Steve Vai Explains What He Thought About Jimmy Page When He Saw Led Zeppelin For The First Time

Three-time Grammy award winner, guitarist, singer, and producer Steve Vai talked about what he felt when he went to a Led Zeppelin concert and saw Jimmy Page for the first time on The Jay Jay French Connection podcast.

During the conversation, Steve Vai shared one of his greatest childhood memories which was going to a Led Zeppelin concert at Madison Square Garden. It was his first real concert and he was charmed by the band’s especially Jimmy Page’s performance.

Madison square garden concerts were part of Led Zeppelin’s 1973 North America tour as three sold-out shows from July 26 to 29.  Also, these concerts were filmed for a motion picture entitled ‘The Song Remains the Same.‘ The concert film and its soundtrack album that had the same name were released on October 20, 1976.

Almost over ten years after that, Vai was on the same stage with David Lee Roth. He also remembered his first unaccompanied solo guitar show which was totally sold out. During the performance, he recalled the memory of himself who was watching Led Zeppelin from the last seat and played for that kid. 

Here’s what he told:

“The first real concert I ever went to was Led Zeppelin at the Madison Square Garden [in NYC]. I was a kid, and we had the last seats in the venue with the pigeons.

The wall was back of me, I was the furthest away from the stage that you could possibly be, but still, it was glorious because it was Jimmy Page and it was Led Zeppelin.

And I remember not too long after that, 10-12 years after that, maybe 13 years after that, I was on that stage with Dave Roth, and there was a ramp we had in the front.”

He went on:

“And I remember when I was doing my unaccompanied guitar solo for the first time, I was standing on the ramp – and it was totally sold out.

And I’m looking around, and I looked at the kid in the very last seat, way up in the back and I played my guitar solo to that kid, and that was a very surreal kind of thing.”

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