"He said, ‘You get rock. I'm looking for that sort of guy.’" Joe Satriani calls him “the guitar player I wish I was.” But for Pete Thorn, making stars’ dreams come true is the secret to success

Joe Satriani says, “He’s the guitar player I wish I was: looks great, plays great, knows every piece of gear.”

Meanwhile, Steve Vai says, “His tone is amazing — fat and warm. And when he plays those big rock chords, they’re all in tune. That’s harder to do than you think.”

Who are the two electric guitar gods raving about? His name is Pete Thorn, a veteran sideman whose extensive resume includes tours with Chris Cornell, Don Henley and Melissa Etheridge, among many others.

Recently, the Canadian-born, self-described guitar nerd was tapped by Satch and Vai to handle rhythm guitar duties in their first-ever group, the SatchVai Band, which will also feature bassist Marco Mendoza and drummer Kenny Aronoff. For Thorn, the prospect of playing alongside two of his guitar heroes on their upcoming Surfing With the Hydra Tour is nothing short of surreal.

“It’s like the 14-year-old me wakes up from a dream in which Joe Satriani calls and says, ‘I’m starting a band with Steve Vai. Do you want to join?’” Thorn says. “That’s crazy! You have to understand — when I grew up, my primary guitar influences were Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. This is like a full-circle moment for me. I can’t tell you how exciting this is.”

Thorn is no stranger to auditions, but as he tells it, he nabbed the SatchVai gig based on his experience alone.

“Joe called me and said that he’d listened to my second solo album, Pete Thorn II. He said, ‘You get rock, you understand rock. I'm looking for that sort of guy.’

“After that, I had a face-to-face meeting with Joe and we discussed some of our favorite guitar players. We had a long conversation about Ritchie Blackmore. I think he was feeling me out to confirm his assumption that I'm a rock guy.”

A few days later, Thorn connected with Vai at a performance by Beat, the 1980s King Crimson group Vai fronts with Adrian Belew.

“Steve asked me if I got together with Joe,” Thorn says with a laugh. “We haven’t all played together yet, but we’ve got a rehearsal schedule, so we’re going to do that soon.”

Backing up two guitar monsters could prove a daunting assignment for most players, but Thorn takes a measured view of his upcoming role.

“I always say, ‘I’m there to be of service,’” he says. “They both obviously have layered parts in their music that will require each of them, and I’m there to fill in the gaps. In many ways, it’s no different than what I’ve done backing up lead singers. In this case, the lead singers are Joe and Steve. To me, it’s the same thing.”

In the following interview, Thorn opens up about auditions, band chemistry and how he knows when he’s done his job just right. He also offers some sage advice for guitarists hoping to nail that big gig.

It’s interesting that you were picked to join the SatchVai Band without an audition. That isn’t the usual way things work, right?

Not usually, but the older that you get and the more you do this stuff, the less you're asked to do auditions. Not that I'm above it — I'm not. I'm happy to go and play and throw my hat in the ring. I've done that for gigs in the last few years.

A little while ago, I did a tour with Nick Carter from Backstreet Boys, and that had an audition. I went down and saw a lot of guys I remember from 15 years ago. I went in, did the audition and got the gig.

Obviously, you’re a versatile guitarist, but let’s talk about chemistry. How do you blend in and form a bond with an artist or band? You have to do it pretty quickly, too.

That's part of the skill of the sideman. I guess the more gigs you do, the more experience you gather, and that allows you to develop your ability to listen to other people, to read the room and adjust your playing.

If you’ve been in this business as long as I have, you’ve honed your musical and personality skills. There can also be unspoken chemistry — you play with a drummer for the first time, and it just feels right. When that happens, you kind of internalize it.

Backing up a star requires a lot of thought. In a way, you have to be Clark Kent most of the time, but onstage you get to be Superman for short periods. You’re not the rock star, but when you get onstage, you’re expected to go toe to toe with that person. You do your thing, you rip a solo, but then you need to step back. You go offstage and you turn into Clark Kent again.

You’re also expected to learn a lot of material, sometimes to the letter. I assume Don Henley wanted you to perform the “Hotel California” solo just like the recorded version.

Sure. I was Joe Walsh in that role. Don was very inclined to want it to just like the record. There were moments in the set when I could step out and do my thing a little bit, but generally speaking, he likes things like the record. And why not? They're classic songs, right?

Your audition process for Chris Cornell wasn’t a snap. You had two callbacks before you got the gig.

That was kind of typical for a lot of auditions: You might go down on the first day and get called back, sometimes a couple of times. It took Chris a few days to settle on people. That third day was amazing, especially when I got home and got a call from management saying I’d gotten the gig.

But the work started right away. I was told, “Chris is hiring you guys. We’re going on the road, and rehearsals start tomorrow.” I was sent songs to learn, and every night for the next three weeks I would get an email with three MP3s in it. There’d be songs like “Say Hello to Heaven,” “Hunger Strike,” “Show Me How to Live,” and the next day it’d be “Jesus Christ Pose” and other songs.

I couldn’t believe it — “I get to play these songs!” It was a magical time.

For Chris, you had to tackle songs from his solo career as well as Soundgarden and Audioslave material. That’s a lot of different sounds and styles.

That’s right. He wouldn’t micromanage — that wasn’t his thing. He would sometimes say, “That sound — could you do a little more of that part instead of the other part?” Or he’d say, “Could you play the other part that's on the record? I think it's more important than what you're doing there.”

But that was few and far between. Otherwise, he was very happy. We did “Black Hole Sun,” which starts with slide on one tone, and then it’s more distorted and you have the arpeggios and the rotary Leslie sounds. I played that and turned to him, and he said, “Sounds exactly like the album.” I thought to myself, Great. I’m doing my job.

That’s got to be a great feeling.

Absolutely. When you get in the room and you’re relaxed, you’ve learned your parts, the sounds are good, and the artist turns around and is like, Ahhhh… That’s my goal. I'm a problem solver kind of person. To bring that good energy in and try to get to the place where you're contributing and everybody's firing on all cylinders, that’s when you think, Okay, this isn't going to be as hard as I thought. That's what the artist is thinking, too, hopefully.

Here’s the other thing: My goal is to go in the room, and the first time you play a song with the artist, even at an audition, and it’s so good that you think, That could be the gig. If this was the gig right now, we’d be pretty good!

Given all the sounds and styles you cover, one would assume you need a boatload of guitars.

I do have a lot of guitars, probably 70 or so. Whatever sound an artist is looking for, you want to be able to say, “Oh yeah, I’ve got that.” I've got a line of signature guitars with Suhr. I’ve been playing their guitars for a while. I bought my first one in 2004 and had it flown across the country. I opened up the case, started playing it, and I thought, “Wow… it’s in tune!” That impressed me.

After that, I bonded with the company and started working with them. I wanted guitars that would fit sonically in a lot of situations, and I wanted them to look distinctive yet familiar and classic. I can play these guitars with Melissa Etheridge, I can play them with Joe and Steve — they really go across the lines.