'It's Unfortunate': Joe Satriani Responds to Ritchie Blackmore Comments
Last week, audio of an interview with former Deep Purple and current Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore surfaced on YouTube.
Notably, the clip featured Blackmore opining on his successors in Deep Purple, Joe Satriani and Steve Morse. Though he said that Morse and Satriani were both "brilliant players," he also critiqued their respective playing styles, saying—among other comments—"If you're always playing the correct notes, there's something wrong—you're not searching, you're not reaching for anything."
To put it rather lightly, the interview caused an uproar, provoking thousands (yes, thousands) of comments from GW readers on our Facebook page and, evidently, reaching the ears of Satriani himself.
During an interview on Rock Talk with Mitch Lafon, Satriani was asked about Blackmore's comments.
"Well, it's unfortunate when somebody that you look up to has something negative to say about you," Satriani said in the interview. "So that part will always hurt. I wouldn't hide my feelings about that."
"I get criticized on both sides of the fence for the opposite offenses," Satriani continued. "And I don't quite understand it other than most of the time, when someone has criticism, it's because they're challenged and they feel that they have to strike out. So I get it—I understand why he would have to say something negative. I can kind of laugh at it, because I'm not like that myself. I tend to just look at the positive of another musician and focus on that."
You can listen to the full interview below. Satriani's portion of the interview starts at 1:09:00, and the comments above start at 1:29:30. Blackmore's full comments can be read here.
Get The Pick Newsletter
All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!
Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.

“He fell in love with my SGs, so now I have to buy him one. I told him that one day it would show up at his door”: Looking to take his post-Cars career in a more guitar-heavy direction, Ric Ocasek formed an unlikely partnership with an alt-rock icon

“I’m about 85 or 90 percent there. But it’s that 10 percent that sets me off. I can’t knock out those old solos as smooth as I used to”: Ace Frehley is practicing more than ever as he keeps his demons behind him and returns to arenas