Steve Vai

About

Also known as: Steve Vai`, Steven Siro Vai, Vai, Steve

Steve Vai has spent decades doing things on guitar that most players consider physically impossible, which is exactly why Frank Zappa hired him as a teenager to transcribe his most technically deranged compositions. That relationship turned into a full band gig from 1980 to 1983, and Zappa took to calling him his "little Italian virtuoso." Vai then launched a solo career that peaked commercially and critically with Passion and Warfare in 1990, a record Guitar World called the richest and best hard rock guitar virtuoso album of the decade. Along the way he put in stints with Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth, and Whitesnake, and recorded alongside names ranging from Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper to Public Image Ltd and Motörhead. A three time Grammy winner with over 15 million records sold, Vai sits in a category of his own when it comes to sheer instrumental ambition. His 2022 music video for Teeth of the Hydra shows he has lost none of that restless experimental edge. He also co founded the G3 touring concept alongside Joe Satriani, a platform that has brought together some of the most technically gifted guitarists around for evenings of pure instrumental guitar.