Stevie Salas
Stevie Salas left the small town of Oceanside, California in 1985 moving to Hollywood dreaming of a career in music. Eight months later he was discovered by funk music legend George Clinton as the guitarist for Clinton’s albums. He would then go on to work on important albums by Bootsy Collins and Was (Not Was). He received his first major label producer credit with Was (Not Was) when he coproduced the UK hit “Out Come The Freaks” from the album What Up Dog? Rolling Stone Magazine listed What Up Dog? as one of the Top 100 Records of the Decade. The record also featured the #1 global smash hit “Walk The Dinosaur. Stevie provided the guitar music score to the cult classic film Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure appearing as the hands of George Carlin in the movies end scene and has also scored several other feature films and TV shows. In 1988 he became Rod Stewart’s lead guitarist for the “Out of Order Tour,” playing sold out stadiums, and skipping cities in a private jet– eventually resulting in Stevie signing the largest record deal Island Records had ever paid for a new artist. His second solo album Back From the Living ousted the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith for “Best Album” in Japan. His first record Colorcode released in 1990 is still a cult classic in the UK and Europe. Most books including Guitar Player Magazine name him as one of the Top 50 Guitarists of All Time. Stevie has sold over two million solo albums around the world. As a guitar player, writer, and producer Stevie has also worked with Mick Jagger, Bootsy Collins, Bill Laswell, Public Enemy, Michael Huthchence, Was (Not Was), Terrence Trent D’Arby, Koshi Inaba and Tak Matsamoto (BZ Japan), Ronald Shannon Jackson, Eddy Money, Jerry Cantrell, Heavy Glow, and over 75 other major labor records. In 2009 he played on the #1 global hit “Dead and Gone“ with Justin Timberlake and TI. As a solo artist he’s recorded for Island records, East West/Warner, EMI, and others and has had music publishing contracts as a writer with Island Music, Polygram Music, Virgin Music and Fuji Pacific. Over 50 of his compositions were recorded and released on major labels. From 2006-2010 Stevie was a consultant and music director for American Idol working directly with Daughtry, Jordan Sparks, David Cook, Allison Ihareta, Kris Allen and Adam Lambert. 1 In 2009 Stevie created the Canadian primetime comedy/music TV series Arbor Live which ran for three seasons and also starred Adam Beach and Eric Schweig. In 2012 Stevie created the Native American Biography TV series Catch The Dream Bios with Adam Beach. The show began airing in 2014 across Canada on APTN (The Aboriginal People’s Television Network) with Stevie as Executive Producer. Stevie is also the Executive Producer of the Native American music documentary feature film Rumble currently being shot in association with The Super Channel (Canadian HBO), The Smithsonian and PBS. Stevie is now an Author. In 2014 Taylor Trade/ Rowman & Littlefield released a book When We Were The Boys, a memoir about Stevie’s first tour with Rod Stewart in 1988. The book has received outstanding reviews and was # 1 for 8 weeks on Amazon. Stevie serves as the co-creater and owner of the app gaming company Rockstar Logic. Rockstar Logic created and owns two game apps, Rockstar Solos and Glam Joe both of which are available on iPAD and iPhone and have over 345 thousand downloads to date. They also created the custom guitar pick app Pick-O-Rama for music company Jim Dunlop USA available on iPAD. In 2009 Stevie received the Native American Lifetime Achievement Award. Stevie Salas served from 2010 to 2013 as the Advisor Of Contemporary Music at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC and New York City. Stevie is currently working with The Dreamcatcher Charitable Foundation. He is still producing music for bands and playing concerts around the world. Stevie also has a new Signature series guitar he codesigned with Framus and Warwick Music in Germany called The Idolmaker.