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Matteo Mancuso has revealed that his hero, Steve Vai, pushed for a chance to work together, and taught the young star a big lesson along the way.
The former Frank Zappa, David Lee Roth, and Whitesnake shredder is one of a number of virtuosos who championed Mancuso’s talents before he exploded onto the scene, with Al Di Meola and Joe Bonamassa also among them.
But with Mancuso’s newly released second album, Route 96, Vai is no longer just a fan as he features on its opening track, Solar Wind. It turns out that the track was Vai’s idea, planting a seed after welcoming Mancuso to the 2024 edition of his namesake guitar camp.
“That was the first time I met Steve in person,” he tells MusicRadar. “We played almost every night. I was one of the teachers at the camp, and every night, there was a different teacher on the stage.
“He told me that if I had something, like a song or something to work on, he would be happy to collaborate. I immediately started to work on the song.”
Fast-forward around two years, and that idea has now bloomed into a track that entangles Mancuso’s sun-baked melodies with Vai’s golden touch. It was an experience that the younger of the two will remember fondly.
“I wanted to have the most Steve Vai song possible on the record,” says Mancuso, who ended up altering his usual playing style to harness some Vai-ism.
“That’s why even I’m playing some stuff that maybe you can associate with Steve, some legato runs or some of the sounds that I used. I wanted to build an environment where Steve was comfortable playing. And that was very important to me.”
The guitarist had written the song with a key lesson from Vai, which had been said to him on the last day of the camp and still reverberated in his head.
“He told me, ‘Play what excites you the most about the instrument.’ And it’s one thing that I always think about,” Mancuso details. “Because the guitar has so many ways it can be played. You can play like Tommy Emmanuel. You can play like Yngwie Malmsteen. You can play like Allan Holdsworth.
“There are so many different techniques. You have tapping, legato. You have sweep picking. And that is why it’s such a personal instrument. You project a lot of your personality in it; you can play it in a really personalized way.”
Having now worked with one of his biggest influences, Mancuso is now eyeing another big-name collaboration and a signature version of his beloved Yamaha Revstar. But he’s also been quick to herald the next generation of players, saying there’s one star-in-the-making everyone should know about.
