What a treasure this interview was! Thank you so much for putting it out. steve Vai changed my life when I was 14 and this was the album that to this day puts a smile on my face.
I just didn't like the Skyscraper album as well as Eat 'Em and Smile. There were some good tracks, but I feel like the 1st one was more complete. I saw the DLR band twice, once each tour cycle. As a matter of fact, DLR/Cinderella was my 1st concert experience. I couldn't believe those guys were right in front of me. Memorable experience.
Amazing! Is this the interview that was featured in the May 1988 Guitar Player magazine? Skyscraper might be my favorite Steve Vai record. Thanks for sharing this!
Interesting how they took out a lot of the guitar in the mix of 'Skyscraper' . Solo's were taken from the DEMO'S put into the Masters ? .....Wow . ok... 'Hot Dog & a Shake' was interesting ...I love the way the lead break involved melodic fast two handed tapping which goes into wonderful HARMONY...Didn't know the pause was a hesitation...lol ..... Steve always gets family members to punch things in or get them to press record Pia,,,Young Julian on 'Rescue Me or Bury Me in 1993 ........ Didn't he cut all the FLEXABLE album in Stucco Blue ? ....'Hina' had EVH clock chimed tap harmonics in chords reminiscent of Ed's 'Dance the Night Away' lull section on VH2 .....Of course Ry Cooder had worked with Steve two years earlier on the Crossroads guitar duel sequence 2 years before this album.......'Damn Good is a great riff...The lyrics which Mr. Roth wrote for it shows that he was already feeling nostalgic about the early days of Van Halen ...Especially when viewed in the light of more recent releases like 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow bar & Grill' (well I never had me a better time & I guess I never will') ....It was sad when Billy wasn't playing with Steve any more because when they locked together like in 'Shyboy' on the previous album they were incendiary . And ONSTAGE too on the 1986 tour. Edward always respected both Billy & Steve calling them 'Two of the best players around', and 'the hottest guns in town' ...It was only silly 'rabid lee froth' who tried to talk it up in the media to sound like a 'competition'.....I think the reason why Steve may have destroyed Floyd Rose's more easily than Edward was because on Steve's guitar you could pull BACK on it whereas on Ed's Floyd you could only push DOWN on it because it was set down flush with the wood. & like in the film Crossroads Steve would grab the vibrato bar & shake the whole detached guitar while holding just the bar. No wonder he broke so many of them..... Silly Steven...lol ..On the film edit of 'Crossroads' I always thought the visual didn't quite correspond with the soundtrack (knowing all the techniques.) But Steve years later in the 21st century released a compilation album called - 'The Elusive Light & Sound 'Volume 1 where you can hear 'Fried Chicken' which includes the parts he recorded which weren't used in the movie if folks out there want to hear that...Its all GREAT stuff...In the movie it was actually quite funny watching SV as Jack Butler pretending to make mistakes..Wolfgang Van Halen did that as a comedy gag on one of his latest videos for Mammoth.......lol The train sounds were a bit like 'Bad Horsie' actually. (Paul)
While I was an editor at Guitar Player, Ry Cooder called Tom Wheeler and asked if he could recommend someone to come up with the Jack Butler guitar parts. Tom recommended Steve Vai, who'd been doing the more difficult transcriptions featured in the magazine. When the people making the film saw what Steve looks like, they cast him in the film. As I recall, in the final showdown, Steve played all the Jack Butler parts and what Ralph Macchio's seen playing. Vai was the perfect choice!
@@TalkingGuitarJasObrecht Thanks for your reply Jas....Yes. Recently Dweezil Zappa did a video reviewing an edition of Guitar Player magazine from July 1984 with Edward on the front cover ...& they showed a page from it where Steve had transcribed Edward's 'ERUPTION'...That must have been one of the things that instigated the interest to get him playing the character. Actually I remember Steve transcribing Allan Holdsworth's solo for UK's 'In the Dead of Night' in a British 'Guitarist' magazine going as far back as 1980 ! ...This was at the time when he was doing stuff for Frank Zappa.... Steve was perfect for the role not just musically but also because he looked a bit like the image of 19th Century Violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini ....The idea of having incredible skill on an instrument by making a deal with the devil was an idea which pre-dated the electric guitar going right back to the 19th century. Didn't they get a guitar coach called Arlen Roth to show Ralph Macchio how to roughly make the hand changes on the board before speeding up the film but it was Steve's playing actually on the soundtrack.... So the final dual with the Paganini variation is actually Steve 'beating himself' ? ....lol (Paul)
@@bryanjordan4262Yes, I completely remember this vividly in the press, that it was Sam first, then somehow got the rest of the guys to chime in on the vitriol spewed at Roth during that time.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
Skyscraper is a masterpiece of an album.
