JOEL HOEKSTRA Is A Blue-Collar Guitar Hero: 'It's Really Important For Me To Keep That Drive And Want To Be Better'

By David E. Gehlke

Given the number of projects he's involved in, "ubiquitous" may be a good term for guitarist Joel Hoekstra. He first came into broader view as a member of NIGHT RANGER in 2008 before hooking up with TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA in 2010 for the departing Alex Skolnick (TESTAMENT). Four years later, Hoekstra enlisted in WHITESNAKE, carrying on with the band until David Coverdale's 2025 retirement. Before and in between, he's released three solo instrumental albums, played with Cher, was part of "Rock Of Ages" on Broadway and became part of the Frontiers Music Srl stable with REVOLUTION SAINTS, ICONIC and his own rock outfit, JOEL HOEKSTRA's 13.

JOEL HOEKSTRA's 13's new "From The Fade" studio album is another opportunity for him to flex his songwriting muscle for a jaunt that leans more into hard rock and even metal territory than before. He's certainly got some capable people behind him in bassist Tony Franklin (BLUE MURDER, THE FIRM),drummer Vinny Appice (DIO),keyboardist Derek Sherinian (ex-DREAM THEATER) and vocalist Girish Pradhan (FIRSTBORNE),making "From The Fade" perhaps the best out of the four albums under the JOEL HOEKSTRA's 13 banner. With that in mind, BLABBERMOUTH.NET grabbed the affable Hoekstra to learn more about "From The Fade", his rather busy schedule and why he refuses to join the never-ending guitar shred-wars.

Blabbermouth: When TSO is done with its touring and the holidays are over, what is the feeling? It has to be a lot to take in when it's all over.

Joel: "I just keep moving. I'm sure you know me well enough to know that I'm a stay-busy guy. I'm very busy on tour; we're playing eight shows a week. I've often joked that it's the 'Marines of rock'. You've got soundcheck, two shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so you're on stage for four, five-and-a-half hours, then you do the signing, get on the bus, get off to the next city and do it again. Mondays and Tuesdays are often spent at radio stations performing acoustic versions of songs or recording local television spots. One of them was the 'Today Show' here in New York City, which was national television at the time. It's hard work. You're grinding and moving, then I come back here, and I keep grinding and moving in a different direction. I find a way to remain active with the guitar. Part of my thing is making a living. A lot of people don't understand that. When you live in New York City, I have two kids and pay for private schools and all that stuff; I pay for the real estate here. Some of us aren't necessarily looking at our fourth sports car. We're looking at being the guy who's making a living. Don't get me wrong: I've done fine over the course of the various gigs. I still want to hustle in that department. I think it helps keep me sharp on the guitar. Otherwise, you could slip into a period where you're going, 'I guess I haven't been playing a lot.' It keeps me on it. That's good for me. My intention is to become a better player over time. It's really important to keep that drive and want to be better. That only happens one way, and that's spending time on it."

Blabbermouth: You mentioned everything TSO does. Are you worn out when you get home? Or do you wish it would keep going?

Joel: "Both. Yeah, we're all tired, but I think, also, I'm one of those people who go, 'Man, I'll do those eight, ten months out of the year if I could. This is awesome.' We're playing in arenas. It's a great opportunity; it's a great gig to have as a guitar player. The longevity that it has given me is staggering at this point. I joined in 2010, so now, in 2026, still being able to go out and play an arena tour for two months out of the year has really been a great thing. It flies under the radar because a lot of the rock fans who peruse Blabbermouth are into more WHITESNAKE and NIGHT RANGER, which I've spent time with. TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA is a great place to be part of as a guitarist. I'm lucky to be there."

Blabbermouth: It's cool how it's sort of the same network of people they have joining the band. It's not like they plucked you off the street when you were a nobody.

