which he'd been touring with to boot! Great story and thanks for telling it 😁 👍🏻

We need to hear Joe's side of this, to hear in his own words why he reacted that way. Stand by, although used eternally by everyone while not playing or taking a break ( which is perfectly fine) is not actually meant for that. Stand by is suppose to be only used before you actually power on your amp...depending on amp, you put it on stand by 20 seconds to 1 minute ( depends on amp) then power it up. If you are going to take a break for a while, just turn off your amp. It won't take that long to warm up the tubes if you are about to play.

I've met Satch several times over the years & he always came across as a totally nice genuine guy. However, there's often a huge difference between someone chilling away from their work, and someone concentrating intensely on their job. I know that Satch is a perfectionist, and with it being the last song of the set, he's no doubt used to having 'the final word'. He probably thought you were just being belligerent and trying to steal the show with the last laugh or something, but he could have at least listened to your side of the story instead of ignoring you. I'm sorry to hear Satch wasn't interested in your side of the story, or even accept your apology immediately afterwards. Such a shame, as most performing artists reportedly have Spinal Tap 'bizarre gardening accident' moments like this at some point during their career, but manage to build a bridge and get over it. Time is a great healer, and I hope that Satch has built enough life experience to not hold any grudges, and you will one day get to reunite with him on stage, or even share a studio recording or two.

This does sound really weird, but I'm guessing that Joe didn't realise what happened exactly and just thought Thomas was trying to upstage him or ruin the song right at the end (of course it's a pity that Thomas didn't notice the overdrive pedal a bit earlier). I'm also guessing that the reason Joe didn't even look at him and remained silent, was because he knew that Thomas was only 14, and he didn't trust himself to open his mouth and he didn't want to have a go at a kid. In other words, a misunderstanding about what actually happened. I've also heard that when Steve Vai is not happy about something, he goes quiet and looks like he is in deep thought, but you can tell he is not happy. He probably doesn't want to come across as an asshole, by blurting out what he is actually thinking. Edit: I hope that Marshal eventually went to Joe and explained that it was all their fault.

Another great story! Keep them coming!

I remember a situation like this I had playing bass at a party where I could hardly hear my self and I was playing by ear. Anyway it was just a few classic rock songs but none of the other guys cared. Then none of us could afford beer. So then we all felt like bums

Hi McRocklin, you're really awesome. Great job man!👍👏👏👏

WOW! Thanks for the suggestion, YT. And thanks for the feed, Sir! Haven't listened to Satch for the last decade, after totally falling for his indeed melodic instrumental approach with Flying In a Blue Dream, of which i bought on vinyl the year after it's release. Was lucky to attend three of his concerts in Denmark between 1992-1995, the first indeed a blend of Surfing With The Alien and Flying in a Blue Dream albums, the next more like Time Machine (very "live") and the last just after the blues inspired "Joe Satriani". AND during the latter concert he experienced failing amp as well (however just for a short while during Circles I think). Last album I grew a lot was Strange Beautiful Music (bying everything satch-related until then) - and then Satch-silence for me - until now, and I literally dunno actually why.

Met Satch at The Pterodactyl club in Charlotte July '88 Surfing with the Alien tour...what a nice guy

Hey there Thomas I'm listening to 91-95 original cd right now and I think that you and Hutch should remake Slap Your Hand. I think that could easily be transformed into a McRocklin/Hutch tune.

Damn - lucky he didn't put you in the corner for 8 hours of arppegio's

Its the bit when you say you were 14, for him to ignore you shows to me how professional he saw you.

That, my friend, is some crazy ass story! Had me in stitches.....Sorry, Thomas! Lol! But at least you got over it......Joe in a rage? Can't ever imagine that....but there you go; people act in the strangest ways....

Having chatted to Tom a few times in PMT, I can safely say he is a genuinely super friendly bloke. Rock stars take note.

Loving all your stories McR, either fun or cringe like this one, I'm understanding your side 100% - Even if one pro is a perfectionist and looks down on mistakes or random events, a true perfectionist aims to rise above and hear/understand every side of the story. Hope this story isn't finished and will get resolved, but as I said, 100% on your side!👊

Years ago when Joe was at Guitar Center in Chicago my son and I were standing in line outside the store to meet him and get an autograph. The bald Englishman who tours with Joe came outside and said everyone outside of the building should go home the store is full. The people in the line were upset of course. The bald Englishman was a douchbag. We just ignored him and continued to stand in line. Then he said ok, but we won’t let you inside.

