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The Latest Breaking News from Frank Zappa

“The original idea was Steve Stevens, but he was busy with Billy Idol”: How Steve Vai ended up joining David Lee Roth's post-Van Halen band – thanks to Billy Sheehan

While Vai wasn’t his original choice, the Sheehan-Vai dynamic proved strong enough to outlast Roth’s project

Guitar World

“The poor guy died out there and wasn’t discovered for 2 weeks. A perfect place to make beautiful music, right?” Steve Vai’s LA property – and his Harmony Hut guitar sanctuary – has been listed for $11.7 million

Despite a slightly chilling past, Vai used the space as a functioning studio and a home for his guitar collection, which included guitars personally gifted to him by Yngwie Malmsteen and Joe Satriani

Guitar World

“Evidently not content with redefining what was technically possible on the guitar, he also managed to rewrite pretty much the whole of music theory”: How Allan Holdsworth blew Eddie Van Halen’s mind and inspired the next generation of virtuosos

We unpack the brilliance of jazz-fusion trailblazer Allan Holdsworth, with some help from Steve Vai, Guthrie Govan, Paul Gilbert and Eddie Van Halen

MusicRadar

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"My job was to get rid of Alice Cooper – and I did exactly the opposite." Bob Ezrin on his long, strange trip with Alice Cooper

Visionary producer Bob Ezrin – who steered Alice Cooper to his greatest triumphs – looks back on decades of madness, mayhem and macabre genius

Metal Hammer

“I loved the band with Hillel so much – all I could think about was trying to match that energy”: John Frusciante on the challenge of replacing Hillel Slovak in the Red Hot Chili Peppers – and why he’s still at the core of his guitar style today

The funk-rock guitar icon joined his favorite band at 18 years old, but finding his groove took time. He explains how studying Slovak helped him find his own voice – and ultimately made the Chili Peppers one of the biggest bands on the planet

Guitar World

‘The most stunningly awful wonderful record’: how the Shaggs became rock’s most divisive band

Often completely out of tune and rarely in time, the group of sisters forced to play together by their father gained an army of fans from Frank Zappa to Kurt Cobain. A new documentary celebrates their cult status

The Guardian - UK

"A mix of surreal, supercilious satire and puerile lewdness." Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and The Mothers' Bongo Fury, revisited and expanded

A six-disc, 57-track edition of the legendary 1975 collaboration, featuring live recordings and outtakes

Louder

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“It was the most coveted guitar chair in rock. I adored Edward’s playing, so I understood that people would be skeptical”: How Steve Vai lived his ultimate guitar rockstar fantasy on David Lee Roth’s Eat ’Em and Smile

Working with David Lee Roth was like "being strapped to a rocket made of charisma and fueled by tequila” – and the music was pretty fun, too

Guitar World

‘Choosing happy is a hell of a process’: Thundercat on funk, lost friends and being fired by Snoop Dogg (possibly)

The genre-hopping bass virtuoso has backed Ariana Grande and Herbie Hancock, appeared in Star Wars and become a dedicated boxer. Ahead of his fifth album, Stephen Bruner explains his polymath mindset

The Guardian - UK

“It became an overnight sensation when Stevie Wonder used the effect”: Loved by Frank Zappa, Bootsy Collins, Steve Vai and more, how the Mu-Tron III became a vintage pedalboard icon

Mike Beigel's groundbreaking envelope filter made the world a funkier place

Guitar World

"It reminded me of the politics of fear, like we're doing today": How the LA club scene in the 1960s shaped American rock then sparked a revolution

The Doors to a riot: Six months in the life of Sunset Strip

Louder

The Gibson SG Standard has been played by Angus Young, Robby Krieger, Eric Clapton, Frank Zappa, George Harrison... and the list goes on – but is it still underrated?

