G3 Returns In 2012

Joe Satriani is bringing back on the road in 2012 for the tour’s first outing in five years.

The tour, which was started by Satriani in 1996, features Satriani along with two other guitarists. The inaugural tour featured Satriani, Steve Vai and Eric Johnson.

Vai, who has been on several pervious editions of the tour, will be along for the ride once again. Satriani and Vai will be joined by Steve Lukather, who is best known as the guitarist for Toto but has also taken some significant side roads, like playing the licks on The Tubes’ “Talk To You Later.”

Photo: David Robert
Grand Sierra Resort, Reno, Nev.

Next year G3 will be headed back to Australia along with a few New Zealand dates. Satriani, Vai and John Petrucci previously took the tour Down Under in 2006.

“I was truly blown out that Joe and Steve wanted ME to do this,” Lukather said in a statement on his website.

“I even said ‘Man are you SURE I am the right guy?’… They are very dear friends and wanted me and my band along for the ride. I am humbled and honored and I HOPE people like what I do. I am just gonna be ME cause those guys are really SO good … It is nice cause I get to go to OZ and I have never been there solo so … well like I said, NO ONE was more surprised than me to get the call. There will be some metal shredder guys that will hate me for it … I mean there are 100 guys that SHOULD be doin this gig before me, but I guess Joe and Steve wanted a different flavor to their musical gumbo … I am excited and nervous and in the SHED cause I gotta bring the A game.”

Photo: Rod Tanaka / TanakaPhoto.net
John Ford Amphitheatre, Hollywood, Calif.

The 2012 tour kicks off March 24 in Wellington, New Zealand, at Michael Fowler Centre, followed by a March 25 gig in Auckland, New Zealand, at Logan Campbell Centre.

Australian stops include shows in Canberra (March 27), Moore Park (March 30), St. Kilda (March 31), Adelaide (April 3), and Brisbane (April 5).

The tour wraps up with an April 6 performance at in Tyagarah, Australia, at Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm.

Tickets to Bluesfest are on sale now. All of the other G3 shows go on sale Nov. 25.

For more information, click here for Joe Satriani’s website.