It's funny how certain events we can remember as if it happened yesterday. Joe probably has no idea of the impact it had on you and most likely has forgotten all about it. I know Joe as a really kind guy, and I'm sure there is no love lost. Cheers Thomas you ROCK!!!

How dare you Thomas! Playing your guitar during an performance of guitar players, in front of other people who want to hear guitar playing! 😂

I saw you guys at the show at Universal Amphitheater! I remember it so well. B4G opened for Satch. You guys blew me away. I was maybe 21 at the time and couldn't believe what I was seeing. I still think Refugee is one of the all time great hard rock albums of any era. Danny's vocals are something else, and I can't believe he never went on to crush a lead singer career. Great story. Joe was probably jet lagged, lol.

I’ve got one on Steve Vai for you one day! When i join your school I’ll tell you .

I was thinking that was a really weird reaction for Satch to have, but when you mentioned how you were only 14 at the time - that’s beyond weird. Loving your videos by the way 👍

This story actually reminds me of why I love live music so much - from both a performer and an audience member's perspective - because you never know what's going to happen. Things go wrong, and crazy things happen, but that unpredictability is one reason why it's so exciting.

Oof. That's tough. Satch acting like that when you were 14 is just absurd. Maybe he didn't want you to play, or he was just upset at you because something went wrong that wouldn't have if you hadn't joined him on stage? Idk it's a very odd situation.

Judging by some of the comments, I think we need to hear from Joe ;)

Being that you were a kid would have been nice for him to explain what you did wrong to help you in future situations. Maybe when you cranked up the pedal your sound became super loud in his monitor?

Now I need to know what was going through Joe’s head. We need to know. Please contact him. Also, are you getting a PIA guitar?

Dude your guitarsinal is so wicked

I also have a weird Satriani story! I met him backstage in Oslo in 2000. It was like meeting God himself but then he gets pissed at you😂 I was starstuck and shy and had never used a disposable camera before. So when I was taking the picture of him and my friend and didn’t tweek it enough, he got pissed! Hilarious. But he was probably exhausted! He suddenly ran away saying i’ll be right back, but he was gone! Never came back🙂 Still one of my greatest moments in life. He got me into guitar like no one else.

I had an anniversary combo for a few years in the early 2000s, I didn't have that particular problem but in the years I had it mine fried a couple of of output transformers - it was traded in after the 2nd repair and replaced with a Mesa Nomad 2x12. From what I've heard since the Anniversary amp was a great idea with a few major flaws.

I admire the fact that Mcrockling being 14 years old tried to find a solution for his dilemma, survival instinct on ! Joe's attitude wasn't that bad, he's a perfectionist that works hard at his craft & it's his show & his guest fucked it up involuntarily. Anyway Mcrockling got a life session training / lesson that day👍🏻

What ever JS thought of you that night, or even now, it's his problem, not yours. But that 14year old kid has come out stronger.🤘

It is odd joe being a life long musician, playing live for so many years, didnt know something was up with your amp. I have to think I'd know if I invited another guitarist to play, and his guitar sound wasnt coming out, I'd stop and take care of it, joke with the crowd that it was my fault to take heat off. Then kick back into it. Seems way overboard for someone to do that especially to a kid. Regardless of the day you had, you dont do that kind of shit to people when something was clearly wrong.

Satch is my favorite guitar player so I'm interested in hearing this

I’d have sold all the albums on eBay and set fire to Surfin with the alien. Ha ha. Not really. It does seem like a weird reaction.

Thanks for great stories and musical content. Disappointed to hear that, been a big fan of Joe for a long time. Hopefully just a bad day for him mot realizing what was going on. Those things you remember when you're 14, especially because you seem to care and have a good vibe and attitude, and you had a previous relationship. Joe was basically nice to everyone when we and several others met him and the band backstage at SDSU open air amphitheatre like 20 years ago. He was ready to not talk about guitar anymore and get out of there. My friend and I happened upon stu hamm chillin by himself before we found joe and Jonathan mover with a crowd around them in the parking lot getting ready to go. Stu was super gracious, they were nice. I'm sure sometimes they just wanted to get some rest. We're all human, some days suck, but all good vibes man

Damn this story made me loose a little respect for satch. Mcroklin you have been one of my favorite guitarists lately, I love the way you play. I got into kiesel guitars because of people like you and never looked back.

