Steve Vai on His Ego After the Passion & Warfare Album, “You’re the chosen one,” David Lee Roth 2022
A full in bloom News Brief
-Description:
In a recent conversation with Tales from the Road, Steve Vai talked about learning to handle criticism, his ego during the Passion and Warfare album, David Lee Roth, Yngwie Malmsteen, Crossroads, Alcatrazz, and more.
-Links-
Steve Vai Interview w/ Tales from the Road:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7kEgKJGgUs
New Steve Vai Album, Inviolate, on Amazon:
https://amzn.to/3Lf3PMI
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Intro & Outro by FOOL OF FATE
#SteveVai #DavidLeeRoth #EddieVanHalen #YngwieMalmsteen #VanHalen #Crossroads
@suckit5092
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
No, we’re talking about you.
@ronnie_5150
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
I met Vai at an autograph session during one of the early G3 shows and as big as a fan as I am, yeah, he was a prima donna dick.
Fast forward to this year 2023, met him again at meet and greet, and he was the nicest guy you'd meet.
@MarkTurner-vs7uc
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
He is the chosen one. Nobody can touch him. In a competition, like the movie, nobody could beat him. Nobody.
@rodsalc9266
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
Spoken like a true ARTIST
@jimbeam-ru1my
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
steve vai's music has always sucked. great guitar player but can't write music for shit.
@JerryTheVeganRockstar
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
Ah, the old “I know you are, but what am I?" Defense 😀
@TheMICMusicInspirationChannel
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
"… because the fashionable thing at the time was to attack anybody that knew how to play an instrument."
Funny, but sad.
@missyjean6729
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
Nice interview. For those around at the time the late 80s, very early 90s Vai was just EVERYWHERE. It seemed like every player wanted to be cool like him, start wearing similar clothes, play similar guitars, do the same stage moves too. He was on soooo many magazine covers, including more "general music" ones, as well as the obvious guitar ones. Its said that when Whitesnake played Donington in 1990 Vai was the main draw for ticket sales, (with a rare Uk appearance by Poison as the second biggest draw ). he was HUGE. I guess being told you are the greatest every day by everybody must have gone straight to his head. The Sex And Religion sessions were apparently very stressful for the other musicians, originally it was to be a full band, called Light Without Heat, it was supposed to be all members having a contribution, but it fell apart quickly, partly due to record company pressure to have an album as successful as Passion and Warfare and partly because Vai couldnt relinquish any control to the other band members. Bozzio recounted the story once of how Steve would record the drums one bar at a time, which must have been excrutiating. Once TM and Bozzio left the band before the tour started it all became even more stressful, with a young Devin Townsend starting to want to exercise any kind of artistic freedom but having to very ridgidly stick to doing what he was told, and Vai clashing with the other band members, with Abe Laboriel Jnr leaving mid tour. (According to Abe it was because he had a bad flu and couldnt finish the tour, according to Devin it was because Abe and Vai both had a huge arguement about a time signature and Abe quit the band). One can only image the stress the band was in by the end of the tour, add to that the fact that a couple of months after they were on the road Zappa died. Steve said that at the end of the tour he was literally curled up in tears, and hacked off all his dreadlocks, lol. Vai seemed to definitely have a moment of clarity after that, releasing the wonderfully no-frills Alien Love Secrets and beginning a journey back to doing what he did best, playing the guitar and making his own music that made him happy, regardless of sales.
@Frazer777
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
Nothing helped my playing and my music more than realising that no one gives a sh*t about what I do. I just do my thing. Hit, miss…. It's out there and people can think of it what they will….
@UlverKM
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
"It was so hurtful to my ego" – proceeds to use a crucifixion/rebirth analogy.
@joelleferreira4292
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
Here is a very important subject, Steve Vai, which concerns each thinking person. Effectively it is a matter of egos bothering each other's ego.
Each one of us has an ego to teach in order to socialize.
Grave misunderstandings in between people, until the ultimate grau of total war, can born out of unresolved personal state of ego.
Education, autodidactacty, auto-analysis,… are on demand for goals which always have to be in syntony with the fidel equilibrium of Nature to us. Noone is more important than the other, even if some are producing unique wonders for the whole, which is your very unique talent with music, for exemple, because you recognized your gift and worked hard upon it.
I observed that we are each on our own process of progress, no matter ages, genders, experiences,… only is enough to recognize what work we have to do, physically, mentally, emotionally : this is enough to be busy about oneself instead of criticisms mostly made of ignorance. People do have the same rights and obligations in existence, but no one can say that they are equal in anything else because this depends of each one's evolution resulting from its own efforts.
