CHICKENFOOT guitarist and legend in his own right, JOE SATRIANI, is featured in a new interview with Ultimate-Guitar.com. An excerpt is available below:

UG: Is the guitarist on Black Swans & Wormhole Wizards the same guitar player who walked in the studio to record Chickenfoot III?

Satriani: "Well, yeah. I think to the listener who doesn’t hear me 24 hours a day, it sounds like a different Joe or a different shade of Joe. Maybe I’m revealing things to them with each new Chickenfoot song that they weren’t aware I was capable of. But of course to me it just sounds really natural. It’s more like I’ve always been doing these things but never had a band or a record to showcase them. And so that’s kinda like what it is when I get together with the guys. I’m thinking, 'Chad can do this and Mike can do that and Sammy can do that. What can I do to maximize that? What kind of songs can I write to bring those things out?'"

UG: So you are consciously trying to write different kinds of songs that you would do as a solo artist?

Satriani: "Any musician put in a position like that when you’re not playing with those people then of course your audience doesn’t hear you write in that direction. In this case the audience is hearing me write for these amazing guys that I’m playing with. And so, yeah, it’s gonna come out different than what they’ve just heard on Black Swans."

UG: Are you challenged as much playing with Chickenfoot as you are doing your solo records?

Satriani: "Yeah, I think so because from my point of view it doesn’t matter whether I’m writing a piece of music in a scale that’s got an unpronounceable name or it’s something that everybody hears everyday on Top 40 radio. Once you learn all the things there are to learn about the theory of music, you realize that everything’s equal: Nothing is more important than the next thing. No chords are more important than each other and all scales are equal. Because it’s how you accomplish telling the story and how you move people. So if you’ve done it with a three-note scale or a 12-note scale, what’s the difference? From a musician’s point of view it’s almost like a carpenter—are different screwdrivers better than others? Not really if we’re talking about different shapes; it’s all about the appropriate tool."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

As previously reported, Chickenfoot - also featuring former VAN HALEN singer SAMMY HAGAR and bassist Michael Anthony, and drummer Kenny Aronoff (filling in for Chickenfoot/RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS drummer Chad Smith) - recently announced The 2011 Road Test Tour, the first live performance dates in support of the band’s forthcoming Chickenfoot III. Check out a quick message from their rehearsal room about the tour below:

Road Test Tour dates include:

November

2 - Los Angeles, CA - Avalon Hollywood
4 - St. Louis, MO - The Pageant
5 - Chicago, IL - Metro
8 - New York, NY - Webster Hall

January

12 - Manchester, UK - Academy
14 - Brixton, UK - Academy
16 - Paris, France - Olympia
17 - Tilburg, Netherlands - O13
19 - Dusseldorf, Germany - Electric Hall