A day doesn't pass where I don't marvel that it all happened. Because I was a huge fan. (Steve Vai)
"When I was 18, I actually spoke to him on the phone and he hired me to do transcribing, which was amazing. I was too young to join the band - he wanted me to try out for the band but when I told him I was 18 he said, 'Forget it.'
"So when I was 20, I moved out to California - the day after my 20th birthday [June 7, 1980] - and got an apartment right down the street from his house, which was a great advantage, because I was going up there every day, virtually.
"And then, when auditions came for the band, for a tour, he invited me to the auditions, gave me a bunch of music to learn."
Focusing on the audition, Steve said:
"He didn't call on any of those songs [he gave me to learn] during the audition - he called on all other songs - and I thought I completely bombed the audition...
He was hard on me - he was really hard. Even some of the people that were there were coming up to me, going, 'He's putting the clamps on you' - that's what we used to say. So I figured, 'I ain't got this gig.'
"I went to him after and I said, 'I'm so sorry I wasted your time coming down here.' And he said, 'What are you talking about? You're in the band.'
"And that was the first time I hugged him... Working for Frank was... As you can imagine, being that young, I was completely innocent as far as the ways of touring and being a professional and dealing with the road.
"I could deal with the music - I was very good at that - and that's what Frank needed. So that worked really well."
