Joel Hoekstra (born December 13, 1970)[1] is an American guitarist currently in the hard rock band Whitesnake. He also tours as a guitarist for Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The son of classical musicians, he started out playing cello and piano at a young age, but it was hearing Angus Young of AC/DC that inspired him to start playing the guitar.[2][3] He was raised in the suburbs of Chicago, in Orland Park, but has lived in New York City since 2001.
In 2008, Hoekstra joined Night Ranger and combined with guitarist Brad Gillis as a part of the group's dual guitar driven sound. Hoekstra toured with Night Ranger and performed on several albums with the group and appeared in the videos for the songs Growin' Up In California,[7]Knock Knock Never Stop[8] and High Road.[9] In 2011, Joel filled in for Mick Jones in Foreigner while continuing to play with Night Ranger on the same tour.[10]
Whitesnake
In 2014, Hoekstra joined Whitesnake as their guitarist alongside fellow guitarist Reb Beach. Hoekstra played on The Purple Album (released May 2015) which was a re-imagination of classic songs from David Coverdale's time as the lead singer for Deep Purple. Hoekstra appeared in the videos for the songs "Stormbringer",[11] "Gypsy"[12] and "Soldier of Fortune"[13] off The Purple Album and "Shut Up & Kiss Me" and "Trouble is Your Middle Name" videos off the Flesh and Blood album. Hoekstra was co-writer with Coverdale on six of the songs on Flesh and Blood.[14] He has toured with Whitesnake on their The Purple Album tour (2015–16), The Greatest Hits tour (2016–2018) and their Flesh and Blood tour (2019).
Hoekstra has contributed to many articles in Guitar World magazine and in 2017 Guitar World released an instructional DVD titled Hard Rock Lead Guitar Master Class with Joel Hoekstra.[23]
In January 2024, it was announced that Hoekstra would be joining Accept for the European and South American legs of their tour.[24]