“I couldn’t play the Hydra and I was in a lot of pain. Then things shifted into gear. I felt like I’d reached another dimension of performing”: Steve Vai on his Inviolate tour struggles, upcoming G3 reunion and first-ever music with Joe Satriani

Steve Vai.

When Steve Vai recently ended his Inviolate world tour, he’d spent 19 months playing 194 shows across 51 countries – the most exhaustive road trip of his 40-plus-year career.

Giving his mad-scientist, three-necked Hydra guitar a well-deserved breather, and also resting his 63-year-old bones, Vai tells Guitar World: “It’s always nice to complete tour cycles, which usually consist of making a record, conceiving it, writing it, recording it, rehearsing it, and touring it. I feel like I live a charmed life.”