I saw your band "Bad 4 Good" open along with Steve and Joe play two shows here in Norther California and you guys crushed it. I talked to Joe and Steve back stage and they both couldn't have been more excited and happy with you and the band... Just saying @McRocklin

The 92’ Crate DSP did the exact same thing! Mine I had fixed around 10 years later and still it still switches to tube after about 45 minutes to this day!

I see it by far that the technicians wanted to hide their fault to Joe not to get fired by him. Probably he never knew the real fault and left the days pass over. sure he had a bad day as we all standard humans have. I am recently new fan of you after reaching you by luck after following boss synth demos as of Alex Hutchings one. I must say that your sound is unique, feels like a luxury melodic silky schred with dramatic breaks outs into lines. At the end talking about bad situations make us release them. Unknown watchers appreciate honesty by public artists. Thanks

We definitely need to hear from Joe. I’m sure it’ll happen.

What a jerk Joe was being! Hey Tom I had the pleasure of seeing you at the NAMM show in Anaheim California back in 1988, I spoke to your dad for a bit and shook your hand totally amazed how awesome you were for your age WOW! You played with Gary Piel of Boston and he was playing the rhythm guitar, you guys were just jammin as he was in awe of you as well as us! A time I will always cherish. Keep on rocking Thomas. BTW you were dressed like a mini SRV. Thanks for the memories!

did you have a conversation to him about this?

Sounds to me like the tech never told Joe that the problem was the faulty amp,to cover his own ass.

saw you first as a kid and you never change only God level guitar 🤯

As one of the other comments mentioned maybe as Joe is perfectionist, he wasn’t happy with how the song ended?!? But it is a shame as Joe has always come across as such a cool nice guy! I read the story of when Periphery toured with Dream Theater and their computer kept crashing. Apparently John Petrucci had stern words with them at the time, which I can’t imagine John being pissed off with anyone as he seems the nicest guys ever. But I guess we can all be pissed when something hasn’t gone right or how we wanted it to. Would love to hear the story about the Jason Becker tribute show!

You're a beast for holding together then. It feels strange being the bigger man when you're so much younger/inexperienced; pretty incredible story. The average person would have been pretty traumatized by that. Also I'm loving the improvements to the app, its helped me a good deal with music theory. Keep up the good stuff king 🤴 👏 🙌 🙏 👌

I've heard Joe can be kind of stern when teaching guitar. Have you met any other guitarists Joe taught besides Vai, like Kirk Hammett or Alex Skolnick?

These stories are great !

my old gear shop owner had a nice 5150 amp that he would put under a floor panel next to the very small stage that is in a bar in Ikast, denmark!one night he had turned it a bit higher than usual and it still sounded great, but as Rasmus the lead guitarist said! "Your sound is on smoking!" Stephan said "I know! Right!!!" ehh.... the panel was smoking and the head was about to blow! he was about to melt down the amazing head cuz it didnt vent properly, almost costed him 1K dollar!

Really really to hear what happened on that day mate. He is also my idol and never expected from him to have that kind of attitude. At least after that concert somebody from the TECH has explained what happened to Joe !? Hope some day you can have another gig with Joe specially with Steve Vai who has more heart with musicians. Will always be supporting you. GOD Bless and just keep on rocking.

Miles Davis wouldn't have been mad at all.

Bad day or not, that was extremely bad form. I've played live music most of my life so I know what can happen with technical problems so I'm sure Satch would know too. He would of found out straight after what happened but he still decided to be a primadonna and treat a young kid like shit for something that was out of anyone's control. Definitely a "wanker' moment for him.

Love the stories! Keep them coming

I've been touring with 2 30th anniversary heads for over 15 years and haven't had that issue yet thank the Lord!!! However, they can be finnicky! Its all the jumpers between the boards that cause the issues on those. Once you have those issues sorted by soldering the connections direct, its actually a very reliable head, but I always have a back-up. I'm betting Joe was pissed because it was his show and you got the last statement by playing the lick at the end. Crazy he would get so pissed but I'm sure it was one of a million things that went wrong over time and this may have just been that one last thing to push him into the red. Anyway enjoyed the story, thanks for your vids!

