A biography for Steve Vaihasn’t been written yet.
“I've been approached many times to write all sorts of books about my past and my personal life. I get interest from people who want to do reality shows, and somebody just offered me a huge amount of money to write my spiritual memoirs. I'm just not interested.”
“I've never really heard anybody imitating anything of mine the way they do with Edward Van Halen's stuff.”
“I didn't have any aspirations of becoming famous or successful; in fact I was scared to death of all that. I remember somebody once said that if a rock musician goes on tour, he goes insane. I was very impressionable and I carried this useless weight of fear around with me about going on tour, all because of this thing somebody said.”
“The classical guitar has a dynamic to it unlike a regular acoustic guitar or an electric guitar. You know, there's times when you should play and there's times when you gotta hold back. It's an extremely dynamic instrument.”
“I was about seven or eight years old when I first heard West Side Story, and it had a huge impact on me. If you look at the elements of that record, it contains many of the things I enjoy doing today.”
“The only time I'm miserable is when I can't keep an instrument in tune.”
“I wanted to be a composer before anything else. And my sister was listening to Led Zeppelin in the other room! When I heard that, it was a game-changer.”
“What I look for in music is artistry, sincerity, and simplicity, and Tom Waits has all of that. I want to make a connection to the creator.”
“My main calling in life is to seek and achieve spiritual balance, and to express that through my instrument. Everything else is here today, gone later today.”
“When I was a teenager in the '70s, I was really into those great bands like Led Zeppelin and Queen and Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper.”
“Possessing a healthy imagination is a necessary ingredient for creativity.”
“It's hilarious, because my guitar has what's known as a tremolo bar or a whammy bar. And the whammy bar is probably the most alien thing on my guitar that could possibly relate to a classical guitar.”
“It's very hard to come across as a passionate human being in print. People can't hear the inflections in your voice.”
“Reps once took chances on art, History's most treasured musicians were believed in and cultivated to reach their potential. Today, it would be difficult for those musicians to get deals.”
“When I was growing up, the blues did seem too simple to me. I was just a muso.”
“I was always one of those guys who was a seeker after truth. I want to know what's going on.”
“I can count on one hand the people who are legendary in my book, and Tom Waits is certainly right at the top. It's funny, though: When I tell people that I like Tom's music, it surprises them.”
“I can tell you this: I'm an extremely passionate individual. I try to be careful how I display it because you never know how people are going to take it.”
“I was a kid, 12 or something, when the Partridge Family was big on TV. I liked the curly cord running from the bass to the amps, which were real fancy. That cord looked so cool. I said, 'Wow! I gotta play something like that!'”
“It just happens in life, where you resonate with a particular artist. Or it can be a kind of food or a fashion - you discover it and it gives you a whole new lease on life.”