In Steve Vai’s hands, a guitar sounds like a living thing. He can make it laugh, breathe fire, climax, beam to other planets, rustle like leaves or reduce to primal ooze.

As such, his powers have been in demand since he was just 18. Big stars with big personalities, from Frank Zappa to David Lee Roth to David Coverdale, have made Vai a vital collaborator and onstage foil. He was even called upon to play The Devil’s own guitarist, in Ralph Macchio’s 1986 film “Crossroads.”

Vai’s solo career has been the thread through it all. He first turned heads with 1984 album “Flex-Able.” But it was 1990′s dense vivid “Passion and Warfare,” after his high-profile Roth stint, that became a lodestar for generations of guitar virtuosos, including Nita Strauss of Alice Cooper and Demi Lovato fame.

This year, Vai released his 10th solo studio album, “Inviolate.” The LP is a garden of stunning technique, rich tones and fearless compositions. Tracks like “Teeth of the Hydra,” “Zeus in Chains” and “Candlepower” find Vai throwing shapes like only Vai can. The tune “Greenish Blues” is a masterclass in how to play the blues without playing the blues.

The “Inviolate” cover artwork features a photo of Vai with a crazy triple-neck guitar he designed, called The Hydra. The triple-neck played a pivotal role in recording the new album.

Vai and his band (bassist Philip Bynoe, guitarist Dave Weiner, drummer Jeremy Colson) are in the midst of a world tour supporting the LP. Tour dates and ticket links at vai.com.

On a recent afternoon, Vai checked in for a video call interview. He was wearing eyeglasses with lenses the color of Mars’ atmosphere. Although Vai plays guitar like an alien lifeform he speaks with a salt-of-the-earth New York accent. Edited excerpts below.

Steve, how often do you think visually when you’re creating sonically? “Teeth of the Hydra,” the opening track on your new album, is like a movie for the ears instead of eyes.

Steve Vai: Well, there’s different kinds of visualization. You know what I mean? There’s like an audio presentation in the mind, you know, where you kind of get a picture of how you want the piece of music to unfold. And sometimes all you need is just a tiny snippet of an idea, and sometimes it’s a musical idea and sometimes it’s conceptual.

Like, “Teeth of the Hydra,” that started out all conceptual, meaning I wanted to design a guitar that I can play a piece of music on that has all these necks.

You know, when I was young, I had no expectations of like a future career. I just loved the guitar. I was fortunate because I found something I was really interested when I was young, and I just stuck with it because it was fun. If that happens, you’re going to naturally kind of evolve what you’re doing.

So one aspect of my guitar fascination was with these multi-neck guitars. Of course, first it was Jimmy Page (who famously played a double-neck guitar with Led Zeppelin). Then one of one of my first guitars was a double-neck guitar.

Through the years with Ibanez (the electric guitar brand Vai has endorsed for decades) we’ve made some crazy multi-neck guitars. But I never really felt like I had hit the mark that I wanted to hit because I thought, well, if I’m gonna do all these necks, I want to do something where you don’t just play one neck, and then you go and you play another neck, and then you play another neck.

I just knew there was a way to incorporate a movement that would create like a seamless track So that was like the beginning of the idea for the Hydra.

One day, I started an email – this was about seven years ago, it took about 10 minutes – and it outlined the things I wanted in the guitar. I knew I wanted a bass neck with half of it fretless. And I wanted a heavy seven-string neck, so I could tune it down, and I wanted a 12-string that was half fretless, and also these harp strings, which are kind of sympathetic strings that you find on some various types of guitars.

But I wanted to take it a step further and put a guitar synthesizer in it. It’s got sample and hold features and sustainers and all this. The guitar has a lot of technology in it.

I didn’t know what it was gonna look like, so I didn’t send the email, and I waited for the inspiration. And sure enough, about two years after that I was watching a Mad Max movie (“Mad Max: Fury Road”) and there’s his one scene where they’re going through the desert and (on the front of one of the vehicles) a guy’s playing a guitar and he’s got flames shooting out of it. I looked at and I said, “That’s fake but I’ve gotta make it real.” It was like steampunk (design style).

So, I went back to that email that I never sent and found a bunch of ideas for steampunk fashion, put them in the email and I sent it. Right away the guys at Ibanez they sharpened their knives, man, and they just started digging into this thing.

It took about four or five years, because we’re going back and forth, and back and forth. And finally the Hydra showed up, you know, and I couldn’t believe it. It was terrifying. Beautiful, but terrifying because I knew I had to write something.

