10 Guitarists Who Inspired The Sound Of Modern Rock & Metal Music

In the mid-eighties, Steve Vai arrived in the rock scene with many seeing him as the face of a new generation of virtuoso guitarists, ready take Eddie Van Halen’s crown. Coincidentally, it was his place in the new solo band of recently departed Van Halen singer David Lee Roth that announced Steve to the mainstream rock and MTV audience. Prior to this, Vai had studied the craft of the instrument at Berklee College of Music, before embarking on a further educational journey playing with the avant-garde Jazz maestro Frank Zappa.

Before linking up with Roth, Vai released his debut, off the wall Zappa-influenced solo album, Flexible (1984). But it was on Roth’s highly rated debut solo record, Eat Em And Smile (1986), that Vai produced some of his best work and toured the world as a true rock star, before repeating the process on the follow-up Skyscraper (1988). After this cycle, Steve moved on to record and tour with Whitesnake before he created the instrumental album that solidified his reputation as probably the greatest guitarist of the era, Passion and Warfare (1990).

After a whirlwind initial decade in his career, Steve Vai has continued to set a high standard with everything he has done since. He followed up his work on Passion and Warfare by creating the band Vai with then unknown vocalist and musician Devin Townsend, releasing the album Sex and Religion. Steve has gone on to release countless solo albums since, all whilst maintaining an impressive touring schedule to this day.