YOU WONT BELIEVE: 2 - You Need To See This

“He told me the story about a young guitarist he once let play his guitar at rehearsal. I said, ‘Brian, that was me’”: Steve Vai pays tribute to Brian May as he receives his radical custom Red Special

Guyton Guitars' highly customized version of May’s iconic axe is now in Steve Vai’s “humbled” hands

Guitar World · Jan 7

“I saw the Red Special. I pointed and said, ‘Is that it?’ Brian said, ‘Yup. Want to try it?’” Steve Vai says he once played Brian May’s guitar “like a baby giraffe on roller skates” – now the Queen icon has gifted him his own custom ‘Green’ Red Special

“I will treasure it for the rest of my life, and yes, I’m taking this one to the grave with me,” says Vai

MusicRadar · Jan 7

“We hung out in his hotel room ’til 7 in the morning. He put on Donna Lee – I couldn’t believe it!” When Jimmy Haslip met Jaco Pastorius at Frank Zappa’s studio

The Yellowjackets co-founder and then-bassist tells the story of his first encounter with bass royalty

Guitar World · Dec 27, 2025

“There was a certain amount of desperation in Frank returning my call and saying, ‘I don't believe you, but get over here and prove it'”: How Mike Keneally landed the Frank Zappa gig – after cold-calling his guitar hero

Keneally said he had a “Zappa jukebox” in his brain. The man himself wanted to test it out

Guitar World · Dec 5, 2025

“I took it into rehearsals and Frank Zappa said, ‘If you wanted to ruin your guitar, why didn’t you loan it to a friend?’” Adrian Belew shares unseen photos of “the first relic’d guitar” – which he created with Seymour Duncan

The pair’s process was a little more primitive than modern methods

Guitar World · Dec 4, 2025

“When he gave the family car back, his father tried to sell it as ‘formerly driven by Frank Zappa’”: The background that gave rise to music’s most eclectic iconoclast, by his wife and son

He developed his own form of expression at 9 years old, taught himself to compose music at 11, and hated the Summer Of Love, drugs and lack of effort. Here’s why there’s no such thing as an ex-Zappa fan

Louder · Dec 4, 2025

“When we were finished gouging it with screwdrivers, spraying blops of paint on it, dragging it around the yard, and banging it on the driveway, we hung it up in a tree”: Adrian Belew on how he and Seymour Duncan made one of the first relic’d guitars

The prog guitar icon has posted new pics taken by Seymour Duncan that show off their handiwork as they turned Belew's new Strat into a relic and started guitar's most controversial trend

MusicRadar · Dec 3, 2025

“As anniversary editions go, this one is exhaustively thorough”: Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention’s One Size Fits All, five decades on

The original nine tracks expanded to 58 – and while there’s some repetition and flawed live production, the energy is vigorous

Louder · Oct 28, 2025

"Even though he's dead, I believe that in a hundred years' time from now people will still be listening to him": Steve Vai on the wild genius of Frank Zappa – and the two words that made him want to join his band

They say never meet your heroes – Steve Vai would disagree

Louder · Oct 26, 2025

“Ozzy would say, ‘No. This isn’t Frank Zappa, this is Ozzy Osbourne. Go back and write me something else’”: Jake E. Lee revisits Badlands, the album the music industry doesn't want you to hear

Why can't we buy Badlands' self-titled debut? Who knows. The record label buried it. But former Ozzy guitarist Jake E. Lee swears it's his best work

Guitar World · Oct 17, 2025