Joel: "I think that particular scenario, Alex Skolnick was taking a year off. Maybe there's an element of that. You have someone who is a name player, taking a year off. That's all it was at the time. It was a really unknown situation for me. I'd only been with NIGHT RANGER for two years. This was going to be a situation where I was going to be a part of and gigging with TSO and say [to NIGHT RANGER], 'Guys. I can't play with you in November and December.' And not knowing if you're going to be fired or them to say, 'That's alright. We'll have someone fill in.' Then you don't know whether you'll be playing in TSO for one year. If I get fired and Alex is taking only a year off, I won't be playing with anyone. It was an interesting situation at the time. I did have 'Rock Of Ages' on Broadway here at home, which is a bit of a home gig. That was a great help in building my career. You can sub out on Broadway when you want. It's not like being in a band. It's a union job. They want you there, but if you sub out, I have seven people who filled in for me. It was only a pain that it was my job to schedule and check in with them to make sure they were online and there. I'd say it changed my success as a guitar player. Leading into that, I had NIGHT RANGER. We were doing about 40 or 50 shows a year. Suddenly, you get 'Rock Of Ages', and it's eight a week. Yes, it's maybe not like a 'concert concert,' but you were playing eight shows a week in front of a thousand people a night. That really helped build me up. Then, during that time, getting TSO, there was a six-year period when I was juggling those three things, playing more shows than there were days in the year. That was really good for me. It was invaluable to have that stage experience as opposed to what's happening with content creators, where people are waking up and shredding all day, taking footage of themselves, then uploading the reel that was the minute and a half that was the highlight of the eight hours of practice. I'm not saying it's bad; it's a different time period we're in. It's 2026, rather than the early 2010s. I benefited from the fact that I always made my living from the guitar since the end of my schooling in 1991. I made my living with my guitar, but I just hadn't really developed any kind of fame or notoriety until what we would call the ''80s resurgence.' There was a time period when the '80s were not cool. I was doing all sorts of things and gigging wherever I could to survive, but in the end, my dream was to be a professional guitar player. It wasn't necessarily to be a 'rock star.' Some people were highly driven in that department. You look at the Sunset Strip scene. That's what it was about: being a rock star. I was a little bit more of a guy from the Midwest who thought, 'That's not going to happen for me.' It was viewed as unattainable, if that makes sense. I thought, 'I want to play guitar. Wherever that takes me, cool.' You kind of had to commit to the concept of poverty for the rest of your life. [Laughs] I was willing to do that. I just hung in there. All the way through getting everything, I would never say I was the guy pushing hard on the rock-star thing. That kind of became something that, through the gigs you were getting and the playing opportunities you were getting, it fell into place. I think that was due to the fact that it's really the music that made me start playing guitar. I had gone through these various phases. Dude, I was playing in acid jazz bands and hip-hop bands. We had fun. I did some cool stuff where we opened for THE ROOTS, Ludacris and Kanye West. It was interesting, like, 'Alright. This is not what I pictured when I started. I'll roll with this and see where it goes.' That open-mindedness has led to some weird stuff, like playing with Cher. It's not something I pictured when I was a kid. I was a little metalhead when I started playing the guitar when I was 11, 12. It was beautiful that it worked out for me; what I did find 'success' in is relative. I know Blabbermouth, and there's going to be the clickbait headline, but the relative success I've found in being able to make a living and have some cool gigs and be able to release my own music, I suppose it's already surpassed my expectations of a suburban Chicago kid and not a comfortable suburban Chicago kid, but a poor suburban Chicago kid. We grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood. No money. My parents are classical musicians, so this kind of stuff, like being in bands or playing in arenas or being on TV, all seemed way beyond anything that was going to occur for me. I feel lucky to have it all there. When it does happen, you tend to find inspiration in it and not want to take any of it for granted, and you just work as hard as you can to see where it will go. Now, where it goes, that always seems beyond me."

Blabbermouth: All you can do is show up and do your job.

Joel: "Right. You do the best you can. Some things stick, and some things don't. There are many people with similar stories. I'm not unique in this department. I just found that's what works best for me, and I would encourage younger players do the same, although it's a totally different generation and scene."

Blabbermouth: You mentioned something about the YouTube generation that is devoted to shredding. "From The Fade" is the antithesis to all of that. It's a very songwriting-oriented album. Why does this approach work for you?

