Joe Satriani has opened up about the “really frightening” challenge of playing Eddie Van Halen’s guitar parts for his 2024 tour.

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The guitarist is set to join Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony and Jason Bonham on a Best Of Both Worlds tour next year centred around classic Van Halen material. Speaking to Forbes about the upcoming trek and the expectations that come along, Satriani says that one cannot be expected to fill Eddie’s shoes.

“You can’t fill them. You can put them on, but you can’t fill them,” says Satch, who’s been tasked with what might just be some of the toughest riffs in rock. “You have to respect the genius of the architecture of his guitar parts and how he built the songs and you’ve got to get in there and just enjoy what he was building cause he would weave in and out of his original composition every time he played it live and bring new amazing little nuggets to each little section.”

The virtuoso adds that as much as he “really enjoyed getting into it”, it’s also “really frightening because I don’t play like [Eddie] and I’ve had to learn to anticipate all his quirky accents where he likes to push things and turn things upside down.”

“Just when you think they’re going to go left, they go right or up or down. So, it’s exciting.”

Meanwhile, Hagar has also expressed his delight with having Satriani on board, saying: “Playing this much Van Halen you’ve got to have Joe Satriani. There’s nobody else that I think understands Eddie the way he understands him. So we’re doing this cause we really want to do it.”

Kicking off on 13 July in West Palm Beach, Florida, the 28-date tour will feature special guest Loverboy.