Stevie Salas may not command instant name recognition among most guitar fans the way Steve Vai or Joe Satriani do, yet his stature equals theirs in markets such as Japan, where he has also backed Rod Stewart and Mick Jagger on the road. A Native American raised in San Diego, California, he took up the guitar early and soaked up an eclectic mix of influences ranging from Earth, Wind & Fire to Van Halen and Led Zeppelin. After moving to Hollywood in hopes of breaking into the business, he found success far harder to achieve than expected and ended up employed at a recording studio, answering phones and running errands while barely making ends meet. Awakened one night on the studio sofa by Funkadelic leader George Clinton, who needed guitar tracks recorded on the spot, Salas stepped in and quickly became a sought-after session musician, playing on late-’80s releases by Bootsy Collins, Was (Not Was), Eddie Money, and others while also serving briefly as the house band for the television series Fame. Around the same period he launched Stevie Salas Colorcode, but the project was set aside when he accepted an invitation to join Rod Stewart’s touring band. Once those dates concluded—including multiple nights at the L.A. Forum and Madison Square Garden—Island Records signed him, leading to the release of Stevie Salas Colorcode in 1990. Although an opening slot for Joe Satriani’s Flying in a Blue Dream tour did not produce strong U.S. chart results, the album established a large and devoted following for Salas in Japan. His 1993 sophomore album, The Electric Pow Wow, included guest appearances by Slim Jim Phantom, Matt Sorum, Zakk Wylde, and Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson, while 1994’s Back From the Living was voted Album of the Year in Japan, ahead of releases by the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith. Salas has continued issuing solo recordings, most available in the U.S. only as imports: Alter Native Gold and Le Bootleg/Live in Paris in 1997, The Sometimes Almost Never Was and Viva La Noise in 1998, Sol Power in 1999, and Shapeshifter in 2001. He has maintained an active schedule of outside projects with Duran Duran, Terence Trent D’Arby, and Sass Jordan, and formed the one-off power trio Hardware with Bootsy Collins and Buddy Miles. Mick Jagger personally chose him to perform on the 2001 tour supporting Goddess in the Doorway.
