Classic Rock
Dream Theater’s John Petrucci says what he thinks about Steve Vai
Dream Theater’s guitarist John Petrucci was asked by Sterling Ball what he thinks about Steve Vai.
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Read what he said:
“When I think about him and his guitar playing – and I’ve said this to my buddies hanging out when we were younger and listening to Steve Vai’s music – to this day he approaches everything that he does in such a unique and original way.
“I don’t think he’ll ever run out of ideas. Whenever I hear something new that Steve Vai plays I’m like, ‘How come I’ve never heard that done before? How does he constantly innovate?’
“The number of different approaches and techniques that he’s doing on his song to get that vocally sound… Oh my god… He has the comedy in there. But he’s playing stuff that’s like really slinky and impossible so then your guitar shred mind goes, ‘Alright, how do you do that?’
“It’s the imagination and the uniqueness and the innovation. The next thing that you hear him play, the next album he does or something, I guarantee there’ll be something on it where you’re like, ‘I’ve never heard that before.’ It’s insane. It’s freaky.”
He also talked about Steve Morse:
“Steve has this way of playing guitar where for me I want to learn what he’s doing. It inspires me. I’m like, ‘What is he playing? I have to learn those lines.’
“I love the way he interweaves, it’s kind of rock blues jazz bluegrass country, and just makes these really interesting lines. And he’ll do something that sounds impossible were you need the technique.
“My initial reaction when I hear Steve play – besides thinking, ‘Wow, this is amazing and beautiful’ – is, ‘I want to learn that!’ I literally want to transcribe what he did and find out.”
“This is what I love actually about all the guys, Steve Morse does this, Steve Lukather, Albert Lee does this… All these guys play with such attitude. There’s like conviction and attitude.
“And one of the worst things is when you hear guitar playing that’s timid. I like when guitar playing is just… You’re letting everything out there, playing with balls and feel and aggression.”
