“I'd lost a close friend and a hero of mine took the time to console me”: Guitar mainstay Pete Thorn tells how Steve Vai comforted him following Chris Cornell’s death

Guitarist Pete Thorn has more than a few stories to tell and, in a new interview with Guitar World he gives fans the inside track on his illustrious past, playing with Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell and his new gig alongside his heroes, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani.

But life hasn’t always been on the up for Thorn. Following Cornell’s untimely death in 2017, Thorn, Cornell's touring guitarist, found himself at an all-time low. But after the tragedy and with an invite from a friend to come along to the 2017 Malibu Guitar Festival, Thorn resolved to shake off his blues.

“It was two days after Chris Cornell had passed,” he recalls. “A friend who did some work for Steve invited me to get me out of the house. I really was in a funk, obviously, super-sad, but I decided I should go. After Steve played, I was summoned to come to the little backstage area."

The two had met briefly and started a friendship a few years earlier following Thorn’s extensive work with everyone from Melissa Etheridge to Don Henley and, most prominently, Chris Cornell.

“Steve motioned for me to come over, then sat with me and proceeded to say, and I'm paraphrasing a bit, ‘I know you lost your friend, and I just want you to know that you can still have a relationship with him, it's too soon now, but the time will come where you think of them, and it'll be good thoughts, happy, good memories.’

“I will never forget that,” Thorn continues. “Here, I'd lost a close friend and collaborator, and a hero of mine, from the time I was 11 years old or so, took the time to console me… And that's Steve.

"He has an amazing ability to make you feel seen. I believe he genuinely cares about what others are doing and what they are up to. He always asks about you and how you are every time.”

And now, more than a hero, mentor and friend, Steve Vai is now Pete Thorn's bandmate. Following much conjecture about who would be joining the lineup of Joe Satriani and Steve Vai’s new StatchVai Band project, Thorn landed the gig.

Thorn provides rhythm guitar alongside Marco Mendoza on bass, and Kenny Aronoff on drums.