It actually stood on a stand in the studio for about a year and a half. I kept passing it and thinking, I gotta do something. Am I gonna?

I didn’t send out any photos of the guitar or anything because I knew once I did that, people would see the guitar and they would say, “Oh, that’s pretty wild. That’s pretty wacky. And of course, it’s Steve Vai because he can have anything he wants built.”

But what are you going to do with it? So I had to deliver. And when I first sat behind the Hydra, I thought how am I going to do this? But it’s like anything else, you start with a vision, and then you just go really slow. And it was like a Rubik’s Cube. It was so rewarding. Every time I hit the mark I was like, yeah baby, yeah.

And that’s why it’s always good to kind of find something interesting and just stick with it as long as it holds your interest because you evolve it. So that’s kind of how it happened.

This far into your career how do you keep your creative energy and drive? Because the guitar playing on the “Inviolate” album has the fire of some new hotshot who’s still trying to prove something.

A lot of it comes from all the great inspiration that’s surrounding me and everybody. Because there’s always been this movement in guitar playing, as you know and you can see. You go online, and you see these young players now doing extraordinary things.

So I do see that, and it does inspire me, and it keeps me continuing to want to raise my own bar. I can’t raise their bar, they have to do that on their own, but I can raise my own. [Laughs]

It’s also just following a good idea. You know, when you get an idea that feels compelling to you it’s accompanied by an a-ha moment. And that’s the sign that that idea was specifically meant for you, and you got to do it. So it kind of cuts away all of the questions: What should I do? Where am I going?

The thing that confuses us is expectations from the outside world. What think you should be doing, whether it’s the industry, or the record company, or your spouse or whatever it is. But when there’s a clearing of all of that, you know your inspired thoughts. They’re just like little effervescent ideas and you’ve just got to follow that. No excuses. [Laughs]

Another hallmark of your playing is the originality. Like there are some guitar players I love but they sound a lot like Jimmy Page. Or they sound a lot like Keith Richards.

Well, it’s a very innocent thing. I don’t feel like people that are unique like that have much of a choice. Like, I never felt good enough to play like all my heroes, and I would listen to great blues and I’d think, I can’t do that, and I don’t want to try. Because it’s already being done, you know?

And it wasn’t because I had this idea that I need to be different so I can be famous or anything like that. It was just, I really enjoyed playing these songs from my heroes and these other great guitar players, but I could do this better than I can do that.

And so I would just look for quirky little ideas, things that felt unique to me. Then after a while, that became addictive, because when you play something that doesn’t sound like anything … I mean, of course, you can hear the influences in it. I’m not unique.

But you can add unique qualities and you grab onto those, so they’re like little threads, and you just keep pulling on them and pulling on them and they turn they turn into things like, at least for me at this point, “Inviolate,” the whole record.

I turned 62 this year. The older you get I think the less you’re inclined to placate the desires of others. The more you become more inclined to lose all expectations and just kind of have fun with it. Where does my ear want to take this particular thing? And that’s a great way to create.

Are there any punk bands that appealed to you growing up? Punk-rock music is this primitive thing and you’re this sophisticated sort of player. But artists can draw inspiration from things that aren’t just like what they do.

I’ll dabble with that kind of stuff, because I just like high energy music when it’s performed authentically. When I was younger, I wasn’t into punk. I just knew it was a rumor. And then when I went to college, I met my wife, and she was kind of like a punk. She had like peacock-colored hair and listened to some of that stuff, and so I was exposed to it, the Sex Pistols and The Clash and stuff like that. I liked that music, but it didn’t have enough high information for me. I liked the energy of it, you know, and I even played on a PiL (Public Image Limited) record with John Lydon’s band. (John Lydon was formerly known as Johnny Rotten when he was frontman for the Sex Pistols.) My ear always reaches for high information melody.

You recently played the Rock in Rio festival as a special guest with the band Living Colour. They’ve released the live version of “Cult of Personality” from that. It’s pretty thrilling to hear you and (Living Colour guitarist) Vernon Reid go back and forth. What was it like being in the middle of all that guitar awesomeness with the Living Colour guys?

Well, I love playing festivals. This summer I did a whole bunch in Europe. And I knew the guys from Living Colour when we toured together in (Jimi Hendrix-themed traveling guitar-festival) Experience Hendrix. We were one of the bands. I played with them, and it was fantastic. They’re just great guys and Vern and I have been friends for decades. A lot of love and mutual respect there. He’s just brilliant.

