Favored Nations
Favored Nations is a record label started by legendary virtuoso guitarist Steve Vai and former Guitar Center owner Ray Scherr in 1999. The first album ever released by Favored Nations was Frank Gambale's Coming to Your Senses in 2000. Not long after that, artists such as Eric Johnson, Dweezil Zappa, Larry Carlton, Eric Sardinas, and Steve Lukather (whose album No Substitutes won a Grammy award for Best Pop Instrumental), Neal Schon, Johnny Hiland, Stanley Jordan, Allan Holdsworth, John Petrucci (An Evening With John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess, as well as his own solo album Suspended Animation), Marty Friedman, The Yardbirds, Dave Weiner, and Peppino D'Agostino, among others, signed to Favored Nations.
Steve Vai is the worst-selling artist on his own label. Favored Nations was followed by separate branches called Favored Nations Acoustic in 2002 and Favored Nations Cool in 2004. Pro-Found is a sister label that is basically a promotional tool for Favored Nations artists through the Favored Nations and ProFound dot coms.