I caught up with Richie Kotzen at the Filmore on May 18 prior to his opening for Y&T – thanks for the VIP/Media tickets!

Even though I had thought of him only as an accomplished guitarist, it was his vocal range in live performance that impressed me.

Here is this tall boyishly attractive man with the ability to deliver an emotional ballad or hard rock lyric with equal ease. He generates a magnetism that few famous performers can duplicate.

I took the opportunity to capture some performance images as a follow-up to our feature article (I&S Magazine, April) and add any new tour dates to our Point & Shoot section.

I lost my professional demeanor and asked him point blank if he was actually old enough to have played with Poison. We laughed about that. Since this is our Father’s Day issue I passed along best wishes to this father of two.

His new band is called the Winery Dogs featuring Richie, Mike Portnoy and Billy Sheehan. Their debut album will be out on May 15th (in Japan) via Victor Entertainment and in the States on July 23rd.

Upcoming dates:

Acoustic Tour Europe
June 13th – Sala Berlín – Ourense (Spain)
June 14th – Valencia Rock City – Valencia (Spain)
June 15th – Barrio’s cafè – Milano (Italy)
June 17th – Melodka – Brno (Czech Rep.)
June 18th – Zach’s Pub (open air) – Pilsen (Czech Rep.)
June 20th – Boerderij- Zoetermeer (Holland)
June 21st – Blues Garage – Hannover (Germany)
June 22nd – Lakei – Helmond (Holland)
June 24th – Tivoli Rock – Tivoli (Roma) (Italy)
June 25th – Parco dei Mulini – Crecchio (Chieti)
June 28th – Lizard King – Krakow (Poland)
June 29th – Reigen – Wien (Austria)
June 30th – Music Beach – Shkorpilovtsi (Bulgaria)
July 2nd – Muzeum – Bratislava (Slovakia)
July 3rd – Village – Habach (Germany)
July 5th – Hafen Veranstaltungszentrum – Innsbruck (Austria)
July 6th – Bluesiana – Velden (Austria)

For more information Visit:

http://richiekotzen.com