MAILBAG ARCHIVES:

- September 20, 2000

- July 04, 2000

- June 09, 2000

- May 18, 2000

- March 05, 2000

- January 11, 2000

- December 27, 1999

- November 02, 1999

- September 18, 1999

- August 27, 1999

- March 16, 1999

- January 30, 1999

- October 22, 1998

- April 26, 1998

- March 30, 1998

- March 17, 1998

August 27, 1999 :

Hello!

This is (in my humble opinion) the best picture ever taken from Steve. I took this one in Rotterdam during the G3 tour (May 23, 1997).

Greetings... Harold Kip

Hello!

Greetings from Australia! Unfortunately Steve Vai is not known as the huge guitarist that he should be down here. As you can imagine, that can be very annoying to a big fan! I have never seen Vai live -- when he last played here it was 18+. I wasted $32 on that ticket and wasn't allowed in. Oh well. To make up for it, I have smothered myself in collectables!

Steve has recorded one of the greatest musical literatures ever, "Passion and Warfare". From the opening track to the ending track, this CD has sent me numerous times into unaccountable frenzies! The only remedy I have found is to learn how to play all of Vai's songs. However this is a lot easier said than done!

Keep up the good work,

Lachlan Barclay

P.S. Please publish this letter so Steve can read it!

Back in 1990, Guitar School magazine held a drawing for which the grand prize was an Ibanez Universe UV7 guitar and a lesson with Steve Vai. I sent in ONE entry on the exact date of the deadline and basically forgot about it ( no one actually wins these things - especially guys like me, right? ). I was just hoping to win one of the 2nd or 3rd prizes: a copy of "Passion and Warfare" or a tab book of the same. Well, you guessed it, a month or so later the magazine called to inform me that my name had been drawn and I was the grand-prize winner. It took them a few minutes to convince me that it was legit and not one of my friends just messing with me. It ended up taking several months for Ibanez to deliver the guitar to me - something about having problems with the Lo-Pro. The lesson with Vai happened about a year later due to conflicts with Vai's schedule and due to the fact that I had moved twice and they had trouble finding me. But one day I got a call from Steve's sister and she invited me down to Steve's house for the lesson.

My wife and I arrived at his house at 10 am on a Saturday morning. Steve himself answered the door and invited us in. I thought I would be extremely nervous and intimidated by him but he was very "normal" and down to earth and made us feel comfortable and welcome to be there. We ended up spending about two hours in his studio listening to tapes (mine and his) going over areas such as theory, technique, and creativity. The most amazing part of the lesson was when he talked about pushing oneself beyond playing one's basic repetoire of licks and riffs to come up with something new. He said to do this you need to take an entire day and do nothing but play without any outside distractions. He briefly demonstrated by standing about 10 feet in front of me and improvised riff after riff after riff for a good ten or fifteen minutes. Needless to say I was absolutely AMAZED. I wasn't sure if I should start practicing 12 hours per day or just give up.

Anyway, that's my Vai story. Hope you enjoyed it.

Donald McCue

YOU SAVED MY LIFE FROM HOLLYWOOD HELL -

I was very depressed. I had been attending Musicians Institute of Technology in Hollywood and had very little self esteem from all the challenges of the city life, and things were starting to overwhelm me. I was losing weight fast from not having enough money to buy food and the $5 coffeehouse gigs were taking a toll on my will to live. I thought I was a good player but I became lost in a sea of speedpickers willing to lose their souls just to gain notoriety.

One day you came to my school and you spent time talking and I listened. You spoke about being shy once before, and having spent time finding out who you were inside. I made a recording of this day but have never needed to replay it because I can still hear your words, "Get in touch with your inner being then you will be ready for anything".

Well, maybe I took it farther than you might have meant. I went back to my hometown and obtained a degree in Clinical Psychology and plan to obtain a PHD in several years. I have gained a style of my own and many people can hear me playing on any recording and they know it is me playing.

I have not followed your career but always know your playing when I hear it and now have the pleasure of helping others like you helped me. I thank you so much for helping me get though that rough time in Hollywood and have created a website to help other musicians. It is called Musicians, Inc (www.thestage.tv) and I hope you can visit someday. That would mean a lot to me.

Thank you again warmest wishes,

Nesmo King

Hi Steve, I've just been at your website, and I must say it's been time well spent. Your personal comments about the tunes, musicians, and just plain life are very insightful and honest. I've been with you since "Flex-Able" and I'm looking forward to your upcoming music, best to you Steve Vai.

Mark

I just read the Journals...WOW! Obviously a great addition to a great page. My mind is racing with emotion as I write this note. The greatest memories for Steve and myself! The real meat looks to be the Diamond Dave tour, and I must say, it really was. As I was reading his journal, my mind took me on a journey of a time most fond in my own heart. As Steve went through a day by day account of that tour, so many fond memories came into my minds eye. I am so glad to have lived those times as I did not really know what or who I was sharing them with! I look upon it now and can only agree with Steve, that karma and the gods had brought us to this stage in our colorful lives.

