“I was embarrassingly inexperienced.” Steve Vai on the guitarist who “saved his bacon” with a vital piece of gear when he was a greenhorn in David Lee Roth’s band

Steve Vai was still building his résumé when David Lee Roth handpicked him to front the former Van Halen singer’s band in 1985. Vai followed up his Zappa stint with a head-turning debut solo album, Flex-Able, in 1984. “When I joined Dave, I was embarrassingly inexperienced with what people would call ‘big rock guitar tone,’” the guitarist says in the new issue of Guitar World. By 1989, Vai was walking out the exit, with a blossoming solo career and a stint in Whitesnake ahead of him. Elsewhere, Vai has recalled his hilarious full-circle moment with Brian May and named the guitarist he believes was more revolutionary than Jimi Hendrix.