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" Acting, at least for me, is very unreal, and when I'm doing it, I actually feel embarrassed. "
Steve Vai
Embarrassed
Acting
Doing
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" Possessing a healthy imagination is a necessary ingredient for creativity. "
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Creativity
Imagination
Healthy
" I wanted to be a composer before anything else. And my sister was listening to Led Zeppelin in the other room! When I heard that, it was a game-changer. "
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Room
Before
Heard
" I designed a guitar for Ibanez and then they started manufacturing it - it's called the Jem - it's 26 years old and I still play it. As a kid I liked Les Pauls and Strats, but they had limitations for the kind of playing I wanted to do. "
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Guitar
Play
Kid
" Still to this day, I am deeply satisfied when watching a guitar player who is connected with their art and instrument. GuitarTV helps you tap into that connection, and to each other. "
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Connection
Art
Day
" That's the thing about great artists: They find the thing that's most obvious to themselves, what's most conscious and natural, and they put it out there and the audience comes. "
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Audience
Natural
Great
" As far as Deep Purple goes, I mean, they're iconic. Their contribution is unquantifiable, and as far as the politics involved in things like awards, you know, I don't think anything, because I know what they mean to me, and I know what they mean to the people who like them. Awards are very politically based. "
Steve Vai
Think
Deep
Know
" I didn't have any aspirations of becoming famous or successful; in fact I was scared to death of all that. I remember somebody once said that if a rock musician goes on tour, he goes insane. I was very impressionable and I carried this useless weight of fear around with me about going on tour, all because of this thing somebody said. "
Steve Vai
Famous
Rock
Fear
" I've always considered transcribing to be an invaluable tool in the development of one's musical ear and, over the years, I have spent countless glorious hours transcribing different kinds of music, either guitar-oriented or not. "
Steve Vai
Over
Always
Years
" You know, there's times when you should play and there's times when you gotta hold back. "
Steve Vai
You
Gotta
Hold
" What I look for in music is artistry, sincerity, and simplicity, and Tom Waits has all of that. I want to make a connection to the creator. "
Steve Vai
Simplicity
Look
Music
" Besides being a guitar player, I'm a big fan of the guitar. I love that damn instrument. "
Steve Vai
Guitar
Love
Damn
" I think every artist subconsciously wants to evolve themselves. Sometimes they get stuck in ruts because of pop culture, peer pressure, stuff like that. But what excites me most is exploring my own musical insights and expanding upon them. "
Steve Vai
Artist
Pressure
Think
" I've learned over the years that you're going to be most successful at the things you're most excited to do. Every artist has a special set of tools. When you really use those tools, and you make yourself feel really good about the product you create, I think you'll find an audience for it. I've been very fortunate in that respect. "
Steve Vai
Good
Respect
Think
" I'm a big fan of cultural music, and that's how I try to expand my playing, by listening to music that is not conventionally American. "
Steve Vai
American
Listening
Music
" I don't believe in 'greatest'. I believe in favorites. "
Steve Vai
Greatest
Believe
Favorites
" Favored Nations is a long-term commitment. Our hope is that those who are passionate about real musicianship will want to hear and own most of our albums. We will set out to attain the same direct relationship with our customers that we have with our artists. "
Steve Vai
Want
Commitment
Relationship
" The older I get, the more I just like plugging directly into my amp. I'm tired of trying to impress myself with weird sounds. It's about the notes more. "
Steve Vai
Trying
Weird
Impress
" I have an independent record label called Favored Nations on which I released an album by an artist called Johnny A, who plays an arch top Gibson through a Marshall, but the tone is all in his fingers. "
Steve Vai
Independent
Artist
Top
" I was a kid, 12 or something, when the Partridge Family was big on TV. I liked the curly cord running from the bass to the amps, which were real fancy. That cord looked so cool. I said, 'Wow! I gotta play something like that!' "
Steve Vai
Kid
Cool
Said
" I have a deep love for life and my fellow human beings. I try to understand everything that everybody does, even if it seems wrong to me. "
Steve Vai
Me
Understand
Deep
" It's hilarious, because my guitar has what's known as a tremolo bar or a whammy bar. And the whammy bar is probably the most alien thing on my guitar that could possibly relate to a classical guitar. "
Steve Vai
Because
Bar
Alien
" I've been approached many times to write all sorts of books about my past and my personal life. I get interest from people who want to do reality shows, and somebody just offered me a huge amount of money to write my spiritual memoirs. I'm just not interested. "
Steve Vai
Life
Me
Money
" When I was a teenager in the '70s, I was really into those great bands like Led Zeppelin and Queen and Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper. "
Steve Vai
Deep
Like
Purple
" When I was young, I wasn't a misfit or anything. I had friends in all the different social groups. But I had issues - just personal issues, insecurities and other things that had happened in my life. "
Steve Vai
My Life
Young
Friends
" Ray and I do not draw salaries, Any profits will be re-invested into marketing the music we believe in. "
Steve Vai
Will
Believe
Marketing
" We have the insight and the tools to identify and bring to fruition the dormant talent that our artists possess. Favored Nations will be branded as the home base for inspired musical talent. "
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Will
Home
Insight
" I can count on one hand the people who are legendary in my book, and Tom Waits is certainly right at the top. It's funny, though: When I tell people that I like Tom's music, it surprises them. "
Steve Vai
I Can
Book
Right
" I don't think I approach my songs differently from other artists. You get a big picture of it, and you imagine the song and hear and feel it, and that big picture is like a snapshot, and it comes to you as fast as it takes to click a camera. "
Steve Vai
Feel
You
Think
" The blues scale was the first thing I learned. It's just a pentatonic scale with a flat seventh and a few notes that sound cool when you bend them. And because people have amalgamated the blues into this rock-blues scale, if you're using it, you better sound like a real authentic blues player. "
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Blues
You
Real
" My main calling in life is to seek and achieve spiritual balance, and to express that through my instrument. Everything else is here today, gone later today. "
Steve Vai
Life
Spiritual
Today