This story sounds like every teacher, manager and owner I've ever worked for, set you up to fail; act disgusted with you. I would expect that from yngwie but fuck man, say it ain't so joe.

I've been thinking about this the past couple days, and I just want to say: I am fully on Team Thomas as far as the story goes, but I don't think the overall look of name-dropping Satch in a sensational-looking video and then peddling your app is a good one. Comes across as possibly a bit exploitative, and that feeling surprised me. No hard feelings, a die hard fan for life here, but thought I'd speak up about the optics.

My shitty day is dropping the butter lid, butterside down... worlds apart lol

At 14 you behaved like a man and professional and explained, and apologized to Joe; and in return he acted like a 14 year old.

14th of age i meeting Ole Idole 《Norway 🇳🇴》 and he was amazing 👏 and 2years later 16 years old just had started to be really impressed by the Sound of the Legendary Guitar and I love singing with you or Alone so I got in the studio and recorded 13-15 Cover songs with the Stage as my dream too become my second home and 《Torgeir & Kjendisene》Norway party Band in the 90's. I was 20 years old first time seeing This band in my hometown back then and I love to singing with them live in a number 3 show that was 2 years later i asked Torgeir if i could sing a knocking on heavens door and he said: seriously consider this, if you want it's ok, if you're smart, wait for it to get your business back to the ground, i didn't get it, so he was just so dope killing everyone and thanks again Torgeir, Now I want you to Welcome RinotheTroubador to the next song and I did not have any idea of how high i was, but I nailed it, so fast forward, about 2 years ago I was on RU-vid and couldn't find any of the 3 songs that I had been playing in a studio with my Idole for 30th hours and I right a message and just ask where are the songs and I can go crazy on the way he said it back!! What the f are you doing this is my own copyright thing and he was going on, and keep in mind that he is a bestseller of music in Norway in the 90's and suddenly he was amazing and he understood that he was Wrong about gelling at me, but I will always be the one that are crazy in his head, and I am so grateful for your amazingly generous gift as a songwriter, mastering music for me if I need for example, and keep the best possible experience of the Sick house of all musicians life in a badly controlled environment where you lengden off Shred Master McRocklin is one of the Legendary artists who gives away the skills you have any idea of having fun and important things like the Epic game of your Legendary amazing life with the Shred Master of 200k people who are playing, and you got the best father ever happened to you lengden, It's hard enough to be a Troubadour in Norway and you have been playing for millions of people with your heart of Idoles years with Mr. Vai and Play with Satriani, Zach wild and many more. Thanks so much for your amazingly awesome story about your life as a kid until this day, thanks Mr. McRocklin 👨‍🎤🎸🎹🇧🇻🎼👏👏👏🙏

This reminds me of when I met Guthrie Govan and shook his hand/ told him thanks for giving me something good to listen to. He just looked at me and said nothing. He just had this blank stare on his face. I didn't take it as anything bad, just kinda odd when you see how he seems so upbeat in all these videos. I have met so many Guitarist and would have to say Tony MacAlpine was without a doubt the most laid back I ever talked to and this was just a day after his bands gear was stolen in Texas.

Not gonna lie, this makes me think of Joe differently. I'm glad you persisted in music after this. Bad day or not, a kid can't be faulted for equipment malfunction, especially in such a disrespectful way.

If only you’d noticed that OD pedal earlier 😬😕 Great story, and ya I’m sure even the nicest guy in the world has an off day once in a while. Did this event mark a change in that reciprocal guesting arrangement with Joe?

Maybe because you played the 'last' lick? Some performers can be a bit weird about that sort of thing

You should call him up. That’s my best advice.

Spinal Tap Moment #2,463 FTW! 🤘😝🤘

joe used the same head before he switched to Peavey. Was he using the 6100's at this gig?

So you haven’t seen him since?

Were you guys using in ear monitoring ? Maybe you were very low in the in ear mix while stuck on the clean channel all song and when you cranked the distortion pedal knobs at the end, you blew their eardrums for 5-10 secs? It’s happened to me before, I feel your pain and confusion. 🤘🎸