Back when it was announced that Joe Satriani and Steve Vai would be forming a band together, much buzz abounded about who would fill the band out.
Earlier this month, that question was answered with the unveiling of the group’s full lineup – Pete Thorn on rhythm guitar, Marco Mendoza on bass, and Kenny Aronoff on drums. Hence what was already a supergroup became even more of a dream team.
Thorn idolized both Vai and Satriani as a young guitarist, and got to know them through his years as a sideman for everyone from Don Henley, Melissa Etheridge, and, most prominently, Chris Cornell.
Cornell’s tragic death in 2017 hit Thorn hard, and the guitarist – in an effort to get out a little bit – attended a gig of Vai’s just two nights after his friend’s death. It was there that his future bandmate became much more than just one of his guitar heroes.
The gig in question was the 2017 Malibu Guitar Festival, a few years after an initial friendly encounter between the two.
“It was two days after Chris Cornell had passed,” Thorn recalled in a new interview with Guitar World. “A friend who did some work for Steve invited me to get me out of the house. I really was in a funk, obviously, super-sad, but I decided I should go. After Steve played, I was summoned to come to the little backstage area.
“Steve motioned for me to come over, then sat with me and proceeded to say, and I’m paraphrasing a bit, ‘I know you lost your friend, and I just want you to know that you can still have a relationship with him, it’s too soon now, but the time will come where you think of them, and it’ll be good thoughts, happy, good memories.’
“I will never forget that,” Thorn continued. “Here, I’d lost a close friend and collaborator, and a hero of mine, from the time I was 11 years old or so, took the time to console me.
“And that’s Steve. He has an amazing ability to make you feel seen; I believe he genuinely cares about what others are doing and what they are up to; he always asks about you and how you are every time.”
Keep your eyes out for the full Guitar World interview with Thorn – which also covers the guitarist’s time in Henley and Etheridge’s bands, and how his rig has slimmed down over the years – in the coming weeks.
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