Vai Takes Cue From Partridge Family and Led Zeppelin

Recalling a pivotal moment in his past, hard-rock guitarist Steve Vai cringed, took a gulp of beer and then talked about the influence of the early-’70s teen heroes the Partridge Family on his decision to play guitar.

“I was a kid, 12 or something, when the Partridge Family was big on TV,” he said during a recent interview at a West Hollywood restaurant. “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!’ ”

Currently a member of the band White-snake, Vai wound up playing guitar--with speed and dexterity that few of his rivals can match. His “Passion and Warfare” album--one of the best and least indulgent instrumental guitar albums to come out in recent years--has sold over 600,000 copies. It’s his second solo album. His first was “Flex-Able,” made for a small independent label in 1984.

Vai, though, did have other, more substantial influences--namely Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. “I remember listening in awe to Page’s solos,” Vai recalled. “I remember saying to my brother, ‘I want to play guitar like that.’ What really stuck is that he said if I could play guitar like that I’d get all the chicks I wanted.”

Now a 30-year-old with a wife and child, Vai admitted to “days of limitless lust” during his early years playing guitar for Frank Zappa, who discovered Vai and gave him his first break, and then with the band Alcatrazz.

But playing guitar brings Vai other pleasures as well. “I love the way you can bend notes and the way you can move your fingers in one little different way and get a completely different sound,” he explained.

Vai learned how to play from Joe Satriani when both were teen-agers in Long Island. Ironically, Satriani is now one of his biggest rivals for guitar-soloist supremacy.

Though he always had talent, Vai wasn’t widely known until his two-year tenure in David Lee Roth’s band, beginning in 1986. His conflicts with Roth were notorious. “I finally left because there were too many constraints,” Vai said. “David has a big ego and so do I. I needed more freedom.”

That’s what Whitesnake’s David Coverdale promised when he hired Vai immediately after his split with Roth. Vai’s playing is the highlight of Whitesnake’s “Slip of the Tongue,” which, in terms of sales, has been a disappointment. So has the band’s tour, which, Vai admitted, has done less than sell-out business.

Vai isn’t sure he’ll be around for the next Whitesnake album--if there is one. “I’m going to focus on my solo career and enjoy not being in anybody’s band--at least for now.”