If you are a guitar fan, then you’ll undoubtedly know and love Steve Vai. It’s inevitable, given his artistry, ability and influence in the world of hard rock. He’s a shred legend, a top composer, an eccentric performer and someone who has genuinely pushed the scope of the guitar forward as an instrument.
Today, I want to gather together some of Vai’s greatest moments. His career has been anything but predictable, so there’s lots of good stuff to include! I’ve also been privileged enough to chat to Steve on four separate occasions, and I’ll use those experiences to inform what I talk about today. If you’re a Vai fan, why not take 5 to remind yourself of his glorious achievements? And if you’re new to Steve, this is your perfect introduction!
Top Steve Vai Moments at a Glance
Dropped Out of Berklee to Play With Frank Zappa
Vai Does an Album with Johnny Rotten
Steve Invents the Ibanez JEM, RG & Universe Guitars
Vai Performs with a full Orchestra
Taught Guitar by Joe Satriani
Today, Satch and Vai are close friends and touring partners, but their 50-year friendship started off as teacher and student. Yes indeed, as a young Long Island teen, Vai took lessons from a slightly older kid at his school, a guy called Joe whom he looked up to.
Joe seems to have been a pretty successful teacher, since his other students were Kirk Hammett and Larry LaLonde!
Dropped Out of Berklee to Play With Frank Zappa
Vai was still a teenager when he enrolled in the prestigious Berklee College of music in nearby (ish) Boston. Whilst there, he not only met his future wife Pia but also decided to send his musical hero Frank Zappa some transcriptions of his music that Via had notated by ear. This included Zappa’s infamous ‘Black Page’, so called because the notation was so dense that the paper would be filled with ink.
Zappa was suitably impressed and put Vai to work officially transcribing his music. Steve lasted four semesters at Berklee before moving out to California. Once out there he auditioned for Zappa and won a place in his band as guitarist. Vai became Zappa’s ‘little Italian virtuoso’ and Frank’s influence would be huge on Vai from then on.
Hair Metal Heaven
The 1980s were custom made for a guy like Steve Vai. He was living in LA and playing for Zappa, until 1983 when he worked on his debut solo album Flex-Able. The following year, he replaced Yngwie Malmsteen in Alcatrazz, before jumping into Eddie Van Halen’s shoes as guitarist for David Lee Roth’s solo work. Not exactly easy gigs!
After two albums and multiple tours with Diamond Dave, Vai joined Whitesnake for their Slip of the Tongue album. That’s three huge hair metal gigs in one decade!
Vai Does an Album with Johnny Rotten
In the middle of his hair metal world domination phase, Vai participated in what still remains as one of his most unusual and inspired collaborations. John Lydon’s post- Sex Pistols band Public Image Ltd were in a bit of a rut and producer Bill Laswell recommended that Lydon choose from the cream of the LA session crop to perform on his next album. This included Cream drummer Ginger Baker, Parliament’s Bernie Worrell, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tony Williams, and Steve on guitars. Talk about champagne?!
The album Album (also called Cassette or Compact Disc depending on the format you choose to buy) featured Vai on every track, alongside guitarist Nicky Skopelitis on a few tracks. This is what Steve had to say about it:
"I went in a day and did everything, then I flew back out on tour. And then I went in for another half-day, and Lydon came in on the second day. He's just like ultracool and it's the first time he's heard any of my parts and he goes 'This is fucking great, man, how did you fucking know I wanted it like that?”
It’s really interesting to hear Steve in this context, when he’s an edited element of the sound, rather than the focal point. His parts are still undoubtedly ‘Vai’, and I feel like more of Steve’s playing in this context would’ve been amazing.
Steve Invents the Ibanez JEM, RG & Universe Guitars
Lots of people think that the Ibanez JEM started off as a modified Ibanez RG. In fact, it’s the other way around: the JEM came first, and the RG was a more straightlaced version for mainstream sales. After all, not everybody wants a monkey grip sawed into the body of their guitar! Although, after you start carrying one around by the handle, you do start to miss it on other guitars…
Anyway, I was able to chat directly to Steve about the genesis of the JEM, so click the link below to get the full story from Steve! It ties in the RG models and the Universe too, which is technically the first mass produced 7 -string electric guitar ever! The JEM has never been out of production since its inception in 1987, and the Universe was the guitar Korn used to kickstart the Nu Metal revolution of the mid-90s, so Steve’s ideas on guitars have obviously struck a chord!
Click For Our Exclusive Interview with Steve Vai about the Ibanez JEM
Three Time GRAMMY Winner
The Grammys are kind of like Oscars for music. To win a GRAMMY (it’s an acronym but those capitals make it like I’m yelling the word at you) award is to receive validation and respect from the industry. Vai already had that, obviously, but it’s never a problem to receive special awards for your work!