Raising the bar for upper-fret access, the SG is the solidbody electric that took the world by storm, but doesn't get the respect it deserves

Guitar World

“He told me the story about a young guitarist he once let play his guitar at rehearsal. I said, ‘Brian, that was me’”: Steve Vai pays tribute to Brian May as he receives his radical custom Red Special

Guyton Guitars' highly customized version of May’s iconic axe is now in Steve Vai’s “humbled” hands

Guitar World

“I saw the Red Special. I pointed and said, ‘Is that it?’ Brian said, ‘Yup. Want to try it?’” Steve Vai says he once played Brian May’s guitar “like a baby giraffe on roller skates” – now the Queen icon has gifted him his own custom ‘Green’ Red Special

“I will treasure it for the rest of my life, and yes, I’m taking this one to the grave with me,” says Vai

MusicRadar

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Guitar World

“We hung out in his hotel room ’til 7 in the morning. He put on Donna Lee – I couldn’t believe it!” When Jimmy Haslip met Jaco Pastorius at Frank Zappa’s studio

The Yellowjackets co-founder and then-bassist tells the story of his first encounter with bass royalty

Louder

“I refused to believe the negative things he said because I couldn’t lose hope. But everything he said came to pass”: Terry Bozzio asked a question when he joined Frank Zappa. He asked the same question when he left

Drummer, composer and painter recalls his experiences with Captain Beefheart, UK and others, names the best band he’s ever been in and reveals how long it takes to set up his Big Kit

Louder

“My first boyfriend introduced me to The Wall. It was the only interesting thing about him”: Author and musician Joanne Harris on having the audacity to perform Pink Floyd, Rick Wakeman and Genesis music in her school band

She explains why prog makes her think of Barnsley, lists some of her favourite records and recalls taking her daughter to a Genesis tribute show only to hear her say: “Ah yes, Mastodon!”

Louder

“We got back together after 25 years and people came from all around the world, saying how important that album had been”: The Dutch quartet inspired by just five minutes of Soft Machine music

Their 1970 debut album, deliberately featuring no guitars at all, was inspired by the Canterbury band’s approach and Frank Zappa’s public persona – and it attained iconic status

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Louder

“It was my first studio job. I wiped a Robert Fripp guitar section. He wasn’t happy”: A world-class producer recalls shaky start to his career

After the baptism of fire that was King Crimson’s Lizard, he worked on Tangerine Dream’s Rubycon, Frank Zappa’s Joe’s Garage and dozens of Van Morrison records

Guitar World

“There was a certain amount of desperation in Frank returning my call and saying, ‘I don't believe you, but get over here and prove it'”: How Mike Keneally landed the Frank Zappa gig – after cold-calling his guitar hero

Keneally said he had a “Zappa jukebox” in his brain. The man himself wanted to test it out

Guitar World

“I took it into rehearsals and Frank Zappa said, ‘If you wanted to ruin your guitar, why didn’t you loan it to a friend?’” Adrian Belew shares unseen photos of “the first relic’d guitar” – which he created with Seymour Duncan

The pair’s process was a little more primitive than modern methods

Louder

“When he gave the family car back, his father tried to sell it as ‘formerly driven by Frank Zappa’”: The background that gave rise to music’s most eclectic iconoclast, by his wife and son

He developed his own form of expression at 9 years old, taught himself to compose music at 11, and hated the Summer Of Love, drugs and lack of effort. Here’s why there’s no such thing as an ex-Zappa fan

MusicRadar

“When we were finished gouging it with screwdrivers, spraying blops of paint on it, dragging it around the yard, and banging it on the driveway, we hung it up in a tree”: Adrian Belew on how he and Seymour Duncan made one of the first relic’d guitars

The prog guitar icon has posted new pics taken by Seymour Duncan that show off their handiwork as they turned Belew's new Strat into a relic and started guitar's most controversial trend

Louder

“As anniversary editions go, this one is exhaustively thorough”: Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention’s One Size Fits All, five decades on

The original nine tracks expanded to 58 – and while there’s some repetition and flawed live production, the energy is vigorous

Louder

"Even though he's dead, I believe that in a hundred years' time from now people will still be listening to him": Steve Vai on the wild genius of Frank Zappa – and the two words that made him want to join his band

They say never meet your heroes – Steve Vai would disagree

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