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UNBELIEVABLE: 6 - The Untold Story

“Throughout the Beat tour, my left hand kept going numb and burning like fire”: Adrian Belew recovering after undergoing carpal tunnel surgery

The “world-renowned” surgeon who took charge of the surgery is a King Crimson fan

Guitar World

“I'd lost a close friend and a hero of mine took the time to console me”: Guitar mainstay Pete Thorn tells how Steve Vai comforted him following Chris Cornell’s death

And there’s a happy ending. Thorn and Vai are now band members in SatchVai Band, alongside Joe Satriani

MusicRadar

“It was two days after Chris Cornell passed. Steve said, ‘I know you lost your friend – it's too soon now, but the time will come where you think of him, and it'll be happy memories’”: Once just a hero and mentor, Steve Vai is now Pete Thorn's bandmate

“Here, I'd lost a close friend and collaborator; and a hero of mine, from the time I was 11 years old or so, took the time to console me,” the newly appointed SatchVai Band guitarist tells GW

Guitar World

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“His thumbprint is an indelible part of the Whitesnake record he did. The fatness of that record and the rock integrity it had was all him”: Steve Vai followed John Sykes in Whitesnake – and he quickly decided what not to do when playing his parts

Of course, it wasn't a chops issue so much as it was the late guitarist's unique six-string footprint

Guitar World

“His rhythm playing is tight and in tune in a way that’s rare, and his intonation is stunning”: Joe Satriani and Steve Vai have detailed the full SatchVai Band lineup – and Pete Thorn is handling rhythm guitar

The six-string dream team will also be rounded out by an equally formidable rhythm section

Guitar World

“It was very simplistic compared to my later compositions”: It may have been inspired by the Kinks, but Al Di Meola's Race with Devil on Spanish Highway is one of the great virtuoso displays in guitar history. Watch the maestro play it with Steve Vai

This intimate rehearsal clip shows the fretwork of both guitar legends up-close

Guitar World

“We get past our second show and I get an email from Robert. At the end, he said, ‘Can I make a suggestion?’” How Robert Fripp helped Steve Vai tailor his King Crimson playing on the BEAT tour with one piece of advice

After watching clips of one of the early BEAT shows, the King Crimson guitarist had some words of wisdom for his stand-in regarding an especially tricky track

Guitar World

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“They said, ‘Uh, okay!’ They didn’t know what I was talking about – and in a way, neither did I”: How William Shatner learned to love prog and make an all-star album with all the humanity of classic Star Trek

Knowing some people would never get over the novelty, Billy Sherwood decided to go for broke with Ponder The Mystery, featuring Steve Vai, Rick Wakeman, Nik Turner, Edgar Froese and others

Louder

“Imagine performing a Green Day song to Billie Joe Armstrong”: Guitarist plays Green Day classic at Liverpool's Cavern Club – only to discover Billie Joe Armstrong was filming his set

Resident performer Callum McMorran thought it was just another Tuesday – turns out Billie Joe Armstrong had been watching his performance

Guitar World

“We’re going to release an end-all-be-all amplifier with his name on it”: Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai and Metallica are among the rock royalty who used José Arredondo’s legendary amps. Now Dave Friedman is honoring his legacy with a definitive model

With the blessing of Arredondo’s family, Friedman will build a highly limited amp that encompasses most of the late amp guru’s elusive mods

Guitar World

“For me to be so appreciated, I think I can start to feel guilty and pressured. But I guess it’s a good problem to have”: From playing Steve Vai's guitars to playing with him onstage, Tosin Abasi's rapid ascent made him one of the biggest names in guitar

Speaking to Guitar World in 2014, the Animals As Leaders maestro recalls the grueling salmon cannery and poop-scooping dog kennel jobs that helped him save for his first Vai signature model, and discusses how to adapt to seven- and eight-string models

Guitar World

“A lot of the guitar parts were totally within my ability, but there were a couple that I just couldn’t navigate”: Steve Vai reveals the King Crimson riff that had him beat and the tip from Robert Fripp that helped him nail it

Celebrating the ‘80s material of prog trailblazers King Crimson, the BEAT Tour gave Vai a welcome fix of “high-information music” but some of Fripp’s material pushed him to the limit

MusicRadar

“He was a great guitar player. He’s not looking at what he’s playing, so obviously he really knows the instrument”: Which grunge icon could Joe Satriani be talking about?

