For nearly 30 years, Joe Satriani has worked and toured with a lot of different guitar players on his G3 tour. But the late Eddie Van Halen is one major name who never was on the bill.Though it never happened, Satriani made numerous attempts to make contact. “I called Eddie’s number, office, whatever, almost every time,” he shares in a new interview on the UCR Podcast. “I didn’t want to be a pest, but I didn’t know him. So I couldn’t just call his house or stop by, because I don’t live in the same city. I would go through channels — you know, I tried every angle to say, ‘We’ll take care of everything.’ Which we do, myself and my management, we took care of all of the technicalities of putting on this show. We made it so it was the easiest thing for the artist to come.””In terms of Ed, we always made the offer that we could put the band together. He could play whenever he wanted. He could play for as long as he wanted,” he explains. “This was basically the structure of the show and I literally never heard back. So I suppose, maybe after six or seven G3 tries, I just thought, ‘Well, it’s cool.’ Because not everybody is comfortable standing next to two other guitar players every single night. They may do it once at a special show, charity event or something really big [like that], but once you sign on to G3, it’s a responsibility to the audience to show up every night and play.”Satriani Thinks He Might Know Why it Didn’t HappenVan Halen famously didn’t work much outside of his namesake group and Satriani believes that might have played into the reasoning as far as why the guitar legend never responded to the offer. “Certain bands provide enough for their guitar players to do whatever they want,” he notes. “The Edge, right? He can do whatever he wants in U2 and so could Van Halen. It’s not like he needed G3, because he had all of this other music he wanted to play or his band didn’t let him play guitar. I’ve always realized it’s not for everybody.”Beyond Eddie Van Halen, there’s another bucket list booking that eluded Satriani. “The one that was so close to really happening was me with Jeff Beck and Billy Gibbons. I think we were a week away from actually putting it in ink in the books,” he remembers. “It was so close to happening. Then, Jeff bailed at the last moment. I think he used the excuse [that] he thought it would be better if we toured with Prince. I took that as a really good joke, like, he just didn’t want to do it, so he came up with the most ridiculous suggestion.”READ MORE: How Mick Jagger Prepared Joe Satriani to Perform Van Halen”I met Jeff twice, but I can’t say I really knew him,” he adds. “So there was no way for me to ever talk to him about it, like, ‘Why didn’t it happen?’ But yeah, I’ve always thought in my mind, ‘Let’s call up Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck,” you know, let’s get all of your favorite guitar players out there. It’s difficult, because I’m a different generation. Steve [Vai] and I, we’re kind of in the middle, to tell you the truth. Especially me, at my age, I’m not part of the classic rock group. I’m not part of the group that really took off afterwards, iconic guitar players like Slash and Tom Morello. So I could see that. I could see them just wondering, ‘Who is this kid? We don’t know who he is. [He] plays instrumental guitar, who cares.’ So I never really thought it would happen, but I’d ask anyway. Once in a while, somebody would agree or just show up and say, ‘I want to play.’ And it would be [guitarists] like Brian May, Neal Schon or Robert Fripp. So we’ve been really fortunate in that respect. But those are the two that got away, certainly, Jeff Beck and Edward.”The original G3 lineup featuring Satriani, Vai and Eric Johnson reunited in early 2024 to play shows together for the first time since the inaugural tour in 1996. G3 Reunion Live collects full sets performed by the guitar icons during the run. Satriani and Vai are now focused on finishing an album with their band, SatchVai, and will tour again together beginning in June.Listen to Joe Satriani and Steve Vai on the ‘UCR Podcast’How Van Halen Conquered the World in Just 10 ShowsVan Halen’s meteoric rise to fame during their first world tour in 1978 included 10 particularly important performances. Here’s a look.Gallery Credit: Matthew WilkeningNext: Why Joe Satriani Backed Out of ‘Kitchen Sink’ Van Halen Tour