ROCKIN’ A MILESTONE

RICHIE KOTZEN ISN’T really a guitarist. That will probably be news to anyone who knows his Shrapnel work at the dawn of shred, or his awesome playing on his 22 solo albums, or with the Winery Dogs. But it’s actually not accurate to call Richie Kotzen a guitar player. Rather, he’s a soulful, multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter who just happens to be really, really good on guitar. And he didn’t have anything left to prove on the instrument way back in the 1990s.

So what does a guitar hero do when he doesn’t care about being a guitar hero anymore? Write songs. Lots and lots of songs. For Kotzen, songs are like lava in a volcano—it’s probably better to get them out regularly and peacefully, otherwise there might be some kind of explosion. That steady, prolific output has fueled his many solo efforts, and it’s what made him the primary songwriter in his stints with Mr. Big and Poison. Dude’s gotta write, and so that’s what he does, although he tours so relentlessly that it’s reasonable to ask, “When do you even find time to write songs?”

It’s hard to believe that the eternally youthful Kotzen is a quinquagenarian, but it’s true, and he decided to ring in his half century on the planet in bold fashion. Despite having an album’s worth of material ready to go last year, he pondered the poetic, but logistically daunting title of , and that led to the is an astounding accomplishment that features his smoky, Philly soul–inflected vocals over the top of deep grooves, clever bass lines and—surprise!—a metric ton of thrilling guitar work from a guy who doesn’t practice guitar anymore.