Yesterday, former Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx sat down with Steve Vai to talk riffs, gear and Led Zeppelin on his series, My Favorite Riff with Nikki Sixx.
Vai also tells Sixx some anecdotes about his time working with Frank Zappa, discussing both an instance in which he transcribed one of Zappa's famously lewd stories into a guitar piece, and how Zappa would push his bandmates into challenging, uncharted musical waters.
You can watch the insightful interview, and a longer, even more in-depth follow-up to the interview—"Deeper With Steve Vai"—below.
“Chuck Berry's not a very good guitar player. He's a clown. He runs all over the guitar, just like any one of these old rock players would do, and makes no sense”: Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown pulled no punches when speaking about his fellow guitar heroes
“I said, ‘Merle, do you remember this?’ and I played him his song Sweet Bunch of Daisies. He said, ‘I remember it. I've never heard it played that good’”: When Roy Clark met his guitar hero
