Stevie Salas
Interview with Stevie Salas
~ By Stephanie Deplanque
Photo Courtesy of Stevie Salas - All Rights Reserved
Stevie Salas is an Apache rock guitarist who is regarded as one of the best guitarists of all time and made a name for himself in the music industry in the late 1980’s. From 1990 until now he has released 18 solo albums plus several live albums, has been touring with recording industry artists such as George Clinton, Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger & Aerosmith, and has recorded, written or produced tracks for many of the biggest names in the industry.
His music, which is a unique melange of hard rock, classic rock, funk and electro with even a hint of hip-hop sometimes, is always acclaimed by the music critics and music magazines everywhere in the world.
Stevie Salas definitely has the Rock n’ Roll attitude and the talent to go with it. Last year, he received the Nammys Lifetime Achievement Award: giving an interview after the ceremony, he said he was too young and too pretty for such an award!
Well, we agree Stevie, you are, and we hope to see many more albums in the charts! Keep on rockin’!
Since 2008, he has been the host and executive producer of the Canadian music TV series Arbor Live. He kindly agreed to answer a few questions for Whisper n Thunder.
First of all, can you tell us about you, the journey you took to be where you are today?
I am an Apache Indian guitar player who sings a little. I did not grow up in Indian country but on the beach in San Diego, California, surfing, skateboarding, and rocking in my band. As for my journey, I am still in the middle of it and where I am today is in the middle ground, meaning I spent my younger days being wild and touring the world and now I am not as wild and I travel the world not just for Rock n’ Roll but definitely because of Rock n’ Roll.
I believe you never took any guitar lessons and that you started playing quite late, so why the guitar? How did it start?
A friend named Robert Mann taught me a couple chords and showed me a bit of fundamentals about how I should play guitar which really helped me a lot. But I never took formal lessons and I started playing at 15 and was in a band at 16. I started playing because it was the cool thing to do if you could do it, and for some reason unknown to me, I could do it.
What achievement would you say you are the most proud of?
Not sure, I never stopped to check out my achievements because when I achieved something, I was already onto something else.
But getting a major recording contract was awesome, and in 1988 it was really hard to do. And if you told me people like Mick Jagger would be calling me or that I would be hanging out with guys like Jimmy Page and getting emails from Ringo Starr and Eric Clapton, I don’t think I would have believed you!
What message would you give to the Native American youth, and everyone out there actually, who want to pursue their dream?
I would give this advice to not only Native youth but to all the people on this planet and beyond: Never ever give up! Remember the day you give up might be the day before your dream comes true and never be afraid to fail, but never except failure.
How close are you to your Native American roots?
It’s part of every fibre in my body; it’s who I am as a human being. I don’t wear it on my sleeve, but it’s what I bleed.
Does it have any kind of influence on your music and on what you do?
It must… if you look at music history, the great Native guitars players had a few things in common; people like Link Wray, Jesse Ed Davis and Robbie Robertson were all a bit left center with a sense of funkier rhythm to their playing and I am definitely left of center.
What do you wish for the future?
To never have to get a real job!
So, you are the host and executive producer of Arbor Live right? How is that going? Is it expanding? Any chance we might be able to see it in Europe for example?
We are working now after two seasons in Canada to get the show out all over the world. But it is a lot of fun producing TV shows and I think I am going to get more into it.
Any upcoming projects we should be looking forward to?
My coolest thing now is my I-phone I-pad Apple App music game company called Rockstar Solos. It’s a guitar music game that you get at the Apple App store and soon I will be releasing a lot of my rockstar friends' games through my company... so tell everyone you know to check out Rockstar Solos!
To learn more about Salas and listen to some tunes check out the following websites:
