Steve Vai Interview on DLR

[envy_me]

Ask him who his favorite audience member over here was :D Yeah, he'll say me :D

[DLR Bridge]

"Rise" was a great tune on that PIL cd. His work on the Alcatraz cd was also great.

[DONNIEP]

I remember getting a copy of the PIL tape from a buddy and I had no idea it was Vai on the record for the longest time.

[vandeleur]

I went to see pil last week , trying not to de rail the thread

[DONNIEP]

I went to see pil last week , trying not to de rail the thread

No joke? Was it a good show?

[vandeleur]

Yeah really good , a load of us old fogeys went ... I've seen Lydon loads of times he is always good live

[FORD]

My favorite PiL album, no doubt. Even though it was more a studio creation than an actual band, in that incarnation. There was some brief discussion of Lydon, Vai, Ginger Baker, and Bill Laswell actually touring, but they never played a single gig. I suppose the good news there is that it made Vai available to work with DLR, but it sure would have been interesting to hear that lineup on stage....

[DONNIEP]

Yeah really good , a load of us old fogeys went ... I've seen Lydon loads of times he is always good live

I've never seen him but I always thought he'd put on a good show.

[vandeleur]

Yeah he is gigging to promote his new cd .... The venue he played wasn't the usual big venue most bands play so it was a great atmosphere .

[Seshmeister]

Ask him after playing all that amazing guitar we are meant to believe that he is beaten by an inability to bend a string up a couple of notes?

[vandeleur]

[Northern Girl]

The rest:

Getting back to Skyscraper, at the very end of “Damn Good.” Dave says something. Do you know what it is?

I’d have to listen to it (laughs). I recorded Dave through that whole record. Every vocal on there, I hit the record button and then mixed it, but I can’t recall what you’re talking about right now.

There are some things better left as a mystery.

Yeah.

Is it true that when recording the solo on “Hot Dog and a Shake,” you purposely stopped playing in the middle just because you wanted to go see an Alice Cooper concert?

(Pause) Wow, I don’t think anybody has ever asked me such in-depth questions about Skyscraper.

Please don’t judge me.

No, I’m very happy to talk about it. It’s fun because I like that record and it was a great part of my past.

That was a quote of yours from a 1988 Guitar World cover story.

(Laughs) My God, did I say that? That sounds like something that might have happened…it’s quite likely that what I said was true, but I don’t remember any of it. I’ve got a good memory, but it’s short (laughs).

That’s one of the fastest solos that human beings have ever heard.

(Laughs) What I do remember about doing something for Alice Cooper is, when I first moved out to California, he was looking for a guitar player, so I wrote and recorded this song in one night called “The Attitude Song,” and it used to be called “The Night Before,” because I just did it the night before I sent it in. And I don’t know if he ever heard it or not, but that’s the only time I ever did anything like that. I also contributed a guitar solo on one of Alice’s records, but that was way after Dave.

On the song “Stand Up,” that’s the one tune that Billy doesn’t have any involvement on.

[Keyboardist] Brett Tuggle wrote that, and when he came in with that it was pretty much arranged and there was a lot of synth bass, so I think that Dave may have decided just to keep that.

Was there any tension at the time that Billy wouldn’t be having any involvement on that track? Did he let that be known?

No. Billy is incredibly professional and he’s a totally beautiful soldier. You know, he was really restrained on that record because I was producing it with Dave, and my approach at the time was a lot more freeze-dried than the bombastic Eat ’Em and Smile approach. In some respects, it would have been nice to see how the record had came out if Dave had just basically let some of the bass fly like crazy throughout the record, but it was just a different kind of a record, and there’s times where Billy played his ass off, you know? But Billy was totally professional about everything, as always, and he didn’t have any animosity at all [toward] that track. The track was a different kind of a track, and it called for some kind of a thing.

When was the last time the other Eat ’Em and Smile guys got together, excluding Dave? I’ve heard that you guys meet up on occasion.

Yeah, well, it’s funny. We have a little get-together probably once every two years, and the last time we all got together, me, [drummer] Gregg [Bissonette], Billy and Brett, we went to an Indian restaurant and we just had a great, great time. And we tried calling Dave (laughs) but we couldn’t get through to him; we wanted him to come and join us.

When was the last time you had a conversation with Dave?

Not too long ago, actually. I can’t really discuss what it was, but probably a year and a half ago.

Last question about a song from Skyscraper: On “Two Fools a Minute,” you did the horn arrangement. What are your memories of recording that tune?

I just remember I wanted to have a track that had that bounce to it, that up-tempo, fun kind of a bounce, and Dave was experimenting with horns on previous records and he liked the sound, so we discussed doing a horn arrangement, I did it, and it turned out the way it did. It was kind of quirky.

How many horns did you end up playing on that track?

You know what, I can’t remember. I’ve got the arrangement around someplace, but I really don’t remember.

It sounds just like the horns on “That’s Life” from Eat ’Em and Smile.

(Laughs) Yeah, kind of a little bit of a big band vibe.

Is there any unreleased material from the David Lee Roth era that hasn’t seen the light of day? I read that Kim Mitchell’s “Kids in Action” was recorded as a demo for Eat ’Em and Smile.

Yeah, there’s probably a half a dozen tracks were demoed—maybe even more—that didn’t make it, but that’s not an uncommon process when you’re making a record.

Is there any difference in the mix between the Spanish-language version of Eat ’Em and Smile versus the original one as far as the instruments go?

From what I know, no. Not at all. The only thing that was replaced was Dave’s vocals.

What are your favorite tunes from that era?

I really like “Shyboy,” “Hina,” “Skyscraper,” “Elephant Gun.” “Big Trouble”’s a really good one.

There’s a lot of fans who would love to see the Eat ’Em and Smile band get back together.

Well, you never know.

When you finished with Dave, what made you decide to move over to Whitesnake?

Dave was changing and evolving, and I was really feeling the need to start working on the kind of music that was kind of unique to me. I really feel very good about all the contributions I’ve made with all the rock bands I’ve been with, but I have a secret little place that I go in my head when I’m doing my own music, and it couldn’t wait any longer. And I recorded [my solo album] Passion and Warfare and released it, but for the life of me, I couldn’t understand how I could go on tour and front a band playing instrumental music because all the bands I had been in had all these charismatic frontmen.

So when the offer came from Whitesnake, it was a very clean kind of deal, because all the music was written and all the tracks were recorded, and they just needed the guitar parts, and a tour—so I thought, I can’t really tour with Passion and Warfare, and I like being treated like a rock star (laughs), and I like touring with a frontman, and at the time there was nobody better than David Coverdale, so I thought it was a phenomenal opportunity, and I took it.

[TJMKID]

I love Dave, he was a mentor for me. You have no idea what I learned from that guy; you can only imagine. I have nothing but respect and he’s still a friend of mine, you know, and I don’t care what anybody says.

Hmm --- a legendary guitarist like Steve Vai has nothing but praise and admiration for Dave --- Billy Sheehan voices the same sentiments about Dave in an interview last year.

Yet, Templeman wants to rewrite history in his senile years and try to tell us that "Eddie is the only reason I signed that band".

Please do us a favor and throw yourself under a large bus, Sweaty Teddy --- you're just making yourself look like an Alzheimer's statistic.

[78/84 guy]

Steve is interesting for sure. And has nothing but good things to say about Dave. I love Skyscraper. Always thought it was overproduced. But what wasn't then ? But I always thought the wierdness on it was from Dave. Not Steve.In the end the music on it is the musicians playing.

[78/84 guy]

I'm doing a Q&A with Vai on 9/11. Was gonna ask what he thought of ADKOT. Any other ideas for questions he hasn't answered a gazillion times already?!

He was asked in the interview about the last time he talked to Dave. He said not that long ago. But wouldn't say about what. Hmmm.. Interesting. If I had one question to ask Vai, it would be when is the Eat Em' reunion gig and PLEASE film it for a DVD release ! Or ask him to tell Dave to release a show from the 80's.