Legendary guitarist Steve Vai had shoulder surgery a little over a year ago. The surgery was successful, so much so that Vai was even able to record a blazing rock album. While he was touring the states, things went wrong, and the famous guitarist hurt his fingers while making pizza. The upcoming European tour may have to wait a bit while he recovers, as he shared in a recent conversation with the ‘My 3 Questions To’ series.
“The thumb surgery healed in, like, a couple of days, really,” the guitarist said, revealing that he has already recovered from the second surgery. “Then I started to get a little trigger in my other finger, so I had to get another surgery.”
He continued, “But my shoulder is okay. I had two surgeries. The European was probably a little premature because it didn’t do much good for my shoulder. But the American tour is doing great. And I feel good. It’s still healing; I’ve got probably three more months of healing.”
Now that the guitarist’s shoulder has healed, we can safely say that this surgery also caused a sweet anecdote. After surgery, Vai wore a sling called ‘Knappsack’ and couldn’t use his right arm while recovering. The guitarist used this as an opportunity to practice experimentally and entered the recording studio.
If you look at the track list of the album ‘Inviolate’ released last January, you will see that the sixth song is named ‘Knappsack.’ Yes, Vai wrote this song in the studio using only his left hand, pushing the instrument’s limits as usual. The song, and the album, as a whole, were met with pretty good feedback. The artist is currently on a tour of the US, and it seems like this injury won’t stop him from touring the US.
