The Road Bends

Sami Yaffa is a bass guitar legend, an icon of the rock world, and an uncompromising walker of his own way, who rose to prominence as the bassist of the mythical Hanoi Rocks. A man of lights and shadows, and the embodiment of street credibility, Yaffa has recorded with Bruce Springsteen and Slash, played with the New York Dolls and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, crawled across Helsinki pubs and restaurants with Anthony Bourdain, and performed at Carnegie Hall. This is his story.

Sami Yaffa is a Finnish musician and an original member of Hanoi Rocks, a major influence still resonating throughout rock and roll and punk music around the world today. In the beginning, though, Sami Yaffa started playing bass at the age of fourteen years old in Espoo, Finland, then went on to tour and record with a long list of other notable bands, including: Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, New York Dolls, Pelle Miljoona Oy, Pelle Almgren In, Jetboy, Johnny Thunders, Smack, Jerusalem Slim, Demolition 23, Mad Juana, Murphy's Law, Michael Monroe Band, Bruce Springsteen, Slash, and The Hellacopters, to name just a few. In 2012, Sami appeared on the "Finland" episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations for a liquored-up tour of the world's only pub tram, a bloody sauna, and an unexpectedly exciting dinner with a cabbie's mother in Helsinki; and the Sami Yaffa: Sound Tracker television program ran for three seasons between 2014–2016, traveling with Sami to Serbia, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Ethiopia, Jamaica, Senegal, India Turkey, Indonesia, and beyond. Sami Yaffa: Sound Tracker won two Golden Venla Awards (Finnish Emmys) for the first and second season, and episodes can be found online via YLE Areena (areena.yle.fi), YouTube (Sami Yaffa—Sound Tracker), and Link TV (linktv.org). His first solo album, The Innermost Journey to Your Outermost Mind, was released by Vallila Music House in Finland, internationally by Cargo Record, and features Janne Haavisto (The Bablers), Rich Jones (The Black Halos, Michael Monroe Band), Christian Martucci (Stone Sour, Dee Dee Ramone), and Rane Raitsikka (Smack).