NEW HAVEN - Fifteen-time Grammy nominee and self-proclaimed guitar daredevil Joe Satriani is on the road, taking a deep dive into his massive catalog of instrumental six-string wizardry on what he's calling the From Surfing To Shockwave Tour, which is hitting New Haven's College Street Music Hall on Tuesday, March 29.The Newtown Bee in a recent exclusive interview that he's even going further back, to his very first recording project, to tickle his most devoted fans.Not Of This Earth into the setlist every night," Satrinai said. "It's the first song from my very first solo EP of my career. You know, the sad thing is we can't play every song. If they're all 4½ minutes long, there are only so many you can fit in before they throw you out the door. So there's always a feeling like, wow, we're neglecting most of the catalog."Not Of This Earth.Surfing With The Alien, a massive seller hitting No. 29 on the Billboard 200, that included radio hits "Satch Boogie" and the title track. The success of that album caught the attention of Mick Jagger, who asked Satriani to be his lead guitarist on his first-ever solo tour, in 1988.The Bee, we opened up talking about balancing the raw qualities of his instruments with the stacks and rack of electronics he employs in every session and show to achieve his otherworldly sound.Newtown Bee: I've had a number of artists in other interviews say, put any guitar in my hand as long as I have such-and-such an effect pedal or tool in my rack, and I've had others say, it's all about the quality and set-up of the instrument. Which do you depend on more, your axe or your rack?Joe Satriani: The truth of the matter is, you've gotta feel inspired by what you're holding, and what you're plugged into. And I don't think you can guess at what that might be. That's why it's a good thing when a producer suggests, hey, maybe instead of using your entire live set-up of pedals, why not just try a banjo - something to move you into a new area of inspiration and you do really good. That reminds me of a YouTube clip from a few years ago, where the son of a friend of mine asked me to come play some guitar for a school project. He gave me this inexpensive (Fender) Strat copy plugged into a teeny practice amp, and he played the backing track from "Surfing With The Alien." I mean, it didn't have a whammy bar, or the Eventide, or any effects you hear on the album. That clip continuously shows up, and people really enjoy it. And some people will say that it proves you don't really need the gear to play that song the right way. It's essence: if you're in the right frame of mind, you can dominate whatever gear you've got to deal with. Bee: Your latest project, Shockwave Supernova, is described as a concept album, where you as the central character even adopt an alter-ego. Can you walk me through how that all came together and played out?Satriani: I was a little shy about introducing a concept project, one with a theme that extends throughout the album. Plus concept albums can be a little over the top sometimes. So I thought I would make it an internal concept, a concept I'll follow incorporating not only the music I've written up to that point, but in the rest of the material I would write to pull it together. So I had a funny little daydream about a flashy guitar player - Shockwave - who would do anything to get attention, who wants to take over the real Joe. Then you could bring in lots of songs where the two could argue their case against each other about who would be the dominant personality. But I was keen to make sure the album could be needle dropped easily, so you really didn't need to know the concept to enjoy the tunes. But if you wanted to have a little chuckle, you could listen through from the top imagining this story. And in the end, incidentally, both me and Shockwave say goodbye to the whole thing. Shockwave just dissolves back into being me, and we ride off into the sunset.Bee: Do you have a drastically different routine of practice when you're recording, or home in between shows, versus when you're out playing a show almost every night?Satriani: When I'm at home between shows, I'll run through the set one or twice every day using all the guitars and equipment I'm thinking about bringing out on the road. When I'm in the writing phase, I'll write all day and play a variety of instruments. One day I might play piano for four hours straight and never touch a guitar, and the next it's guitar and bass all day long. Finally, if I'm on tour I really save it up for the show. No playing in the hotel or on the bus. I take about an hour of warm up before the show, but I'm careful not to peak and not go crazy. I don't summon up the demons until I walk up on stage -  then I bring it all out. That makes it very satisfying - I can hit the stage with everything firing and I don't leave until I play every last note I could possibly play.Bee: You have shared the stage with a lot of talent, but my sentimental favorite is a live video with you and Grace Potter and Steve Kimmock covering Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer" at The Jammy Awards around ten years ago. Is it more challenging to weave your guitar work around somebody's vocals like that?Satriani: (laughing) It's a whole different thing when you're working with a band that has vocals. I work with the band Chickenfoot, with Hagar singing lead vocals and it's a really different beast. It's like the difference between driving a Porsche and a Cadillac. They are equally fantastic, they do different things, but you approach them in a very different way. When you're an instrumentalist, you have to pay attention to a lot of different musical things -  there's a cause and affect you get. I mean the human voice is the most beautiful instrument, an instrumentalist has a little more difficult job of it - you need a lot more to set up. With a vocalist, you have words and just sing. And a great set of lyrics can really make their point no matter what the accompaniment is. You mentioned "Cortez" and that was a fun event, but we were just winging it. We got together backstage for just a few minutes before we went on. It was a great night, so many cool players descended on Madison Square Garden that night was really incredible.Bee: Looking back over all the tours, has there been any album of yours that you feel has been a little too neglected in your live sets, that maybe you're shining a little more light on now that you're digging into new inventory for this tour?Satriani: It's funny, I started out in 1988 not knowing how to be a solo artist, not having any experience playing instrumental guitar in front of a live audience. But I had to learn pretty damned quickly because I had a record out on the charts and a lot of success exploding around me. But I got a great education not only playing out on my own, but on two tours with Mick Jagger that year. That experience taught me a lot about how to bring things to life on stage. So after awhile you fall into a pattern of going out on a new tour promoting a new record, and you have to forget about a lot of the stuff from the last records. When you get to the point like the Stones, where you have a lot of records the fans really like, you know you have to engage this huge process of elimination.Bee: It was great to hear about how passionate you are about Little Kids Rock. It's been ten years since you got involved with that group; tell me about some of the fruit you've seen from musical seeds you planted over the past decade with this cause.Satriani: We do run into kids who have benefited from the intervention of Little Kids Rock, and it's heartwarming. The whole idea is trying to transform young lives that are deprived of music education. We're not developing professional musicians, we're just trying to make sure kids have music in their lives because we know it's necessary - it's a good thing, it helps them experience life more fully, and it's something to have fun with that's also intellectually stimulating. It's a crazy world, and kids feel so put upon by current events. So when you have schools run out of money and can't have music and art and even phys ed programs kids can't express themselves creatively. So Little Kids Rock comes in with a good rockin' attitude of just getting instruments into these kids' hands and see what happens - at least give them an outlet. And if some decide to pursue music, then we have provided a good launching platform for them.Bee: Guitar World Magazine readers recently named you the World's Best Shredder. Do you see yourself all-in under that label, or would you want the world to look at Joe Satriani as something different from an artist or genre perspective?Satriani: You have to take these things with a good sense of humor - it's basically a nice pat on the back when you fall into certain categories in certain years. I don't think any artist should take that stuff too seriously beyond that they're hearing something nice. I'm always happy to know there are fans out there and they're appreciating the playing. Maybe in a way, the definition of shredding gets stretched out a little bit more to include what it is I actually do. That's the best way to look at it I think: instead of them cramming me into something they think I am, how about we say I'm expanding what it is shredding really means. for tickets to see Joe Satriani March 29 at New Haven's College Street Music Hall.Click hereJoe Satriani and Grace Potter perform a soulful take on Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer" at the 2007 Jammy Awards.In this clip, Joe Satriani shows off his guitar daredevilry on this kicking version of "Andalusia."Here's a look at the Surfing to Shockwave Tour promo:

