Richie Kotzen

An American guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and producer of exceptional skill, Richie Kotzen launched his professional journey in the early 1990s through solo releases on Shrapnel Records before joining the veteran glam-rock outfit Poison and later the established hard-rock band Mr. Big. His subsequent independent path proved both wide-ranging and highly productive, spanning hard rock, pop, blues, funk, and jazz fusion. In 2012 he teamed with bassist Billy Sheehan, known for his work with Steve Vai, and drummer Mike Portnoy, formerly of Dream Theater, to lead the hard-rock supergroup The Winery Dogs, whose self-titled debut appeared the next year. Marking his fiftieth birthday in 2020, Kotzen issued the expansive three-disc collection 50 for 50, containing fifty newly written original songs.

Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, Kotzen entered the heavy-metal world while still a teenager, distinguished by his exceptionally rapid guitar technique. He issued three albums on the Shrapnel label—his 1989 self-titled debut, 1990’s Fever Dream, and 1991’s Electric Joy—before Poison recruited him to replace C.C. DeVille, who had been dismissed because of substance-abuse issues. With the band he recorded the 1993 album Native Tongue, which highlighted both his high-speed shredding and his blues-rooted sensibilities. Kotzen soon departed to resume his solo work, which at one point included joint projects with fellow guitarist Greg Howe. Toward the close of the decade he also performed with the then-current incarnation of Mr. Big and the fusion ensemble Vertú.

Kotzen’s 1999 solo outing Bi-Polar Blues was followed in 2000 by the U.S. release of three albums—Something to Say, Wave of Emotion, and What Is…—that had previously been available only in Japan. Slow and Change surfaced in 2003, Get Up in 2004, and Acoustic Cuts the year after. The summer of 2006 brought his first retrospective, Instrumental Collection: The Shrapnel Years, while Into the Black appeared later that autumn. His fourteenth studio album, Go Faster, arrived in 2007 (issued in Europe and Japan under the title Return of the Mother Head’s Family Reunion), and Peace Sign followed in 2009. That same year Kotzen rejoined forces with Mike Portnoy and Billy Sheehan in The Winery Dogs, contributing to the band’s self-titled debut and its 2015 successor, Hot Streak. His twenty-first solo album, Salting Earth, emerged in 2017, with 50 for 50 completing the timeline in 2020.