When Saraceno was still a teenager, his manager sent a
demo tape to singer
Michael Bolton, who decided to enlist him to play on a song for
Cher's album,
Heart of Stone. The album also featured musicians like
Peter Cetera,
Bonnie Tyler,
Desmond Child, and others. His demo tape then reached the
Guitar for the Practicing Musician magazine. The magazine, which was about to launch a new record label, offered Saraceno a
record deal. Saraceno released his first album titled
Never Look Back in 1989. Saraceno won an audition with
Jack Bruce and
Ginger Baker, former members of
Cream, and started touring with them. After two successful US tours, Saraceno was sometimes referred to as the "kid that replaced Eric Clapton". After another year of overseas touring, Baker departed and was replaced by Simon Phillips (Who, Toto) and eventually Gary Husband (Level 42). Saraceno released two other solo albums (
Plaid and
Hairpick) as well as furthering his reputation as a top call
session guitarist and landing many high-profile equipment endorsements. In 1993, Saraceno joined the band
Poison as lead guitarist and songwriter after
Richie Kotzen was fired. After a South American tour which included the famous Hollywood rock festival in Brazil, Saraceno recorded the album
Crack a Smile with the band. However,
Capitol Records decided to shelve the album, releasing the 1996 compilation album, ''
Poison's Greatest Hits: 1986–1996'', instead. Still, the album featured two of the new songs recorded with Saraceno. After some time, Saraceno left the group amicably and was replaced by one of the band's former guitarist,
C.C. DeVille. In 2000, Capitol finally decided to release the
Crack a Smile album under the name
Crack a Smile... and More!. The album features fifteen tracks recorded by Saraceno. After his departure from Poison, Saraceno met the vice-president of Advertising of
Fox Television, who was a fan of Saraceno's earlier instrumental work. This resulted in Saraceno working on soundtracks and songs for several television shows and films. In 2000, Saraceno founded the band, Transmission OK. Saraceno also worked as record producer for the band, which was signed to
Beyond Music, and was distributed by
BMG. After a brief US tour, and lackluster support from the label, the group disbanded and Saraceno continued to work on television and film, as well as his session work. Saraceno's has done session work with everyone from Ziggy Marley (
Dragonfly) to Melissa Etheridge (
Lucky), earning him a reputation for being a "go-to guy" for many of Los Angeles' top record producers and engineers. Saraceno has also produced for artists including Scott Caan (
Hawaii Five-0,
Oceans 11), Eric Balfour (
24,
Haven,
Chainsaw Massacre) of Fredalba, Lindsay Price (
Beverly Hills 90210,
Lipstick Jungle) and Anthony Michael Hall (
Dead Zone). Saraceno's greatest success has come in the field of television and film. His television work credits include WWE, CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, Disney, Discovery, UPN, MTV, MTV 2, VH1, USA, TLC, Comedy Central, Telemundo, SCI FI, SPIKE, E! and BRAVO. A more detailed list can be found on his website (www.bluessaraceno.com). He has commented on how it is not uncommon to have several commercials running in different countries throughout the world, all at the same time, using the same piece of music. Saraceno did three tracks for
Megas XLR. These tracks were Blood Shot, Berzerker and Ro-Sham-Bo. Saraceno's "Save My Soul" is the soundtrack for the History Channel's mini-series
The Men Who Built America. Saraceno's "Evil Ways" song was also used in various videogames trailers such as
God of War: Ascension,
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger,
BioShock Infinite and
Call of Duty: Black Ops II's zombies mode map, Mob of the Dead and was also included in the soundtrack for a videogame
Rebel Galaxy. In addition, the song was also utilized to promote
AMC's 2013
Fear Fest and is also used as the main theme music in the
History Channel's TV series,
Biker Battleground Phoenix.
TNA wrestler
AJ Styles began using "Evil Ways" at TNA's
Slammiversary pay-per-view on June 2, 2013, as his new theme song. It was also used in a
WWE promo featuring
The Undertaker vs.
CM Punk WrestleMania XXIX match and another promo featuring
The Wyatt Family in an episode of
WWE SmackDown. It was also used during a promo for
Kane,
Ryback and
Big Show vs. The Wyatt Family at WWE's
Fastlane 2016 pay-per-view. German TV-Channel
ProSieben and sister-channel
ProSieben Maxx are using the song for almost every promo-clip for upcoming western-movies in their program. "Flesh It Out" was used as WWE rookie
Seth Rollins' theme tune for the first year of his career on
FCW and
NXT. "Strident Missile" was used for
Triple H's history of dominance promo for
WrestleMania XXX. An instrumental version of the dubstep remix of "The River" was used for
Emma's video packages leading up to her return at the post-Wrestlemania RAW in 2017. WWE also used his single "Bad Man" for Jeff Jarrett's Hall of Fame video. ==Discography==