Steve Vai Had Finger Surgery, Can’t Play Guitar

Whatwith the pandemic putting live shows on hold for nearly a year now, it’s as good a time as any to undergo surgery that’ll relegate a player to the sidelines side stage.

In a new chat with the Guitar Villains podcast, Vai revealed that he recently did just that, going under the knife for a sprained finger that he had endured, naturally, while playing guitar, specifically trying to voice and hold a particularly difficult chord. Vai developed trigger finger, a condition in which a finger gets stuck in a bent position, and decided to have the procedure done sooner rather than later so he can get back to playing shape before the season touring starts up again.

He explained:

“I was doing this fun thing, and I had to put my thumb in this really weird position. I had to kind of hold this chord really for a long time — I was meditating on it. 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.”

“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.”

I can only imagine how scary it is for a professional guitar player to have their hand cut open — that’d be like me, uh, having my internet connection serviced? I dunno — but Vai seems to be taking it in stride. Hopefully he’ll be back on the field in playing shape before too long.

Vai released a new song called “Candle Power” last June and sold his own line of candles to go along with the track. Stream it below.

[via Loudwire]