I was on that tour with Dave, Billy, Greg & Steve 10 years ago. So many other names pop into my mind, on that tour, good times-bad times. So lucky to have traveled with such great people, great minds, very great times. I remembered (most) of what I was doing on each of the days listed. Unlike Steve though, names like Wheatly, Angelis, Stranger, Bad Bob, A.J.,Wilbur, Wolfman and The Tittyman come to my mind, we were all in the same places, we just had different realities!
Thank you very much for adding this in here, you not only took me down memory lane with Steve, but took me to places that I had'nt been in a decade!

Boy just like Steve, I could write a book, but I'd probobly be sued too!

Thanks for the memories,

Dan Pickell
Truck driver, lighting gear
1986 "Eat 'Em and Smile" Tour

Mr. Vai,

You and Satriani both have the power to create that which moves the soul. If it weren't for the two of you, who knows where rock would be now. I believe that the music that you and Satriani, create moves the soul, and lifts the spirit. Thanks for being that which drives the souls of those that believe in real rock.

Leftcntr

Hi, I'll try to be as brief as I can, but I'm dying to share with you what happened to me in 1993...

We went to Mulhouse (a town on the North-East of France) in November 1993 to see Steve Vai performing during the 'Sex & Religion' tour. The musicians were Steve, Scott Thunes on bass, Devin Townsend on vocals AND guitar (and I mean Guitar), along with a keyboard player and a drummer whose name I didn't catch. The show was absolutely fantastic and astonishing.

After the show we waited near the tour buses for about 2 hours, when Steve came to us, quite simply I must say, and he was absolutely kind, warm and friendly. I couldn't believe that this was the same man as the crazy maniac we've just saw on stage 2 hours before! As a welcome message to Steve I started to sing 'Stevie's in town...' (an adaptation of 'Frankie's in town', a song about Zappa I heard on a bootleg). Steve immediatly recognized this one and asked: 'Where did you get that?' I was embarassed when I mumbled the word 'bootleg'. We discussed a little about further projects, I told him it was me who shouted 'Salamanders in the Sun' between two songs during the show, and I made him sign on my score of 'Answers' along with my personal copy of 'Flex-able Leftovers' (the original small vinyl record - how proud was I to handle it to him!). We did more chatting and then he said goodbye and we let him go... Unfortunately, nobody had taken any photograph, so the only links I have to this moment is my memory (and the autographs, of course).

Needless to say I was feeling very, very happy the next days...

I have to say that I love reading Steve's personal journals. I have been a fan of Steve's since the DLR days (saw him at the Nassau Coliseum on the Skyscraper tour) but I had no idea how interesting and funny he is. Not only are his personal stories hysterical, but they are really well written. Steve really knows how to tell a story. I read the entire journal and personal post cards in one day at work. I couldn't stop reading. His teenage years were hilarious and his entries from the Asian tour were insightful. He seems really down to earth. When he tells a story he not only writes what happens but he has the ability to make you feel like he is talking to you. I laughed out loud at work. I think he should write a full length book of funny stories. His bee hobby is also interesting. Who would ever think that Steve Vai keeps bees?

Growing up in Jericho NY (two towns from Carle Place and Westbury) I always identified with Steve and Joe. Like Steve, I went to parties at Old Westbury mansions (though I never stole floodlights) and waited on line for midnight showings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Take care and keep up the good work.

Vai, for you, Fabiana Zimerman Yuko

Hi!

My name is Andreia and I'm your fans. I live in Indonesia, I really like your music you've been playing. You are my number one guitarist, so when are you going to perform in Indonesia again?

I missed your show in Indonesia several years ago (at the Hard Rock Cafe )and I would like to come to your show if you do it again in Indonesia.


That's for today. Bye,

Andreia

Steve & Company,

No particular question here, I just wanted to thank you for developing the DiMarzio Evolution pickups. I bought a set and they are the best sounding ones I have ever heard!

Mark Franklin
Louisville, KY

Avid instrumental loving music lover turned entrapenuer, that's me. Just got "G3" and it has this website on it. I come in and I realize what I've been missing all these years. I'm on my 3rd career and I'm not 30 yet, working so much I don't go out looking for music as much as I'd like and all the music buddies I had are all "responsible" with kids now. I'm going shopping tomorrow to get some of this stuff. I love finding discographies, gives me something to listen to for a month or two. Steve, if you actually see this, thanks for making such maniacal music. It's these Picasso-like portraits that you paint that got me through schooling and continue keeping me sane throughout life itself.

Grazie amico
(no name given)

To whomever this may make smile:

I've been listening to Steve for years, but apparently my (very conservative, by the way) wife is just now opening her ears.

Steve's performance of "The Attitude Song" on the "G3 Live" video was on the TV. At the start of the song, she starts by tapping her foot, smiling, then getting up and starting to dance.

And I quote: "*That* song I like. THAT's cool. That song has ATTITUDE". (She did not know the name of the tune at the time.)

*At this point she's flailing around the room...having a blast...*

Continuing quote: "If I was going to be a stripper, then *that's* the song I'd dance to!"

Thanks, Steve.

I think you can definitely say "Mission Accomplished".

