We recently talked about Steve Vai's many upcoming musical projects, including an acoustic one. Unfortunately that acoustic project has caused Vai a hand injury that resulted in surgery, ultimately sidelining him from guitar for a little while.
Vai told Guitar Villains the injury is from an unorthodox acoustic guitar technique.
"I was doing this fun thing, and I had to put my thumb in this really weird position, and I had to kind of hold this chord really for a long time — I was meditating on it," he said. "And I knew it was a hard position, and I just kept sitting there and playing it and playing and playing, and 20 minutes later, I'd kind of come out, and I [felt pain in my hand].
"So I kind of sprained this, and then, all of a sudden, I developed trigger finger… My wife said, 'Don't show anybody,' 'cause they did that operation and they cut in there, and the guy's fooling around with everything in there, and it's really bizarre. But it's all fine — it's something very simple that they can fix. But I won't be able to play for a while."
The below podcast also showcases Vai with a pretty sweet beard.