During a recent episode of “The Music Universe” podcast, iconic guitarist Steve Vai discussed the lasting global popularity of his music when asked about it.
He said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “I think there’s various factors involved. First and foremost, I think that I’m able to do what I do today because the music has something in it. Every artist infuses their work — anybody, actually, that is doing anything creative infuses their work with their DNA, their creative DNA, if they can surrender to it and they’re not just pantomiming something else, but they have found something in them that pushes their button and they’re able to manifest it into their work, their art. So, I’ve been able to do that.
“There’s a quirkiness, there’s an intensity, there’s a charm to my melodies through the years — and this is just from my observation — that the people who are attracted to it stick with. So that’s one factor, that there’s something in the music that attracts a certain type of listener. The other factor is, the guitar is just the greatest instrument in the world — come on. And it’s universal. It just represents something to people that is kind of locked away in their fantasy zone. The guitar is a visceral instrument. It’s dynamic. It’s cool. It clangs. You can do so much with it. So there’s guitar players all around the world — you’d be surprised.”
“You’d never learn about other countries and all these other places, the way they really are, you don’t learn that in school,” he continued. “You’ve gotta go there. So I started going to places like Eastern Europe and Russia and South America in the ’90s. And China. I was going to these places nobody was really going at the time. And what I discovered was there’s guitar players all over the world. And they’re listening to the stuff I’m listening to. They have access to my music. So because there’s so many guitar lovers in every corner of the planet, and because I’ve carved a career in the guitar community, when I go there, they come. Maybe they’re fans, maybe they’re guitar players that aren’t quite fans, but there’s a guitar player here.
“So I have a built-in audience all around the world in all these four corners,” Vai added. “I mean, I toured Russia once for five weeks. I’ve been to Russia many times. I did Moscow three times in one year. And I started going there in the mid-’90s. I remember I was in India once, back in the ’90s. I wasn’t even there to play. And I was at this hotel. I didn’t think anybody was gonna recognize me or know me. I’m in India in the ’90s. And the woman behind the desk recognized me. And next thing I know her brother’s there and he’s a guitar player and then he brings all of his friends, and he brought his guitar and he wanted to play for me. And I thought I was going to get a little rendition of some rock and roll guitar with real classic Indian traditional values in it. I got ‘Tobacco Road’ [from David Lee Roth‘s Eat ‘Em And Smile album featuring Vai] from the guy. So the point is, Western rock guitar playing is prevalent all around the world. And if you’re a part of that team, if you go there, they come. That’s why I’m able to play all around the place.”