While the tour name mashes up an early and recent album title, Satriani told

"Even though the show is called From Surfing to Shockwave, we do throw something from

Satriani says he's mapped out around two hours to take his audience through a collection of diverse numbers, some of which will be widely recognized like his explosive single "Satch Boogie," and the monster 1992 hit "Summer Song." He's also got a few surprises in store.

"I think the one that never got enough [attention] is a song called 'If I Could Fly.' It's turned into a real show stopping song with Mike and me trading off on guitar solos, and then jamming together. It's a really big song in the set and I'm really happy about that," he said.

In his official bio, Satriani is touted as the world's most commercially successful solo guitar performer, with six gold and platinum discs to his credit (including one more gold award for the debut album by his band Chickenfoot, co-founded by Sammy Hagar), and sales in excess of 10 million copies.

While still a teenager in his hometown of Westbury, New York, he gave lessons to another budding guitarist, Steve Vai. A few years later, Satriani moved to San Francisco and played guitar in a popular new wave band, The Squares, and briefly joined The Greg Kihn Band before the release of

Some of his other students were Metallica's Kirk Hammett and Testament's Alex Skolnick, but in 1987, he broke commercially with his second studio project,

In 1993, he joined Deep Purple as a temporary replacement for Ritchie Blackmore during a Japanese tour. In 1996, Satriani founded the multi-guitarist traveling experience called G3, which has seen him share stages with Vai, Eric Johnson, Yngwie Malmsteen, Robert Fripp, among others.

Satriani is also deeply involved with his sound from the technical side. Through the years, he has designed and endorsed guitars, amplifiers and effects pedals for Ibanez, Marshall and Vox.

His JS Series of guitars through Ibanez has been one of the company's most popular and consistent sellers. In his call to

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