Steve Vai had a great time in the ’80s, playing guitar for ex-Van Halen singer David Lee Roth and with former Deep Purple frontman David Coverdale’s band Whitesnake.
But as Vai admits to MusicRadar, it’s a risky business when you’re up on stage strutting your stuff, night after night.
You’re walking a tightrope - and sometimes you can end up flat on your back.
As Vai says, “One of the worst things that can happen to any guitar player is that your rig goes down and they don’t know what it is and can’t fix it right away.
“That’s only happened to me on a few occasions, but it’s never fun. I just leave the stage and say, ‘Sorry, something’s not working, I’ll be back when it’s fixed!’
“But there have been other challenges,” he says. “Playing when it’s snowing is not fun, because you can’t move your hands.
“And I remember two situations with the two Daves…
“One was with David Lee Roth. I was playing a big arena somewhere and people throw things occasionally.
“When you see them coming, not a problem, you can play with it and dodge. You can even catch it.
“So, I saw something coming at me and was about to catch it, then it blew up about six feet in front of me. There was a huge explosion and I went up in the air. I could see my feet and then I was totally out, unconscious on my back.
“I opened my eyes in front of 25,000 people and Dave was standing over me going, ‘Dude! Dude! You okay, man?’ And when I said I was okay, he told me not to get up.
“Dave always knew how to keep things interesting…
“They carried me to the back [of the stage] and Dave said, ‘When you walk out there, act all fucked-up before throwing your hand up in the air!’
“Everyone in the audience was dying to see what happened. They were wondering if I was okay and if the show going to carry on?
“So I did this funny walk, looking all messed up, and put my hand up. I gotta tell you, the place came apart and it was brilliant. And then we did Jump!”
Vai recalls a similar incident on stage with Whitesnake and the band’s singer David Coverdale.
“It wasn’t too different,” Vai says. “Fast forward a couple of years and I was playing Jones Beach Theater with Whitesnake, playing that big heart guitar in the rain.
“I usually do pretty good footwork. I never go down. You get this foot radar, knowing where the pedals are, so you can act like a rock star.
“I was backing up and knew the monitor was behind me, so I was moving to step over it, but I had these spurs on my boots.
“The spurs caught the monitor and again I was up in the air, staring at my feet and landing on my back, completely out.
“And this time I had this giant triple-necked heart-shaped guitar on top of me!
“I opened my eyes and this time it’s David Coverdale standing over me saying, ‘Steven, darling, are you okay? Are you alright?’
Vai says: “It’s funny what can happen to you on stage every now and then.
“You can call this The Tale Of Two Davids!”
