Thanks for the positive/kind words guys. Here's how this went down.
My brother, of which I've never been very close to came to me and asked me who are my favorite guitarists. My bro had never really showed any interest in my obsession with guitar. He chose the business man route in life and I went the down the road less traveled so to speak. I gave him my list, which had EVH, Vai, Govan, Stevens, Page, all the greats. Thought he was looking for some advice on where to begin his own journey into fretboard bliss. What I didn't realize is that he was trying to reconnect, and took my list of guitar heroes and went to work. About 2 weeks later, he dropped by my house and asked if I would like to fly out to LA with him and jam with Steve Vai at Steve's house. He was dead serious. I freaked. I accepted.
The next day he forwarded me an email to correspond with Steve directly about the jam. I couldn't believe it. Steve told me that he was wrapping up a tour and that from Nov 1st, on through till the end of the year, he would be home and would be available. Holy shit! I'm emailing back and forth with Steve. Super cool. We settled on a date, I bought airline tkts and got a Hotel res for my brother and I in Hollywood. Steve emailed back 'So we can do a lesson one on one, or if you are up for it, you can jam with me and my band'. Wow! Get out the defibrillator. I spend a couple days mulling over the two options and after careful consideration, decided the band jam would be more fun for me. Sitting face to face with Steve for a lesson, although super cool, was a very intimidating scenario, so I picked the band jam. I asked about gear, what should I bring. Just a guitar he said. I figured I'd take my shocking pink 1989 Jem and maybe if lucky get him to sign it.
So, long story short, my brother and I flew out to LA and farted around Hollywood for a day. Then the next morning, drove to Steve's house. Jam was to be for an hour, starting at noon. Stopped by guitar center Hollywood to get a guitar strap that I forgot. Next stop Steve's.
The dudes pad was monstrous. Giant black gate with call box out front. 10 foot hedge sound the entire property. Probably 7 or so cars in the driveway. A tall somewhat nerdy guy came from the house and walked us around the side to the 'Harmony Hut', his stand alone studio in the back. Massive pool in backyard. Shuffle board court too. Walked in and drummer and bass guy are already there, tuning up and such,,,no Steve though. About a minute later, a very calm and cool Steve Vai walks in from the co trip room/his office and the fun begins. He first took me on a tour of the studio. Showed me his custom made sound board that he helped design. Went into depth on some of the studio gear in there, then he got really animated and said there was something he had to show me. Back in the main jam room, he took me to where there were 3 large refrigerator size cabinets. He opened one of them exposing about 10 pull out drawers, each with probably 20 or so effects pedals, all labeled under delays, overdrives, etc... Tons of stuff. Dude was very proud of these organized pedals cabinets. A very organized guy to say the least. A tour of his guitar wall followed. Amazing. Then he showed me the amp I'd be playing thru. EVH, with orange cab. Said it was the drummers gear. Then an explanation of the pedal board id be using. Bad horsie wah, his Jemini distortion pedal, a carbon copy bright delay, chromatic tuner. I took my guitar out and he goes 'Whoaaaaa!, that's nice.' Where did you get that? Told him I bought it a couple years ago. Then he asked, "do you mind me asking what you payed for it!' I filled him in on the price. He then told me he has his guy currently looking for the same guitar and that if I ever wanted to sell it, let him know. Wow! This is crazy! He then asked me to hold it up to the same one he has hanging on the wall. He wanted to check to see if mine had faded at all ( a common problem with the pink guitars). Mine was dead mint, but the one he had on the wall was actually perfect and a micron shade brighter. We sat down and he began to explain what we were going to do. I have video of the conversation at this point, so I'm going to post it so you can hear for yourselves just how cool he was and how he was able to mellow my nerves.
Standby for the video of this, and I apologize for the long ass rambling so far.
. I'm jealous
