Even Genuine Guitar Heroes Need To Drop The Six-String On Occasion

Six-string legend Richie Kotzen has had a remarkable career. Outside playing in such high-profile rock acts as Poison, Mr Big, The Winery Dogs and plenty more, he has also maintained a phenomenal rate of releases under his own name. In fact, since his debut solo album came out all the way back in 1989, he's been running at almost a release a year, for almost three decades. Speaking from his home outside Malibu, California, he explains that he has a reasonably specific approach and mindset that keeps him fresh, creative and motivated to maintain such a punishing schedule.

"For me, it's balance. I go through phases," he states. "Believe it or not, I'll go three, four months without even playing music, without even writing a song or even picking up a guitar other than to move it out of the way. Then I go through phases where all I do is play. I think that balance is what keeps the wheel spinning."

While he is obviously prodigiously motivated to create and to move relentlessly forward with his career, on the very odd occasion he gives himself a moment to look back and reflect on his achievements, not the least of which has been making a good living out of plucking a six-string.

"It's funny, just the other night my wife and I were sitting outside, we're out here in the mountains, it's peaceful and quiet, and we started playing music," he recalls, "she started pulling up some old songs that I'd forgotten about. It was interesting, it was like, 'I've recorded a lot of music.' All I wanted to do when I was young was make music and be able to play my music and survive on that. And thankfully that's what I'm doing."

Almost as incredible is the fact that, in a 30-year career, Kotzen has never plucked a string or fretted a chord in anger in Australia. In fact, he has never even set foot on our soil. All of the above is about to change, however, as he and his superb band are booked to play three dates along the eastern seaboard in late August. And he has some very special things planned for his maiden voyage Down Under.

"I think now for me, it's perfect timing," he says, "our band, we're playing better than we've ever played. I think we've got a really great set, much deeper than anything we've put together before. We've got a section where we break it down and do an acoustic thing and our bass player plays upright bass. We've got a bunch of songs where I'm on the electric piano. So it's good that the first time is now."

With all the music and history behind him, Kotzen is extremely optimistic about his future in the biz. "I'll tell you what, we've got a lot of shows lined up this year," he says. "It's our first time to Australia, and I've already got some new songs that I've started recording, so we're really excited to keep going."