Joel: "I've been doing JOEL HOEKSTRA's 13 since 2015, so it was before the situation we're in now, where there's a lot of content creators. At least the algorithms weren't feeding us them, although they were probably out there. The general idea is that I had three instrumental albums out from 2001 to 2007. I did 'Undefined', which was influenced by one of my earlier teachers, T.J. Helmerich and a guitar hero of mine, Brett Garsed; they were more fusion-type players. They hooked me up with this great rhythm section of Virgil Donati [drums] and Ric Fierabracci [bass], who are just prolific players. They were offering to record an album with me. I took a lot of time with the stuff I was working on for the acid jazz residency and the band I was playing with in Chicago; I put those songs on there, along with whatever I could think of. I thought, 'Sure. I can make an album. These guys are amazing. I don't deserve to make an album with them. Let's take advantage.' T.J. was the head of RIT (Recording Institute of Audio Engineering) at the Musicians Institute. I had access to free studio time with an SSL, drum room, the whole thing, to make this. So we made 'Undefined', then we followed it up with 'The Moon Is Falling', which is proggy, a lot of odd-meter, really weird sounds on the guitar; very artsy. Then, I fell into a situation where I was writing a lot of finger-style acoustic, just hanging around the place. I documented it by recording a third album, '13 Acoustic Songs'. When I joined NIGHT RANGER, 'Rock Of Ages' and TSO, all the fans were going, 'You got your own music? Do you have any rock albums?' They weren't interested in this. It was always in the back of my mind, like someday, I'll make rock solo albums. That was the plan, but at that point, it was right for me to get it done. The idea for me to do that, I guess, is more that I get the say-so in terms of writing the riffs, but the vocal melodies and the lyrics. It's a personalized experience, but I wanted it to sound to the listener like what I wanted to hear when I started this kind of music—band stuff. It wasn't about the guitar player. When people ask me about early influences, I usually name bands. I don't name guitar players. I wasn't good enough to have it be about the guitar player. I could only play a power chord. How could it be about the guitar player? DIO influenced me. Obviously, Vivian Campbell was the guitarist, but I was influenced by the songs, by 'Holy Diver'. It was about putting in my 'Holy Diver' cassette and going, 'This rules!' It was the big picture. I was interested in doing something like that. Something that would be a tip of the cap to what made me want to play guitar. I had done a project with Tony Franklin, and he kicks ass. I just said, 'Would you be into doing a straight-ahead rock album? This isn't going to be prog. This isn't trying to be someone else. It's going to be my influences that got me into doing this.' He was in. He said, 'Yeah, that sounds great.' I asked, 'Who would you want to use as a drummer?' He recommended Vinny. I hadn't met him, but I grew up on his drumming. I thought, 'That sounds perfect! That sounds exactly like what I'm looking for.' He's someone who's not necessarily 'Let me knock your socks off with how I'm flying around the drumkit,' but his style, how he approaches the kit. There's only one guy who plays that way, and that's Vinny. Getting him in the fold, and at the same time, Russell Allen [SYMPHONY X] was joining TSO. I was thinking, 'This could be really cool. Kind of a DIO-influenced thing. Maybe [BLACK] SABBATH and starting more metal.' I also dig stuff like the FOREIGNER ballads. I thought, 'Wouldn't it be cool to balance those two vibes?' I'm a huge fan of Lou Gramm. I articulated that to Russell. 'What I'm looking for is not necessarily attainable, but it would be a [Ronnie James] Dio, Lou Gramm, Paul Rodgers put together.' Russell really delivered on that and did a great job. His schedule prevented him from completing 'Dying To Live'. Jeff Scott Soto is a good friend of mine. He was singing backup vocals. I said, 'I could plug away and make it okay.' But when you have Jeff Scott Soto, you do it. That's a no-brainer. I said, 'That would be amazing. That would make the record sound very pro and big.' Jeff did that. Then Russell's schedule was unworkable, and Jeff sang lead on the second half of 'Dying To Live'. With 'Running Games', I decided to wait for Russell's schedule. It took 17 months to get the vocal tracks. It was a very long time. When it came to making 'Crash Of Life', I was talking over the situation with the guys at Frontiers, saying, 'This could be two or three years, guys. It's not on my end to get the record done.' They recommended Girish. He's more of the screaming and a little bit more metal-influenced."

Blabbermouth: Girish is a great choice. He's one of the few exciting up-and-coming young metal vocalists around.

Joel: "When it came to writing this record, there were two factors that made it more metal. One of those was Girish and me going, 'Instead of writing against what this guy does, why don't I write for him?' I tried to write the melodies in a way he would want to sing. I was also coming off of filling in with ACCEPT. I was playing heavier stuff than I've typically been doing and very riff-influenced. My inclination was, 'Don't bother to listen to pre-existing stuff. F it. Let's go straight ahead with 11 new riffs. Make it riff-driven songs. Let's make it heavier and see what happens.' That said, I think melody is there throughout the record. It's not a cookie-monster vocal approach. I think it's definitely a melodic hard rock record by definition. I think there's more of a metal influence and edge to this record, which may or may not appeal to people."

Blabbermouth: We talked about the two months you have set aside for TSO. What about the other ten months? What do they look like?

Joel: "Right now, I have four sessions waiting, individual songs to record for people or guest solos. I'll schedule recording or prep for gigs, or I teach remotely. I give guitar lessons right here on Zoom. I have roughly 22-23 students a week, something like that. Obviously, I go out and gig. I even keep teaching when I'm out with TSO. On Mondays and Tuesdays, I'll still teach. That's very healthy for me. Some people might think that's nuts, like, 'You're overworking yourself.' It's a funny thing when you get on a tour where you're playing the same music and nothing but. It does consume a lot of energy playing all day. You start to become good at only that music. Your brain loses its edge when you think about playing the guitar, like when you look at the instrument and approach it differently. It's healthy for me to talk about things outside the tour and connect with this. You can get a little lost in that."

Photo credit: Mike Polito