Last month, Joe Satriani decided to postpone his European tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “I was pretty adamant about getting the ball rolling early,” he tells Rolling Stone from his home in San Francisco. “Because it was obvious. Some folks, maybe they were just frightened and didn’t want to see the reality that’s upon us right now.”

Amid the crisis, the guitarist released his 18th studio album, Shapeshifting, on April 10th, featuring the lead single “Nineteen Eighty,” which explores his earliest days in music and the inspiration of Van Halen.