Featuring a veritable buffet of explosive guitar techniques – from whammy-bar theatrics to sweep picking and lightning-fast legato runs – "For the Love of God" is one of the highlights of Steve Vai's career.
First released on his 1990 solo album, Passion and Warfare, the song instantly became one of Vai's calling cards, while its music video – which featured Vai tearing up the fretboard of his “burned” Ibanez Universe seven-string – was an instant hit.
Now, Vai has released a new, "processed and upscaled" version of the video, which you can check out above.
The song, Vai told Guitar World not too long after its release, was “about how far people will go for the love of their god.
"When you discipline yourself to quit smoking, to run faster or to play better, you have to reach deep down into a part of you. That is a profoundly spiritual event. That’s when you come into contact with that little piece of god within you. That’s what I was trying to achieve with 'For the Love of God' – I was trying to find that spot.”
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