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What was Eddie Van Halen’s opinion on Steve Vai
Eddie Van Halen was one of the most influential guitarists of all time, revolutionizing the landscape of guitar playing in the late 70s. His incredible technique shocked everyone in the music scene and inspired many imitators who emulated his style. While many of these players didn’t develop their own unique sound, some took his influence further and built highly praised careers.
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Over the decades, Eddie didn’t speak much about other guitarists, but he did share some interesting thoughts on Steve Vai. He was the one who first played with David Lee Roth in his solo band and had to emulate Eddie’s style when performing Van Halen tracks.
What was Eddie Van Halen’s opinion on Steve Vai
Curiously, Eddie Van Halen and Steve Vai met each other much before David Lee Roth left the band and started his solo career. In the early 80s Frank Zappa and Eddie Van Halen, who lived close to each other became friends and Steve Vai was a member of Zappa’s band at the time. So as Zappa’s son Dweezil recalled a few times, there were a few interesting meetings between the two guitarists and Zappa in the early 80s.
Van Halen and Vai always respected each other’s work and in an interview with Shaun Baxter back in 1995, Eddie praised the guitarist. He was asked about his opinion on Vai’s work on Roth’s solo career.
He said: “I’m going: ‘this guy is better at what I do than I AM’, you know. But [whispering] he lacked the vibe… the feel. He was technically VERY proficient, but stiff.”
“It always made me feel bad in a way. Because it made me feel like, ‘Wow, is that how people perceive ME?’, ‘Cause, to me, listening to him it didn’t SOUND like me, but he took my chops, so to speak. And made them very robotic and did them twice as fast,” Eddie Van Halen said.
Steve Vai was part of Roth’s band from 1985 to 1989. During that period he recorded the albums “Eat ‘Em and Smile” (1986) and “Skyscraper” (1988).
Eddie called Steve Vai after he left David Lee Roth’s band
Steve Vai left David Lee Roth’s band in 1989 and curiously he received a call from Eddie Van Halen. He recalled that in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2020. They had met a few years before at a Allan Holdsworth concert. However, it was only after Vai left Lee Roth’s band that they became close friends.
“The day after I left David Lee Roth’s band – I don’t know how Edward found out – but he called me. That was the start of a nice relationship and friendship. For about six months, we actually hung out a lot together, and I got to know the guy. I saw his studio. He played me all these tapes and was constantly writing and playing. He played me stuff that was never released. But it was so Edward. I said, ‘Why don’t you make a solo record?’ And he always felt that the Van Halen records were his solo records. But this stuff he was playing me was really quite nice. It was all the things we loved about the way he played.”
“This would be a very interesting story for guitar players, I think. I was at my house in Hollywood, and in my studio, I was using my guitar, my rig, my pedals, my amps. And Edward came in. We were just hanging out and talking, and he says to me, ‘Let me show you this one thing I was working on. And he takes my guitar and he starts playing and I realized instantly that it was Edward Van Halen. It didn’t sound anything like me. It had that ‘brown sound,’ it was everything we love about Ed’s tone. He was playing my exact gear, and it sounded like him,” Steve Vai said.
During that same conversation, Vai said that only an idiot would try to play like Eddie, because it was impossible. So he never tried to play exactly like him, because it could never work.
