Guitarist extraordinaire Steve Vai has played with everyone from Frank Zappa to Whitesnake and David Lee Roth over the course of a career that stretches back some 30 years. The guy plays a little bit of everything — power ballads, orchestral pieces, and instrumentals. He’s currently touring behind his new album The Story of Light, and he performs at the House of Blues on Monday. Beverly McClellan opens, and tickets are $27-$50. He recently spoke to us via phone from his Los Angeles home.
It seems like there’s a lack of good young guitar players. But you would know better than me. Do you think there are fewer true players than there used to be?
I think there’s a lot of good young players. There are people always trying to push the boundaries of technique and technology. We don’t hear about them until they do something that is accessible to the masses. They’re just doing what’s interesting to them. If somebody comes along and they do something accessible, it’s because it was very natural. Otherwise, it just doesn’t sound authentic and doesn’t really fly.
This article appears in Sep 19-25, 2012.