---Chris

I have been a huge fan of Steve Vai since I was very young. The first time I saw Steve play was in a movie with Ralph Macchio and I have to say that I have probably watched that part about 1 MILLION times and it still inspires me. I own every album I believe he has ever released, and I just wanted to thank him for the inspiration he has given me. And one other thing. This is the first website I've ever visited, as I just got online and this was my first priority.

Thanx Steve

Nick

P.S. Cool web site!

I attached my work... I was thinking about modifying that work because the guitar isn't looking good. But I'm sending it anyway. Hope to see it in your homepage soon.

Bye.

Vai's great fan,
Arnold W. Shim

Howdy, I've always wondered how many songs Steve works on before he finds one he feels is good for mastering? And how long does it take to get there? After playing in bands a couple of years I bought a 4-track and started writing stuff but sometimes get stuck by not having a melody to fit the other parts. Is there a way or method Steve uses to move on when stuck on something thats going nowhere fast?

I saw Steve in Seattle when he played a small club during the 'Sex & Religion' tour. I was probably less than 4 feet from the stage, and probably had the shortest hair in the place besides Devin. I couldn't have been happier with the show and afterwards my friends and I got to have somethings signed. I only had a 'Passion and Warfare' CD for him to sign, but my friend Jim got his '88 floral pattern Jem signed. The most touching thing was that Jim's sister was engaged to a huge Steve Vai fan who was tragically killed by a drunk driver. Warren had purchased a killer multicolor Universe before he was killed. Steve didn't just sign the guitar after hearing about Warren's death, he wrote quite a bit more. Steve was compassionate and caring as he thought out what he was going to write, I was very impressed by his character. Warren's mother keeps the guitar locked in the closet where it can be preserved. I asked her about taking pictures but she's not ready for that quite yet. She is watching Steve though, wondering about him as a role model. I have pictures of my friends and I watching Steve sign the guitar.

Thanks, Steve, for not only standing out as an artist but also being standing out as a human being in a world filled with negative people.

Dennis Whitney

Hi there all...

just a little bit of computer artwork that i created...

erm..just to explain things a little...

the blurred out universe head belongs to a friend of mine...and when this friend saw the picture (which i designed for graphical purposes) he analysed it in a way that i hadn't seen it...

going clockwise from the top....
t
he triangle is the door.

the fire on the right, which merges into coloured stars, shows how out of the most negative emotions can come the most beautiful results.

the blurred guitar shows that music is bigger than the instrument (which is why its called an...ahem...instrument).

the ying yang sign...i just like that (heh) but i also believe that balance is everything.

"we're still animals" is a quote from passion & warfare, it indicates that some things will never change about his fans.

my friend saw the bubbles as how high playing the guitar makes him feel.

and the number 7 is my spiritual number and one i hear steve treasures as well...

the hard to see musical notes shows how understated things can be beautiful...to look between the lines...

evo, his fave geetar, i think, has a star behind it as well as the word "passion" between the bottom horn and the neck, which is where the high notes and vai's fingers go a lot...

it is turned to the left as if he would be playing left handed because even if he was forced to, his passion would still come thru. (he also played with his left hand when he was playing with dave lee roth, i think).

the wooden block has my initials "np" carved in it and its wooden looking because sex and religion is my fave album...

and lastly, vai, the audience is listening means that he and his fans are the center of everything.

i think i'm too wordy a person..heh

ok...that's it!

xxoo
Noelle Pereira
Singapore

Hi there -

I don't know if Steve will remember this gig or not, but here's my story:

Back in November of 1993, my best friend John Bruno's band got the call to open for Steve at Toad's Place in New Haven, CT. While we were both HUGE fans, we were absolutely thrilled with the prospect of actually talking to him backstage and seeing the show from behind the scenes. A day or so before the show, we got a call from Roger (Steve's guitar tech on the tour) who asked us to bring ALL of our Ibanez guitars to the show as there had been some sort of mix up and Steve's gear was not all there. We agreed and brought all of our axes to the show that night. We are both Ibanez players, so we had quite a few there. We had the distinct pleasure of watching Steve try all of our guitars out (I never knew mine could sound so good). He took a strong liking to my Loch Ness Green RG550 with a snake inlay on the neck. In any case, it was prepped a la Vai and sat in the rack with the 3 white/gold JEMs that actually made it to the show. I never thought he'd go to it because he had 3 JEM's there, but in a stroke of luck, he broke the strings on one, the strap broke on one, and when he needed a fresh guitar to play on, Roger handed him my guitar on which he played a couple of songs on. Of course, it was the end of the show and I had NO FILM LEFT!! I also don't know of anyone who took pictures that night who actually got a photo of him playing the mysterious green guitar, but I had him sign it at the end of the night. He was thankful and took a group photo with all of us. He is a really great guy and if anyone reads this who was at the show and has pics of him playing it, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!! I had the guitar tattooed on my calf so I will always remember that night and how special it was for me.

Chuck Czajkowski (cczajkowski@WestportBenefits.com)
New Haven, CT

Photomontage submitted by Ricardo Bello (various other photographers).