The artist Steve Vai implored to “reinvent music again”
“Prince was in my ears and he was in my head. Starting then, I patterned everything in my life after Prince,” wrote Questlove shortly after the legendary musician had passed. “I had older half-brothers, but Prince – unknown to me then, but not unseen or unheard, thanks to magazines, TV, radio, and my secret stash – was a guide to me in every way.”
Like many people, Questlove was influenced by Prince’s innovative approach to music and became obsessed the moment he listened. “He began to mentor me in musical matters,” he said, “I wouldn’t have started listening to Joni Mitchell without him. And that led me to Jaco Pastorius, who led me to Wayne Shorter, who led me to Miles Davis. I had a simple rule: if Prince listened to it, I listened to it.”
Questlove represents a whole generation of Prince lovers in these short paragraphs. They enjoyed not just music but a complete reinvention of what they thought was impossible, someone whom they could follow and use as a guide when developing their musical taste. One person who felt the same way was Steve Vai.
Steve Vai’s music has a similar effect to that of Prince. While his work is predominantly instrumental, his approach to playing the guitar is otherworldly. He invokes emotions that were previously left untouched by music. With a distortion pedal and an Ibanez, he can evoke feelings of tranquillity, tension, and frustration within minutes. His shredding style isn’t far removed from Prince’s, and he admitted his adoration of the ‘Purple Rain’ singer one night on stage.
Shortly after he passed, Vai took to the stage to recount a Prince story he had. In it, he recalled staying in a cheap hotel and finding a plethora of bootleg Prince records that he was excited to listen to. On the back of one, he saw the song ‘Tender Surrender’, which he laughed at. ‘Tender Surrender’, as well as being a song on the back of this Prince bootleg, is one of Vai’s most famous songs, as those contrasting emotions referenced above, tranquillity, tension and frustration, are all put on display in this example of guitar mastery. The song starts with silence and then an octave on E.
Curious about what Prince’s song was like, Vai put it on, not expecting anything, given that the title is undoubtedly what Prince would come up with. As the vinyl began spinning, however, it sounded remarkably similar. There was silence, followed by the same octave on E. Recognising the similarities, Vai studied the record again.
“I grab the CD and it says, ‘Tender Surrender’ by Steve Vai,” he recalled. Shocked that one of his musical heroes had recorded a cover of his song, he took the record around the hotel, “I started banging on everybody’s door, ‘Look at this!’ So, tonight, I’m gonna dedicate this song, and I just wanna say, Prince, you were extraordinary, and we are grateful”.
Vai ended his on-stage dedication like any Prince fan would, not just acknowledging his great music but recounting how much it changed things. “But hurry up back,” he said, “Because we need you to reinvent music again”.
