ENDURING PASSION
“THAT MUSIC WAS BUBBLING UP INSIDE ME FOR YEARS. I WAS WAITING, WAITING, WAITING TO BIRTH THE ALBUM”
In the pantheon of shred gods, three names instantly come to mind: Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai. It’s perhaps not a coincidence that Vai replaced EVH as sideman to David Lee Roth and Yngwie as guitarist in Alcatrazz. Few people could take over from either of those giants, let alone both of them, but Steve Vai is unlike any other guitarist.
His prodigious talent was recognized at an early age by Frank Zappa, who first employed him to transcribe guitar parts, and then included him in his band. For Guitar Player readers, the appearance of Vai’s solo track “The Attitude Song” on the first flexible Soundsheet disc in the October 1984 issue was a cataclysmic moment. For Vai, the disc and the release of his debut album, Flex-Able, that year marked a major shift in his status in the guitar playing community.
At the dawn of the ’90s, following stints with Roth and Whitesnake, Vai unleashed Passion and Warfare, his second solo album and one of the few truly essential landmark albums of the shred era. Thirty years later, it remains the benchmark for guitar virtuosity, not only for Vai’s incredible playing but also for its memorable melodies and stunning psychedelic production. “For the Love of God,” in particular, has become a must-learn rite of passage for shredders, and Vai has featured it in nearly every live set since the album’s release.
Ask Vai what it was like to make the album, and he recalls
