Steve Vai

Steve Vai

Steven Siro Vai was born June 6, 1960 at Nassau County Hospital in New York, the fourth of five children born to John and Theresa Vai. Growing up in Carle Place Long Island, NY, He was influenced at an early age by his sister's love of music. Steve started playing organ at age 6 and at 10 years old started playing accordion. When Steve was about 13 years old, he picked up a guitar, and wanted to learn how to play it. Knowing that he wanted to play guitar like Jimmy Page but not knowing how, Steve turned to local guitar hero Joe Satriani. Satriani was also young, only four years older than Steve, but he already had a local reputation as a great guitarist and Steve started taking guitar lessons from Joe at $5 each. In the beginning, Steve and another friend both took lessons from Joe at the same time so they could better afford it at $2.50 each. Steve continued to take lessons from Joe for about three years, and Joe Satriani was a very big influence on Steve Vai in the mid 70's. Steve played with several different bands during these years, including performances at Carle Place High School and with his bands “Circus” and “Rayge”, and also teaching guitar to students of his own. In 1978, Steve packed up and left Long Island for Boston's Berklee School Of Music, where he would form the bands “Morning Thunder” with Randy Coven and “Axis Bold As Love” with Stu Hamm. He later met his future