“Playing with Vince Neil, opening for Van Halen, it got to be total rock ’n’ roll excess. I had to reassess why I was even playing guitar”: Steve Stevens on resisting shred, how Paco de Lucia made him go nylon, and Billy Idol’s eternal appeal

Steve Stevens wears a polka-dot shit and plays his Knaggs single-cut on a stage lit up in blue, Marshall stacks in the background.

Whether igniting Billy Idol’s biggest anthems or unleashing fiery flamenco on his own, Steve Stevens has never played it safe and never stood still.

More than 40 years into his career, he remains sharp as ever. As Idol’s long-time right-hand man and collaborator, Stevens helped define the sound of the ’80s but refuses to be just a relic of that era.