This Rock in Rio, it was actually scheduled for last year, but because of the pandemic and all they pushed it to this year. It was just such a great gig because I got to be with those guys again, hang out with them, which is just amazing, they’re just so much fun, and play those classic tracks.

I just did four songs with them, so it was really kind of a cake gig for me. I flew down with my tech and my wife and we had a great four or five days hanging out at Rock in Rio, which is always filled with so much life.

And those festival environments, I used to poopoo them. “Oh, we got a big another big festival. Nothing’s gonna be …” I love them now. They’re just so great, the whole environment, backstage area, the audience. And so it was easy and thrilling.

You made another cool festival guest appearance this year at Hellfest. You came out during Whitesnake’s set and played the guitar solo on “Still of the Night.” It was great to see and hear you playing with them again. What was it like being a part of that band’s “Slip of the Tongue” (1989) album and tour, and making music with Whitesnake singer David Coverdale?

I had just left the Dave Roth band, and “Passion and Warfare” was released and I wasn’t really comfortable with the idea of going out as a solo artist and doing instrumental guitar music with just one record.

There was an option to either do Whitesnake or do that. And I opted to do the Whitesnake gig, because I’m very comfortable with a lead singer, especially someone like David Coverdale, who’s just always outstanding.

And when the opportunity came, it was great. They had great producers, the guys in the band were really, really good guys and their record was basically completed. It was all written.

Adrian (Vandenberg, Whitesnake guitarist) had written the music with David. But Adrian was suffering from a hand injury, actually we discovered later it was in his neck from a car accident from when he was younger, and so he couldn’t really contribute the way his potential would allow.

So, I came in and I listened to all of the parts he did. I kind of restructured some things and recorded all my guitars and it was great.

The tour … It was a big tour. I mean, Whitesnake was huge. We were doing these festivals in Europe, and we had like Kiss and Aerosmith opening for us. [Laughs]

But it was nice. I didn’t necessarily feel that it would be the kind of music I’d been doing for the rest of my career, because if you listen to “Passion and Warfare” it’s obvious there’s something else going on in that guy’s head.

I need to ask you at least one David Lee Roth question. But I’m not going to ask about “Eat ‘Em And Smile” (the great 1986 Roth solo debut album Vai completely shreds on), since everyone asks you about that album. We’re coming up on the 35-year anniversary of another Roth album you played on, “Skyscraper.” What’s a vivid memory from making “Just Like Paradise,” the big single and music video from “Skyscraper”?

With Dave Roth, you know there’s gonna be some color involved and a lot of flamboyancies. He was always good at building these ‘80s type videos. We were gonna make a video for “Just Like Paradise” and I thought, What can I do? I know! I’m gonna have a giant red heart shaped guitar with three necks made. It was originally built as a prop for the video. So that’s one fun memory from that song.

Speaking of props, my understanding is the red Jackson guitar you play onscreen in the movie “Crossroads” was a prop and not played in your recording for the soundtrack. What guitar did you play on the “Crossroads” soundtrack?

Yeah, that’s the Green Meanie. It’s a Charvel, sort of like a super Strat (a type of hot-rodded guitar inspired by Eddie Van Halen’s famous red, black and white “Frankenstein” guitar).

It was the transitional guitar for me to the Jem (Vai’s signature Ibanez guitar). Because I was coming from playing a Strat, but I needed something with some more beef and something that was more rock & roll, more metal, because I had joined Alcatraz (an ‘80s Los Angeles metal band that previously featured shredder Yngwie Malmsteen on guitar).

So, I went to see Grover Jackson (founder of Jackson Guitars). I only learned this recently, but he loaned me that guitar and I absconded with it. Meaning, I refused to give it back and it was his personal guitar. He gave me other guitars, you know, like Jackson guitars. So I used that for quite a while. Sorry, Grover.

But that’s the guitar I used for “Crossroads” and a lot of “Eat ‘Em and Smile” and it’s on the Alcatraz record (1985′s “Disturbing the Peace”). And it’s on “Passion and Warfare” a little bit, I think.

Before this latest instrumental album, you were working on an acoustic album with you singing on it too, something you’d always wanted to do. I always loved your playing on the acoustic song “Damn Good” from Roth’s “Skyscraper” album. It was like Vai doing “Led Zeppelin III.” But what does a Steve Vai acoustic album with Steve Vai vocals sound like?

During the (early 2020 pandemic) lockdown, artists were uploading a lot of content to their fans. One of the things I decided to do, which I had never done before, was to play the acoustic guitar and sing. Of course, I’ve done that a lot in my home, but I never released anything.

So, I did a song called “The Moon and I” from my catalogue. I just set up a camera and played and sang it and it’s online, you can see.

