Spotlight
on Steve Vai
Virtuoso guitar shredder, former
Frank Zappa sideman, beekeeper and vegetarian,
STEVE VAI tells Napa-based musician and beekeeper
Ross Rubin why Amy’s Kitchen’s
Salisbury Steak really takes him home.
 Where
does the honeybee fit into Steve Vai’s
personal mythos?
Well, you know, this is something that I do
to be closer to nature. When I’m in my
bee colonies, I’m by myself—you
know, no one else can really be near you. It’s
the one thing that I do that’s completely
outside of demands and the music industry and
any other relationships I have in my life—it’s
just me and the bees.
I feel a sense of accomplishment; I’m
helping nature.
Beekeeping feels pretty feral, huh?
And it’s also kinda like being in another
dimension.
Beekeeping is very special. You can’t
understand it unless you do it.
Despite all the reading and classes
one can learn about beekeeping from—and
I encourage anyone interested to read and
take a class—beekeeping is a skill
that takes actual practice before you can
really start to understand it—and then
its only a start because honeybees are wild
animals who frequently surprise and confound.
All that reading can’t prepare you
for the experience of being at the center
of that electron cloud, sometimes surrounded
by thousands of buzzing insects.
Have you gotten anyone started in
beekeeping?
Actually, yeah, I have, but I tend to keep
these things sort of private.
My beekeeping, my vegetarianism, my spirituality.
I don’t really like to open these things
up for debate. I’ve had people attack
me for being a beekeeper—
Vegans?
Some vegans do not eat honey and I appreciate
their perspective. They don’t want to
exploit the bees or disrupt their lives. But
I’ve discovered that bee keeping actually
helps the bees. We’re keeping them healthy
and propagating new colonies. We’re helping
the environment and we’re only taking
the surplus honey from the bees that they’re
not going to use. But I respect anyone else’s
point of view on the issue.
Any musical colleagues who’ve
gotten interested in beekeeping, anyone you’ve
mentored?
Oh yeah, 3 or 4 have asked me about it and
I helped set them up with equipment and stuff.
None famous but, I did get Mike Green, previous
President of the Recording Academy, interested
in it and now he has some flourishing colonies.
I have an observation hive that I take around
to the local schools--
I saw those pictures of you with the
school kids on your website—fantastic!
Yeah, the kids are so fascinated it’s
really a wonderful, fun thing to do.
How old are yours?
 My
boys are 16 and 19.
Do they help you in the colonies?
When they were children, yeah.
Now one’s in college and the other [some
laughter] well….
He’s got his own things going
on.
You know, the weekend comes and he just hits
the ground running.
Ours are 4 and 5 and both really fascinated
by the bees. I’m about ready to get
them some little suits of their own.
And you auction off your honey to
benefit your foundation—The Make a
Noise Foundation.
Yes, if the fans want a jar of honey, the
money goes into this charity.
As a composer and poet, what sorts
of analogies have you drawn from the world
of the bees into the musical world?
The thing about the bees is that, in order
to accomplish anything of any real value, you
have to focus intensely on that thing and that’s
what the bees do.
Bees are instinctual and very organized. The
colony has a fascinating social infrastructure.
Everyone’s got a job and they literally
work themselves to death in the service of
the colony.
Yeah, as they cycle through their
lives’ jobs-- from house-bee, to nurse
bee, to guard and forager-- they stay completely
focused on their tasks and on the well being
of what biodynamic beekeepers call the “bien”—the
unified “organism” that is the
colony.
It’s always great to be reminded of
the microcosm and macrocosm in everything.
When you’re working with the bees, you’re
in a particular headspace that’s unlike
any other place you can go. I find it very
revitalizing.
I always feel like I’m in the
nucleus of an atom—
--Spin on!
When did you choose vegetarianism?
On my 22nd birthday.
Was there a particular catalyst that
turned you around and made you reassess?
Yes, eating meat just never felt quite right
to me. And I was always sick, I always had
digestive issues and as a kid I suffered from,
what they said were “hereditary migraines.”
Who else had them? Your mom? Your
dad?
Well, that was the thing, no one else in my
family had them but they were so bad, I couldn’t
do anything, I was basically paralyzed. I was
generally in poor health and all I did was
play the guitar all the time, I didn’t
do any real exercising. Then I went into a
very dark period between the ages of 20 and
22, sort of a “dark night of the soul” you
might say--
You were working with Frank Zappa?
Yeah I was playing with Frank at the time.
He was a pretty cynical character?
Oh, yeah, pretty cynical, but I don’t
believe that had anything to do with it. I
loved Frank.
He was unbelievably warm, funny and witty
and his cynicism was grounded in his humor--
in his comic nature-- and he would say just
the funniest, and most right-on things. Frank
was an unbelievable, extraordinary person.
I was 22 and becoming a vegetarian was one
of those things that seemed to be a common
sense and natural thing to do.
True. Vegetarianism seems, for so
many reasons, to be “right action”--
a good thing to do.
It became very obvious to me and even practical
after I started reading a bit more deeply and
finding all the evidence for our not really
being carnivores and all the health benefits
of being vegetarian combined with my growing
awareness of karmic consequences. But even
throwing all that away, meat-eating just didn’t
seem right to me.
But that said-- I never get into debates about
vegetarianism with anybody. Each of us is on
our own path. For me, it was a huge turning
point. My diet had a dramatic effect on my
mental health and I can count on one crippled
hand how many migraines or stomach ailments
I’ve had over the last 26 years. It also
has a dramatic effect on my mood and outlook
on life. It gave me a new lease on life.
>> Read Full Interview!
Previous Spotlights:
Mr.
Rogers | Alicia
Silverstone | Tobey
Maguire | Natalie
Portman | Russell
Simmons | Joaquin
Phoenix | Brendan
Brazier | Carrie
Underwood | Steve
Vai |
|
