Richie Kotzen

Biography

Richie Kotzen began playing piano at the age of five. At the age of seven, he was inspired to learn the electric guitar by the band Kiss. He started his career in a band named Arthur's Museum. Kotzen was eventually discovered by Shrapnel Records' Mike Varney, and he recorded his first solo album by the age of 19, the first of two instrumental records, simply entitled Richie Kotzen. He created the video Rock Chops for REH video in 1989, highlighting many of his formative techniques, including using wide-intervals and fluid sweeping. One year later, a second solo album called Fever Dream was released, which was the first one to also feature his lead vocals. Since then, Kotzen has released a long series of more than twenty albums with musical influences ranging from Rock, Hard Rock, Pop, Blues, Blue-eyed-soul, R&B and Funk to Jazz Fusion.

In 1991, at age 21, Kotzen joined glam-metal band Poison, co-writing and performing on the album Native Tongue. This album produced two top-twenty singles which Kotzen co-wrote, "Stand" and "Until You Suffer Some (Fire and Ice)".

In 1999, Kotzen replaced Paul Gilbert as guitarist in the mainstream rock band Mr. Big, performing on their album Get Over It. He also contributed guitars to their subsequent release Actual Size. The record included the Kotzen song Shine, which debuted at number one on Japanese radio charts. After Mr. Big disbanded, Kotzen released the solo album Change, in 2003. The title track and the song Get a Life were featured in TV commercials throughout Japan.

In 2002, Kotzen bought a commercial building in Los Angeles and established a recording studio and production company. He has since produced his own acclaimed solo albums and collaborated with various figures in rock (e.g. Gene Simmons), jazz and fusion, including jazz legend Stanley Clarke.

In 2006, Kotzen was the opening act for The Rolling Stones in Japan on their Bigger Bang tour.

In 2013, the rock supergroup The Winery Dogs released their self-titled debut album on May 15 in Japan, with a worldwide release on July 23 of the same year.

Guitar playing style

Kotzen has described his style as a mix of rock, blues, jazz, fusion, and soul music. Kotzen utilizes a heavy amount of legato and sweeping in his playing. As his main influences, he lists Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eddie Van Halen, Jason Becker (who produced his first album), Allan Holdsworth, and many other jazz and fusion players. Kotzen, since around 2007, has opted to stop using guitar picks and been playing exclusively with his fingers ever since.

Instruments and equipment

Kotzen has used Fender electric guitars for most of his career, most notably his signature model Telecasters and Stratocasters, as well as other custom-made models. Currently, there are two Richie Kotzen signature models made by Fender Japan – a Stratocaster (STR-145RK) and a Telecaster (TLR-155RK). Both guitars feature ash bodies with laminated flame maple caps, maple necks and one piece maple fretboards with abalone dot inlays and 22 super jumbo frets. The Telecaster model features a DiMarzio Chopper T pickup in the bridge position (single spaced humbucker) and a DiMarzio Twang King in the neck position. The Stratocaster is fitted with three custom made DiMarzio single coil pickups.

At the beginning of his career, Kotzen used Ibanez guitars and Laney amplifiers before switching to Fender guitars and Marshall amplifiers in the early 1990s. He used Marshall Super Lead, JCM800 and JCM900 models as well as Yamaha DG Series amps in the late 90's. Yamaha DG1000 preamp with Marshall EL34 100/100 poweramp, and Yamaha DG130H, Yamaha DG100 combo etc.

In 2005, Cornford Amplification issued a Richie Kotzen signature model – RK100, a single channel tube amp head developed and designed in collaboration with Kotzen to suit his expansive playing style. Cornford ceased production of all amplifiers, including the RK100, in 2013. There were also matching signature model speaker cabinets, equipped with one or four Celestion Vintage 30 12" speakers. Both the amplifier head and the speaker cabinets were the only Cornford models generally supplied with Kotzen-spec black tolex covering. The 4 x 12" cabinet also includes a special locking jack socket on the rear.

Kotzen prefers not to use many pedals (or effects, in general) when playing live. However, over the years, he has been using several versions of Sobbat Drivebraker and Glowvibe pedals on top of Marshall amps when not playing with the Cornford. He also uses reverb and delay effects of his signature series Zoom G2R effects processor, which is connected in the effects loop of the amplifier. In 2014, Tech 21 started selling the Richie Kotzen Signature RK5 Fly Rig, which was developed in close collaboration with Richie, who used the final prototype for the bulk of his 2014 tour with the Winery Dogs.

Discography