Speaking with Music Radar, guitar legend Steve Vai looked back on his very first live gig and dealing with pre-gig nerves:

Vai: “I was 13 and playing in a band called Circus. I remember that I enjoyed playing guitar in the privacy of my own little bedroom and I loved creating fantasies about being a future rock star, so I was a rumour in my own room and a legend in my mind. When the reality that we actually had a gig set in I started to become petrified. I found myself so completely anxiety ridden that it got to the point where, two or three days before the show, I couldn’t sleep. 

I remember the day of the gig: I’m doing a soundcheck and I was so nervous. I was practising 'The Star-Spangled Banner' and the strap broke on my guitar - it started to fall and I went down with the guitar as well. My knee hit the wah-wah and turned it on in the treble position. As I went down, the speaker was parallel with my ear and the guitar fed back this piercing pitch that went right into my ear and I virtually fainted. It twisted my eyeballs. I remember coming to and trying to say the words, ‘Help me, help me...’ and everything became surreal and weird. I finally walked off stage and threw up. 

Then the lights went down and the oddest thing happened: when I walked on stage to do the gig, put the guitar on and started playing, there was this feeling that came over me and the best way to describe it is ‘home’. I felt completely relaxed, confident and on a high. Before that I felt I loved playing the guitar but I’m never going to play live again, but the moment I got onto the stage and started playing, I discovered this is my natural state of being.”

Read the complete interview here.

Steve Vai has announced the release of Stillness In Motion on September 13 via his personal record label Light Without Heat, distributed by The Orchard.

Originally, a DVD capturing Vai’s performance at Club Nokia in Los Angeles on October 12, 2012 was issued by Sony but it was not available on the Blu-Ray format. This deluxe package will be available on 2-Blu-Ray discs, with two CDs that contain the live music release from the performance.

The pre-order goes live today, here. The Blu-Ray is priced at $39.98, while a limited-edition bundle containing the Blu-Ray, a bottle of “Stillness In Motion” hot sauce, a “Stillness In Motion” t-shirt, and commemorative Stillness guitar pick is priced at $59.98. Following the pre-order, both the t-shirt and hot sauce will be available for individual purchase.

One of the Blu-Ray disks contain the bonus material titled The Space Between The Notes (Tour Mischief). It’s an intimate and at times hysterically edited video diary comprised of more than three and a half hours of footage filmed around the world on-stage, off-stage, and behind-the-scenes during the world tour. This specific concert captured was the 49th show of the aforementioned global excursion that consisted of 253 engagements in over 52 countries.

In reflecting on this period of his life, and his global travels circa Stillness In Motion, Steve Vai offers, “Making records, performing and touring live is what I love to do most in this life. This Blu-Ray performance and tour bonus footage was culled from the Story of Light tour in support of that CD release. The tour was comprehensive and perhaps my favorite tour as of yet. To be with that band and those fans traveling to all those exotic locations represents a period of my life where I feel I was peaking both on a performance level and pure tour exhilaration. The Space Between The Notes has over 3.5 hours of on-and-offstage ‘B-roll’ footage that has every stop along the way represented somehow. The compiling, editing and result of The Space Between The Notes is a career highlight for me. It’s interesting, funny, entertaining and informative. You get to see what touring the world with a rock band is really like in all its visceral and intimate expressions.”

Tracklisting:

Disc 1 - DVD or Blu-Ray
Intro/"Racing The World"
"Velorum"
Band Intros
"Building The Church"
"Tender Surrender"
"Gravity Storm"
"The Trillium’s Launch"
"Weeping China Doll"
"John The Revelator"
"The Moon And I"
"The Animal"
"Whispering A Prayer"
"The Audience Is Listening"
"Where Are We"
"Rescue Me Or Bury Me"
"Sisters"
"Treasure Island"
"Beastly Rap"
"Salamanders In The Sun"
"Pusa Road"
"Earthquake Sky", Drum Solo
"I’m Tired"
"The Ultra Zone"
"Frank"
"Build Me A Song L.A."
"For The Love Of God"
"Taurus Bulba"

Disc 2 - DVD or Blu-Ray - Story of Light Tour: The Space Between The Notes (Tour Mischief)
1. Leg 1 (Rehearsals/USA)
2. Leg 2 (Europe/Eastern Europe)
3. Leg 3 (Vegas/Netherlands/Russia/Ukraine/Europe)
4. Leg 4 (Australia/NZ/Indonesia/China/S. Korea/Japan/Taiwan/Thailand)
5. Leg 5 (Europe... again)
6. Leg 6 (USA... again)
7. Leg 7 (Mexico/South America/China)
8. Leg 8 (Vegas/Singapore/Malaysia/Israel/Europe/Russia/Ukraine)
9. Leg 9 (USA/St. Barths/Japan/France/Poland)

Audio CDs:

Disc 1
Intro/"Racing The World"
"Velorum"
Band Intros
"Building The Church"
"Tender Surrender"
"Gravity Storm"
"Weeping China Doll"
"John The Revelator"
"The Moon And I"
"The Animal"
"Whispering A Prayer"

Disc 2
"The Audience Is Listening"
"Rescue Me Or Bury Me"
"Sisters"
"Treasure Island"
"Salamanders In The Sun"
"Pusa Road"
"Frank"
"The Ultra Zone" (CD Version)
"Build Me A Song L.A."
"For The Love Of God"
"Taurus Bulba"