To date, Steve has won three Grammys and been nominated for 12! Here are the wins:
- 1994 - Best Rock Instrumental Performance - Sofa - Zappa’s Universe
- 2001 - Best Pop Instrumental Album - No Substitutions - Live in Osaka - Larry Carlton & Steve Lukather
- 2008 - Best Rock Instrumental Performance - Peaches en Regalia - Zappa Plays Zappa
It’s very interesting to note that Vai’s second GRAMMY win was for his role as producer and engineer, which is something he maybe doesn’t get enough credit for. Well, he won this, but you know what I mean! Vai is heavily involved in the production side of things for many of the projects he’s involved with. It’s all part of the big picture!
Vai Performs with a full Orchestra
The blending of electric guitar with symphony orchestra is something that's been experimented with since the days of Deep Purple. Sometimes it works incredibly well, and other times it seems a little musically redundant and overbaked. Vai got closer than most in 2007. Sound Theories I & II showed off his chops as a composer, with an entire suite of new music written by Vai for the orchestra, and a further set of reimagined Vai tracks that incorporated the full orchestra.
I might be wrong, but I believe the sessions for this are also where the official version of Lotus Feet (from Real Illusions: Reflections) came from? Anyway, this is a great way to hear Vai’s music in a completely different context, whether its songs you recognise with him playing guitar, or entirely new stuff with no guitar!
Vaideology
When you’re as musically gifted and able as Steve, sharing that gift could be amazingly useful for others. You need to be a good communicator though, or the idea of music theory will just dry up and get boring.
‘Boring’ seems not to be in Vai’s vocabulary, because the music theory book he wrote - called Vaideology - is a fresh and frank take on the fundamentals and beyond. I think the surprising element is actually how matter-of-fact and no-nonsense his book is: he gets to the point and tells you what you need to do clearly and succinctly, whilst putting the onus on you as the player to do the work. This is as it should be, and really, who doesn’t want to be taught theory by Steve Vai?!!
(Photo: Larry DiMarzio)
The Hydra
The Hydra needs its own section here for sure! Have you seen this thing? The Hydra is the epitome of a ‘custom built guitar’. This isn’t the type of thing that you’ll see hanging up on our walls for sale, and whilst I’m very sorry about that, I think we can all understand how ‘niche’ this wild thing is!
The Hydra was a sort of dream of Steve’s that became a reality thanks to the Custom Shop team at Ibanez. I spoke to Steve about the Hydra back in late 2020, just as his Inviolate album was getting ready for release. Here’s what he told me about the Hydra…
“Originally, I had the idea to have a guitar with three necks. It would be a 12-string neck that’s half fretless, a 7 string neck, a ¾ size bass neck that has two of the strings fretless, and harp strings, thirteen harp strings. I was also into steampunk fashion at the time, so I gathered a bunch of materials and my ideas and I sent them to Ibanez. These guys got so excited, man, they just hit the wall! They went for it.
They sent me a rendering at first, and I looked at this rendering and said, ‘Are you guys actually gonna build that?’ They were like, ‘Yes we are!’ (laughs) It took about three and a half years of going back and forth but when the Hydra arrived at my house and I opened the case, I was just stunned! It was awesome but also intimidating. I knew I had to write a song on this thing, you know?”
The song he wrote with it is called Teeth of the Hydra, and the entire performance is a single take of Steve playing each neck of the Hydra in turn or simultaneously.
Vai ‘Goes Fripp’ With BEAT
Vai’s latest venture has been as a part of the supergroup BEAT. BEAT is all about the 1980s incarnation of King Crimson, the legendary prog rock band who pretty much invented a new vocabulary for the guitar with their trio of albums known collectively as the ‘Discipline era’.
The group (named BEAT after the second album in the trilogy) are formed of original KC members Adrian Belew (vocals and guitar), Tony Levin (bass and Chapman Stick), Tool’s Danny Carey on drums and Vai on guitar, replacing Robert Fripp.
Fripp is an idiosyncratic guitarist, and Vai incorporated much of Fripp’s style into his playing in order to honour the unique balance and energy of the music. That said, he also injected enough ‘Vai’ into the magic so that BEAT could offer something fresh and new. I spoke to Steve prior to the tour beginning, so click the link below for more about that! The BEAT tour has been an enormous worldwide success, so who knows what the group might do next?
Click to Read our EXCLUSIVE Pre-BEAT Interview with Steve VAI
Multi-Faceted Master of Music
What’s clear from checking out Mr Vai’s CV is just how diverse a talent he is. If your experience of Vai is simply that of an impressive guitarist, then I think you're missing a pretty wide picture. Composer, producer, session ace and a bit of a visionary, Steve’s a complete package in terms of expression.
What has always impressed me in my conversations with Steve is how spiritual he is in his approach to music. His dedication and surrender to music is complete, and it’s there in every note he plays, from the most soulful bends to the wildest whammy frenzies.
For over 40 years, Vai has been pushing the art of guitar playing forward into some wonderfully exotic places, and he shows no signs of stopping yet!
I’ll leave the final words to Johnny Rotten himself, on how he feels about Vai after working with him:
"Steve Vai, I think he kind of altered his perspective after working with us. He did some wonderful stuff after that. You know, his mind… He got out of just heavy metal, and that's a good, good thing. To this day, I rate the man very, very highly. Very highly!"
(Photo: Larry DiMarzio)
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