But I was really surprised at the response because I’m not known for my voice, that’s for sure. So I thought, You know what? This is a good time to follow that other desire, which was to make a whole record of these acoustic vocal tracks. And so I went through my little snippets of ideas that I had documented or earmarked for a record like this.

You asked, what is it like? It’s not an acoustic virtuoso guitar thing. Here, I’ll play you a little bit.

[Vai plays a track from iTunes on his studio’s computer. Following some hypnotic picking and wintry strumming, Vai’s vocal comes in. His singing voice sounds smooth, emotive, honest, confident and effective. Because we’re used to just hearing Vai shred and not sing, it’s really like hearing a totally new artist. Pretty cool for a guy who’s been making albums for more than 40 years.]

Your vocal on that sounds good.

Thank you. It’s a very limited vocal. The falsetto notes are very difficult for me. [Laughs] So that’s one of the tracks. It’s about a wishing well but it’s called “Witching Well.”

You’ve been through some shoulder and thumb surgeries during this period.

I started working on this acoustic record, and I recorded like 13 tracks and haven’t finished the vocals, they’re like roughs and then I had to get the shoulder surgery because that was something that was in the making for a couple of years, just injuries that got worse. And I got it fixed.

But when I was able to really play again, I just wanted to get on tour, and I needed to finish a record and I wasn’t going to toward doing a solo acoustic vocal record. That’s never going to happen. So I put the acoustic record on the shelf, and I finished “Inviolate.”

And the next record I have coming out, and this is a shocker, for whoever’s interested. But I recorded a record in around 1991 and I spent about two weeks on it and it’s this very straight-ahead rock. It’s music that I wrote that I wanted to listen to while riding my Harley Davidson with me and my friends.

My friend John “Gash” Sombrotto, he had never sung, but I heard something in his voice, and I put them in the studio and you’re just not gonna believe the way he sings. That’s probably going to come out early next year. And it’s really for the fans that are interested in seeing an alternative life for me back in ‘91.

It’s the record I think a lot of people were expecting I would make – and were hoping I might make – because it’s even more straight ahead than Whitesnake or David Lee Roth. Just rockin’. It’s not metal but it is … This pop-rock. I really like it, but it sat on the shelf for over 30 years. So that’s the next thing coming out.

Do you have a name for this 1991 vault release?

Vai/Gash. That’s what I’m thinking right now. Because Gash, I’m gonna put him on the cover because he was the most extraordinary guy. Funny, lovable, intense. I just can’t even explain it. When he was 21, he was on an electrical tower and electricity went through him and he survived. And you’ve just got to hear his voice.

And finally, Steve, you’ve never written a memoir. You have such an interestingly philosophy on music and creativity, a book could include that as well as your musical journey with Zappa, Roth, Whitesnake, your solo career, the camaraderie you have with fellow guitar virtuosos like Yngwie (Malmsteen) and Nuno (Bettencourt).

I’m not interested in writing anything like that. It’s weird. I get asked all the time. I have people that want to do it for me, you know, by interviewing me and writing the book.

I just can’t bring myself to sit there write about myself. And then when they when they do those kinds of books, they go out to all your friends and they say, “Hey, tell us how much you love Steve” and I don’t want anything to do with it.

Of course, you can’t stop people from writing books about you. And that’s fine. And I think that I’ve done so much press in the last four years that, you know, all of those eras are documented.

The things that I would write about if I was to write a book wouldn’t be what it was like with David Lee Roth or Frank Zappa or Whitesnake or “Crossroads.” I talk about that shit all day, and I’m just not interested in writing a book about it.

But I do have interest in a book. There’s another side that I have throughout my whole life, but it’s more metaphysical and esoteric. I thought about writing a book along those lines, but I just never felt qualified. And I get a lot of a lot of requests for that.

And then my wife pointed something out, Through the years, I’ve had people that write to me sometimes in a seeking-help kind of a format. You know, intense stuff in their life and I’ve responded. I kept all these emails, hundreds and hundreds, and met some of these people and some are now friends.

I think there’s aspects of that, that can be very helpful in some people’s lives. So my wife suggested I go through all these emails and kind of make a book that’s the answers to these questions that people have been asking me. And they don’t have any much to do with music.

Steve Vai’s “Inviolate World Tour” hits Birmingham, Alabama’s Lyric Theatre (1800 Third Ave. N.) 8 p.m. Oct. 14. Tickets are $45 – $55 (plus fees) via ticketmaster.com. More info at lyricbham.com.

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