Discipline is fundamental to evaluate how and how far our powers fields can be used.
Some do think that exercising their power upon somebody else (sometimes many, even crowds) will make them feel better than the others and also about themselves : but it is actually the contrary that they will get in terms : because this is a lie, working and suffering more, that will be the price they will have to pay.
All of this because one forgets to learn about the limits of the space where he is actually authorized to act, this means to be able of autonomy, able of care and compassion, able to simply understand that we exist with the challenge to give the best of ourselves and to receive the best that others might offer us, in humbleness and gratefulness.
@mwils8609
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
Very nice advice from Vai, lovely fellow/spirit.
@borisdisko4322
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
Ego can blind you to how bad you suck as well. Years later you listen or look and say… what the hell was I thinking? Man. The critics were right lol. Does he have his ego under enough control to admit that? In My Dreams With You or whatever that single was deserved to be trashed lol Garbage. 🗑
@HrhFish
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
That grunge thing was a pain. You still get the odd one slagging shredders off. It's not their opinion and they were only saying that because they thought it made them look cool. Fashion is like a ponies tail. It follows an arsehole' 😎
@sarthwahb
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
For me steve vai comes on my guitar god list before Eddie van halen and jimi Hendrix… the awareness and zen like nature Steve has is everything than just being guitar virtuoso
@10INCHCRUSHER
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
Vai lost me at Passion and Warfare. It was just too much for me. Flexable was just amazing.
@DL-yo5tq
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
so he says that getting bad press for the album was good for his ego and then in the next breath he compares himself with Christ being crucified – it really sounds like he was humbled
@SDesWriter
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
He is such a great player. One of those guys that I don't particularly care for because of the choices he makes in melodies and songwriting, but him being one of the best rock players ever is just undeniable. I don't remember him getting beaten up like that but then again I despised Grunge so wasn't listening to what a lot of it's sycophants were saying. I think my favorite Vai moment is that video of his concert where he's walking through the audience playing a solo and sees Andy Timmons standing there and hugs him, then TAKES OFF HIS GUITAR and hands it to another player to listen to him play for a while. That was amazingly cool and just what you would hope you could be like if you were that good.
@davidsleith7222
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
wise words from a humble genius.
@otisdriftwood8469
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
He seems like a cool guy, im not really a fan but respect his talent. Eat em and smile was good.
@frankorobinson1540
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
Who cares about criticism, it means nothing, like the people that wrote it,they mean nothing, dont fall into the social media of brainwashed individuals of self destruction, be true to you steve ,your good no matter what individuals happen to say ,they are talking about themselves. Self projection of self destruction its a given for the mentally 🤒 ill. As long as you know your good 👍 others opinions don't matter,its a push button world. Lol
@golfprocrastinator9519
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
Yet his experiences and coming to terms with the whole ego thing were still comparable to……. Jesus Christ LOL. I know someone who meet him recently, loved him for years got all his guitars, all his albums, a fan from way back in the 80's. Not after meeting him. To say that all criticism of him is actually other peoples real problems….. wow I wonder what a shrink would say about that. I am a fan BUT a lot of the time it's best not to hear your hero's speak. Now Satch just seems like a regular Joe….. pun intended. Who in the past was talked into going into someone house and playing satch boogie on his 21 fret strat in some guys kitchen…… I think it may even be on here.
@vanguard4065
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
chosen one my ass. vai is overrated
@charlesgomez4495
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
I delivered a pizza to his home in Hollywood in 1989, there was a friggin flamingo running across his living room when his assistant answered the door.
@MarcinZadora-u1y
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
Old good clever Steve
@comment.highlighted
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
Great advice on confidence and ego 🙂
@kennywhatsthemeaningoflife3014
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
He right I don't like the beatles 🤣🤣🤣
@Governmentiscorrupt
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
When I met him he was an asshole
@OtBe
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
Flex-Able & PAW were awesome, Sex & Religion is where he started to lose me.
@imannonymous7707
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
Never cared for insturmental albums crossroads was cool but i actually liked ry cooders playing more….. i respect virtuosos but i dont want to play like most.
But hes very talented obviously its just not what i dig
@gcrauwels941
March 28, 2026 at 2:52 pm
Passion and Warfare was an amazing work. I wore that cd out.
Comments are closed.