Plus, he highlights the “only problem” with Yngwie Malmsteen

MusicRadar

“This is a guy who worked for Frank Zappa. Frank said to him, ‘Whatever you do, don’t learn how to read music.’ He's all-creative –he's a miracle, really”: Steve Vai on BEAT, being a virtuoso in his 60s – and the Fripp riff he just couldn’t master

He reflects on how Frank Zappa helped him and Adrian Belew, the value of learning from rather than competing with other players and changing rig for his tour with Joe Satriani. But who’s going to be in the SatchVai band?

Guitar World

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Louder

“He was a great guitar player. He’s not looking at what he’s playing, he really knows the instrument”: Joe Satriani says Kurt Cobain was an underrated guitar hero

Joe Satriani knows a thing or two about great guitarists –and he says the Nirvana frontman was one of them

Guitar World

“He’s not used to not being the focus of the show. I’d say, ‘When Steve’s soloing, don’t throw your guitar up in the air right next to him’”: Joe Satriani on the unique challenges of having Yngwie Malmsteen on the G3 tour

Satch has no notes for the Swedish maestro’s playing, but found other aspects of his performances a little distracting during their G3 time together

Guitar World

It's one of Joe Satriani and Steve Vai's favorite scales, and holds the most mysterious-sounding note combinations – here's how the Lydian mode works

This bright but unusual sounding mode became popular among shredders after Joe Satriani and Steve Vai used it in the 80s. Here, Stuart Ryan explains what gives the Lydian mode its signature sound

Metal Hammer

“I was fired after two months because I was playing guitar with a dildo and being an idiot”: The wild life and crazed career of Devin Townsend, metal’s misunderstood maverick

From defecating in Steve Vai‘s guitar case to puppet-based concept albums, Devin Townsend is out there on his own

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Guitar World

“Anti-colonialist anguish, hope, joy and the search for connection, all through his guitar. That’s what makes a guitar hero”: Guitarists of the Year 2024 – the players who took 2024 by storm

Slash made a blues record. St. Vincent boggled our minds again. And Grace Bowers blew everyone away… Here we take a look at the players who made 2024 a banner year for the instrument

Guitar World

“You can rehearse until you’re blue in the face, but once you hit the stage, all bets are off”: How King Crimson was reborn at the hands of Steve Vai and Adrian Belew

2024 Year in Review: The all-star Beat tour brought King Crimson’s music to thousands of eager prog fans

Guitar World

“We’re probably better off than the previous generation. Not because we’re better, but because it’s easier to reach a certain level faster”: Matteo Mancuso on how he plans to take his playing to even greater heights – thanks to some advice from Steve Vai

The Sicilian virtuoso is changing guitar in real-time and we are all along for the ride. Here he explains why he might be too lazy to use anything other than a Line 6 Helix, but won't rest in his pursuit for the perfect performance

Guitar World

“My stock answer was, ‘No.’ Most people who approach me to do something like that are looking to relive the glory days of ’80s rock”: Why Steve Vai dropped his anti-supergroup stance to help revive some of King Crimson’s most celebrated work

BEAT has been celebrating King Crimson’s 1980s albums, with Adrian Belew and Steve Vai’s new guitar partnership at its core

Louder

“I can’t say what it will feel like…I’m wise enough to know I’ve got to hear this before judging”: How King Crimson offshoot BEAT moved from an all-star dream to reality

When Adrian Belew failed to persuade the 80s line-up to reunite, he had to come up with another way of bringing that decade’s three albums back to life – and he did it

Guitar World

“These techniques are very effective for giving your lines a slippery, rubber band-like sound”: Steve Vai and Guthrie Govan love these long-slide glissando techniques – here’s how you can bring them into your playing

In his latest column, Andy Wood taps into what he learned from Steve Vai, Guthrie Govan and Eric Johnson and applied to the melodies on his new album, Charisma

Guitar World

“This is like Santana’s Soul Sacrifice at Woodstock or Hendrix’s Machine Gun, an act of freeform radicalism”: The best guitar solos of 2024

From a supernova of tapping and pitch-shifted metal guitar anarchy to all-star team-ups, here is your year in lead guitar – featuring Mdou Moctar, Diamond Rowe and some dudes named Satriani and Vai…

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