As part of Expo ’92 in Seville there was a series of ‘guitar legends’ concerts, that were actually filmed in late 1991 but as far as I remember televised in the uk then, or sometime in 1992. I was 16 or 17 and an obsessive guitar addict. I’d been playing guitar about 3 or 4 years when I watched the ‘Rock’ guitar legends concert (there was jazz, blues etc), and I saw Joe Satriani and Steve Vai perform for the first time.

After watching most of the concert with my mum and obsessing over Satrani and the Ibanez guitar he played, my mum got bored so I had to go and watch it upstairs in my room. That tv was a black and white portable, but Steve Vai, who I then watched, was dressed in black with a black guitar with white pickups anyway!

I watched him play ‘For The Love Of God’ and actually couldn’t believe someone could make a guitar sound that good! The melody was brooding and expressive and his control of the guitar was something to behold… but then he went for the solo proper and I was just blown away! The fluidity, speed, expressive voice and ultimately the musicality was fantastic!

I think after watching that show I started practising guitar about 6 hours a day and by the time I was 21 I was playing live regularly and I became a guitar teacher which was great as I made a living from what had been a hobby.

Anyway, here’s the exact performance. Enjoy!