About Richie Kotzen
Richard Dale Kotzen Jr. is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. As a solo artist, Kotzen has back catalogue of more than 20 album releases. He was a member of glam metal band Poison from 1991 to 1993, Mr. Big from 1999 to 2002, and since 2012, has been the frontman of the band The Winery Dogs. Kotzen was signed to California-based Shrapnel Records from 1988 to 1991, and again from 1995 to 1997.
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 . In late-1993 he parted ways with Poison after it was discovered that he had begun a romantic relationship with Deanna Eve who at the time was engaged with the drummer of the band, Rikki Rockett.
Kotzen then focused on his solo career, regularly releasing song oriented, R&B/soul/blues and funk influenced melodic rock albums. He also made guest appearances on several albums by artists like Glenn Hughes, Stevie Salas and T.M. Stevens. In 1995 and 1997 he collaborated with Greg Howe on two jazz rock fusion albums.
In 1999, Kotzen replaced Paul Gilbert as guitarist in the mainstream hard rock band Mr. Big, performing on their album Get Over It. He also contributed guitars and songwriting to their subsequent release Actual Size. The record included the Kotzen song "Shine".
In 2001, while still in Mr. Big, Kotzen recorded and released another solo album called Slow, which contains a mix of bluesy rock for which a music video was filmed. On some of the songs on Slow Kotzen experimented with the use of a drum computer, while on others he played drums. After Mr. Big disbanded, Kotzen continued his solo career. He released his next solo album Change, in 2003.
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