I Believe in Joe Satriani

I believe that he is one of the greatest guitar players of all time. He is a true innovator of the instrument that is so dear for many of us, somebody who pushed the boundaries of recording music. More importantly, he created and still creates unforgettable compositions like Memories, Always With You, Always With Me, Flying In A Blue Dream, Summer Song, The Mighty Turtle Head, Down, Down, Down, Ceremony, Until We Say Goodbye, Starry Night, If I Could Fly, It’s So Good, Musterion, Light Years Away, A Door Into Summer, If There Is No Heaven, Cherry Blossoms and All For One, just to name one song from each of his beautiful albums released so far. Still, I treasure him as one of the most important artists for me because of the lyrics of the song called I Believe. He created such a magical piece of words and music that defined the fundament of my life. I believe in every word he sings in I Believe. It is like a prayer for me. Like a vow, I make. Like a promise he made. He captured the essence of human existence in that close to six minutes masterpiece. After 30 years of hearing it for the first time, I am still breathing every word of this song, it feels like the beat of my heart. The wisdom of the lyrics comes from the lips of a man, whose life proves every word he says. A true teacher. A guru. I will never forget the first time I met him in the Rockhaus of Vienna in 2002. A few minutes after the extremely long concert, he arrived at the meet&greet session so fresh and relaxed that I was positively shocked. He shone such purity and gentleness that inspired me more than the music I love so much.

„I’ve been out walking for hours
I’ve got something on my mind
How did we get here?
Where are we going?”

I believe that he realized everything that I Believe stands for. The meditative quality of the song’s opening, the contemplation on the meaning of life, mesmerized me when I heard the song for the first time, but it took decades for me to find the way. Now I have been walking for hours every day since 26 December 2018 to organize my thoughts, calm myself, and be centered as he is focused all the time.

„And why is life so hard?”

I believe that he is an extraordinary human being. The way his words evoke the hardship of life, the pain of losing loved ones speaks volumes of his emotions’ richness. I was deeply touched by this part of the song’s sadness back in 1989, but I just understood his pain clearly when I lost my father is 2018.

„I’ve seen the shadows of the living
I’ve seen them turn and walk away
And I keep searchin’ for the right words
To send these thoughts away”

I believe in long term commitment. There is something exceptional in the trust, the longevity of Joe’s relation to his record company showcases. He has been working with Sony Music since 1990 when the major acquired a 50% stake in Relativity, the label released his first album in 1986. Having been working for Sony Music since 1996 enabled me to meet Joe Satriani several times, and one of the greatest gifts I got from these meetings was to get to know his long time manager, Mick Brigden. He was always professional as you can expect from a gentleman, who worked for Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones before, and has been working with Joe Satriani since 1988. Professional, but helpful and friendly all the time. The way he greeted me in 2015 before a Shockwave Supernova gig in the Budapest Congress Hall is a fond memory of mine. Our task was to coordinate the CD/DVD sales of Joe’s catalog on behalf of his record company. We cleared everything with the repertoire owner and got written permission right from Mick to allow a local vendor to sell its products. Mick showed up at the lobby of the venue where I helped the vendor setup its stand, and without any formality or greetings, asked ’Everything is okay, Joseph?’, as if no five years would pass since we met last time in the Budapest Arena during the Crystal Planet tour. At the moment, everything seemed perfect, but later on, I had to deal with an upset representative of Live Nation, who was not informed about the local vendor and claimed they had exclusive rights to sell Satriani merchandise at the venue. Mick helped to solve the situation, and I had a great chat with the big Black merchandiser. Mick Bridgen became the role model for me when it came to became an artist manager in 2013. The way he handles his artist, his colleagues, the crew, and the people from the label, the fans is the blueprint for an artist manager. And his personality speaks loud about Joe Satriani as well. The Hungarian equivalent of the „birds of a feather flock together” proverb suggests that you can understand a person knowing his friend as you can recognize a bird from its feather.

„I read the stories, see the photographs
World’s in a crazy space
I’ve got to hold on to my dreams
There’s just no other place”

I believe in love. And Mr. Satriani shows the way. He met his future wife, Rubina, in 1979 and still take care of her after 40 years. Joe wrote beautiful songs about her you can find on Not Of This Earth and on The Extremist, but the real deal is how he stands for everything he says. I met my future wife, Andrea, in 1991, and she is still the one and only for me.

„There’s a picture I like to look at
A picture of a beautiful face
And I see something in her eyes
Sends me to a better place„

I believe in the force of positive energy. No other artist gave so many fond memories than Joe Satriani did. Even when we have not met. I was on a business trip on 11 July, 2006, when Joe played Petőfi Csarnok in Budapest on his Super Colossal tour. The local marketing and promotional duties of the album rested on Ágnes Jóljárt and Ágota Tóth, and they made this project unforgettable for me. They asked Joe to sign a tour poster, then cut it a way that the remaining text reads Super Joe, and they glued the poster on the inner side of the door to my room. Being an avid follower of the open-door policy, it took some time to discover my colleagues’ present. A massive amount of things changed since then, but the poster is still on my door, and I hope it will be there for long.

„I believe
We can change anything
I believe
We can rise above this
I believe
There’s a reason for everything”

I believe in giving back. When Sony Music obtained the rights to exploit the Jimi Hendrix catalog in 2010, I faced a strange situation. No matter how devoted fan I was to Hendrix, our work for his music will not help him, will not bring him back to life. So I came up with the idea of the New Guitarist contest to connect his art to future generations of guitarists and allow young musicians to showcase their talent. The competition was a great success, and we were able to organize it again 4 years later around a new Santana album only to make me dream of having an important guitar album four years later again. And 2018 gave us What Happen Next and the most fulfilling New Guitarist contest ever. Finally, we could make the campaign around someone who really influenced hundreds of new guitarists in Hungary. The winner of the competition, 

, is a unique talent, a world-class player with an unparalleled science-driven approach to music inspired by his profession being a plant doctor. Then we learned that the WHN tour will arrive in Budapest in July, so we could introduce Bence to Mr. Satriani, everything came full circle. It is only a personal dream coming true, that Ibanez released the 30th Anniversary Chrome Boy guitar shown on the album’s cover, featured in the New Guitarist 2018 logo, and I was able to buy myself a copy of that guitar, which is the most precious item in my collection signed by the master himself.

I believe in my dream.