Richie Kotzen is an American rock guitar virtuoso.

Richie Kotzen was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. He first began playing piano at the age of five. At the age of seven Kotzen was inspired by New York City band KISS to learn the electric guitar.

Kotzen was discovered by Shrapnel Records' Mike Varney, and he recorded his first album for Varney by the age of 17. During that same year, he also graced the cover of several publications including Guitar World Magazine.

In 1993, Kotzen joined hair metal band Poison at age 20, co-writing and performing on the album Native Tongue. This album produced two top twenty singles which Richie wrote, "Stand" and "Until You Suffer Some". Kotzen was subsequently fired from the band when it was discovered that he had been romatically involved with Deanna Eve, the ex-fiance of Poison drummer Rikki Rockett. Kotzen and Eve later married and divorced.

In 1999 Kotzen replaced Paul Gilbert as guitarist in the pop metal band Mr. Big. Kotzen performed on the Mr. Big record Get Over It, which sold more than 175,000 copies in its first two weeks in Japan, eventually reaching platinum status.

Kotzen also contributed guitars to Mr. Big's subsequent release Actual Size. The record included the Kotzen song "Shine", which debuted at number one on Japanese radio charts.

Following the disbanding of Mr. Big, Kotzen released the solo album "Change", in 2003. The title track, and the song "Get A Life" were featured in TV commercials throughout Japan.

In mid 2002 Kotzen established a recording Studio/Production company in Los Angeles, California. The latest musical effort from Richie is a CD called "Get Up". This cd has already been compared to Richie’s 1994 cult classic "Mother Heads Family Reunion" (Geffen).

External Link

• Official Richie Kotzen site