Steve Vai Larry DiMarzio photo

It is always fun to reconnect with folks who I’ve chatted with earlier, but none of them have had such a long break between interviews as today’s artist Steve Vai. At age 12 he started taking guitar lessons from Joe Satriani. He has released 23 solo albums and has two fairly new ones out now: 2023’s “Vai/Gash” and 2022’s “Inviolate,” for which he’s currently touring. My first interview with Vai was back in 1990, that was 33 years ago, so imagine my surprise when I discovered that he was coming back to Maine for a show at The Criterion Theatre in Bar Harbor on Tuesday, Aug. 1. What was even more surprising was his willingness to chat again. I ended up calling his Los Angeles home to begin our conversation.

CONCERT INFO

STEVE VIA
TIME: 8 p.m.
DATE: Tuesday, Aug. 1
VENUE: The Criterion Theatre
ADDRESS: 35 Cottage St., Bar Harbor
TICKETS: $75 and up
PHONE: 207-288-0829
WEBSITES: vai.com, criteriontheatre.org

Q: Well, it’s taken me a while to get to talk with you again — we first talked back in 1990 when you were in Whitesnake.
Vai: Oh, that was a while ago.

Q: I’m trying to remember where the show was. It was either The Ballpark at Old Orchard Beach or it was The Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland.
Vai: I might assume it was that venue, but that’s just an assumption.

Q: Actually, I think it was the CCCC but anyhow, I’ve received your two newest CDs from your publicist. I must say that the “Vai/Gash” really grabbed me hard.
Vai: I made that record kind of spur-of-the-moment, in ’91. I was a teenager in the 70s when there was straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll like Led Zeppelin and Queen which would be considered “straight-ahead” now but back then it was kind of progressive stuff. Anyway, I liked that sound and I was also a motorcycle enthusiast when I was a kid. I always wanted a Harley but never could afford one. A friend of mine from Long Island, Johnny “Gash” Sombrotto, had survived a horrific accident where 60% of his body was covered with third-degree burns. He miraculously survived and made it out to California eventually and we started riding; he had a great group of people and I finally could afford some Harleys (chuckle). And at one point, I just wanted to make some music that reflected the way we felt when we were riding, so I just jumped into the studio and, in like a stream of consciousness, within a week or two, I just ripped out this record and I got eight songs into it. One of the songs was one I had written with Nikki Sixx, “New Generation,” and it was great because we finally had music to listen to that really resonated with our biker culture.

Q: I noticed that Gash handled the lead vocals on those eight tracks, as well.
Vai: I was planning on fleshing it out a little more, adding some more songs, but I didn’t really think that the early 90s was a good time to release a record like that, so I sat on it for a couple of years. When I really wanted to work on it, unfortunately, Gash was killed in a motorcycle accident. I was so disheartened I just put it on the shelf and it just sat there for 30 years. I would listen to it through the years and it would always lift me up sort of, you know? And then I thought, “Okay, I’ve got to release it, I’m going to take it exactly the way it is!” So I went to the basement with the tapes, baked them and sent them to Mike Fraser to mix.

Q: Well, it’s been added to my list of music to be played in my car as I’m traveling, so it works well for me, too! But I understand that you are traveling up to Bar Harbor on the first of August, have you ever played there before?
Vai: No, this tour that I’m doing is sort of a pick-up tour where I’m going to very tertiary-types of markets to just kind of cover as much ground as I can because I toured America already over the fall. So I’m getting to places that I’ve never been. When my wife saw Bar Harbor she just about freaked, she was like, “This is one of the most beautiful places in the country!” We have a day off ahead of time so she decided to come along. She’s already researched places that we’re going to go and check out. I’m really looking forward to coming.

Q: Now, you’re touring to support “Inviolate” … what do you have for a band or do you solo with just the Hydra?
Vai: (Laughter) Well, my band that I’m bringing, we’ve been touring since last summer, is the same band I’ve had for over 20 years, basically, and it’s Philip Bynoe on bass, Jeremy Colson on drums, and Dante Frisiello on guitar. We’ve been having the greatest time touring, and the show at this point is so sharp and fine, we just got back from Latin America. I’ve had the Hydra with me and it’s nice, very entertaining, sounds great (chuckle).

Q: Could you talk a little more about the gig coming up in Maine?
Vai: Well, it’s an instrumental guitar show. I’ve been at this for 43 years and when you tour that much and you love what you’re doing it deepens, and that’s been my whole goal as an artist: to continue to be the best performer that I can be.

Q: What do you mean by “deepens?”
Vai: Well, it means giving your full attention to the moment in the performance without extraneous thoughts, basically, being very present. The more present you are when you’re performing the deeper the connection with the instrument, the band, and the audience. So, I’ve gotten to a pretty high-entertainment-value performance for those that are interested in this kind of thing.

Q: Having seen the video for “Teeth of the Hydra,” I can vouch for the high-entertainment-value performance aspect. Will you have that beast with you in Bar Harbor?
Vai: Oh, yeah, we had it all through Europe, Eastern Europe, America, Latin America. I play it on a stand because it’s very heavy and it’s a little unpredictable and precarious, so I decided to save myself an accident-in-waiting (chuckle) and perform it on a stand, it’s a bit of a spectacle (laughter).

Q: (Laughter) Yeah, to say the least! But it’s time for the last question: Is there anything, Steve, that you’d like me to pass on to the folks reading this article?
Vai: I feel like this show has really great uplifting entertainment value, and to experience it is to escape the world for a little while, and to be engaged and almost mesmerized by the event. I see it on the faces of the people when we’re performing.

Lucky Clark, a 2018 “Keeping the Blues Alive” Award winner, has spent more than 50 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.