The legendary guitarist Steve Vai called “my God”
There are a handful of names that almost always come up when discussing the greatest guitar heroes, including Stevie Vai, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and Eric Clapton.
According to Vai, however, the concept of the “best” guitarist is always a point of contention. “I very rarely agree with the term best guitar player,” he once said. “It just seems so obscene to put something so subjective into a best category.”
For Vai, there’s an intuitive sense as a guitarist that deciphers those who play by the book and those who are truly unique. In his mind, he can almost always see and feel what another guitarist is doing, knowing immediately upon first listen what it is that makes them different from others, or the same.
The ones who challenge his understanding of the instrument are the ones who stick out in his mind as true revolutionaries. Allan Holdsworth, for one, is someone who Vai believes will be talked about many, many years from now, because his whole thought process was “phenomenal” and he played in a way that Vai couldn’t wrap his head around.
As he put it, “I can hear any guitar player, and I know what they’re doing – I might not be able to play it – but I can see it in my mind’s eye. But I do not know what the fuck Alan Holdsworth was doing at all.”
There are several others that Vai would place in a similar camp. For him, it’s the ability to appear uniquely creative in a way that feels important, even if you can’t immediately put your finger on it. As he said when he described the appeal of Holdsworth, it’s about having something no one can understand, but which you know people will come back to in the years to come. In other words, it’s about being ahead of the game without even realising it.
Vai felt the same way about Jimmy Page. When American Songwriter once asked who his biggest influence was, he explained how Page was a central figure when he was growing up, and it remained that way when he became a major name himself. “When I was a kid, Jimmy Page was my god,” he said. “He had it all. He was very creative, a great player and had a unique sound. Jimmy Page is my guy.”
Elsewhere, Vai said it was Page’s solo in the song ‘Heartbreaker’ that made him want to play the guitar after his sister exposed him to the masterpiece that was Led Zeppelin II. From there, he knew that Page was “it”, setting him on an unexpected path to musical excellence with Page as the ultimate guiding figure.
Page also had that same unique feel that Vai admired in people like Holdsworth. It was the same kind that evaded any kind of description, even if he’s listening closely, trying to figure out exactly “what they’re doing” – with Page, he can feel the greatness, but can’t quite work out how he managed to do any of it. It seemingly comes out of nowhere. As he put it, “He had direct access to the greatest riffs of all time.”