Great stuff, thanks!!
Great job per usual Jas, Steve seems like a really good dude.
Awesome interview, I remember reading this at the time
What a treasure this interview was! Thank you so much for putting it out. steve Vai changed my life when I was 14 and this was the album that to this day puts a smile on my face.
Artaud?? 😝
@@bryanjordan4262 Sofa king right 🤣
@@wakajawaka
Finish up here and get back to those Hoffman countdown threads!
😂🤘
This was awesome! I would definitely like to hear the other interview!
Yup wanna hear about Eat Em details.
A treasure of an archive
Would love the earlier interview as Ee&S is bursting with Steve’s genius
This is great Jas! I grew up on this album & was very interesting to hear some background on it. Thank you again, cousin!
Yes I'd like to hear the Eat em and Smile/Flex-able interview too.
What a great interview thank you for sharing it❤
Been waiting for this one thanks!
Superb interview. Excellent 👍👍👍
Steve and Dave were an odd copple, but the music they have written are the best in the last three decades! 🎶💥🎶
This was a Jem! (pun intended) Thanks Jas!
This is a significant moment in history and would have been more meaningful if it had taken place in person.
I just didn't like the Skyscraper album as well as Eat 'Em and Smile. There were some good tracks, but I feel like the 1st one was more complete. I saw the DLR band twice, once each tour cycle. As a matter of fact, DLR/Cinderella was my 1st concert experience. I couldn't believe those guys were right in front of me. Memorable experience.
Amazing! Is this the interview that was featured in the May 1988 Guitar Player magazine? Skyscraper might be my favorite Steve Vai record. Thanks for sharing this!
Interesting how they took out a lot of the guitar in the mix of 'Skyscraper' . Solo's were taken from the DEMO'S put into the Masters ? .....Wow . ok... 'Hot Dog & a Shake' was interesting ...I love the way the lead break involved melodic fast two handed tapping which goes into wonderful HARMONY...Didn't know the pause was a hesitation...lol ..... Steve always gets family members to punch things in or get them to press record Pia,,,Young Julian on 'Rescue Me or Bury Me in 1993 ........ Didn't he cut all the FLEXABLE album in Stucco Blue ? ....'Hina' had EVH clock chimed tap harmonics in chords reminiscent of Ed's 'Dance the Night Away' lull section on VH2 .....Of course Ry Cooder had worked with Steve two years earlier on the Crossroads guitar duel sequence 2 years before this album.......'Damn Good is a great riff...The lyrics which Mr. Roth wrote for it shows that he was already feeling nostalgic about the early days of Van Halen ...Especially when viewed in the light of more recent releases like 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow bar & Grill' (well I never had me a better time & I guess I never will') ....It was sad when Billy wasn't playing with Steve any more because when they locked together like in 'Shyboy' on the previous album they were incendiary . And ONSTAGE too on the 1986 tour. Edward always respected both Billy & Steve calling them 'Two of the best players around', and 'the hottest guns in town' ...It was only silly 'rabid lee froth' who tried to talk it up in the media to sound like a 'competition'.....I think the reason why Steve may have destroyed Floyd Rose's more easily than Edward was because on Steve's guitar you could pull BACK on it whereas on Ed's Floyd you could only push DOWN on it because it was set down flush with the wood. & like in the film Crossroads Steve would grab the vibrato bar & shake the whole detached guitar while holding just the bar. No wonder he broke so many of them..... Silly Steven...lol ..On the film edit of 'Crossroads' I always thought the visual didn't quite correspond with the soundtrack (knowing all the techniques.) But Steve years later in the 21st century released a compilation album called - 'The Elusive Light & Sound 'Volume 1 where you can hear 'Fried Chicken' which includes the parts he recorded which weren't used in the movie if folks out there want to hear that...Its all GREAT stuff...In the movie it was actually quite funny watching SV as Jack Butler pretending to make mistakes..Wolfgang Van Halen did that as a comedy gag on one of his latest videos for Mammoth.......lol The train sounds were a bit like 'Bad Horsie' actually. (Paul)
It was actually van hagar who were taking shots at Roth in the press and from the stage, Roth didn’t start that particular war of words.
While I was an editor at Guitar Player, Ry Cooder called Tom Wheeler and asked if he could recommend someone to come up with the Jack Butler guitar parts. Tom recommended Steve Vai, who'd been doing the more difficult transcriptions featured in the magazine. When the people making the film saw what Steve looks like, they cast him in the film. As I recall, in the final showdown, Steve played all the Jack Butler parts and what Ralph Macchio's seen playing. Vai was the perfect choice!
@@TalkingGuitarJasObrecht Thanks for your reply Jas....Yes. Recently Dweezil Zappa did a video reviewing an edition of Guitar Player magazine from July 1984 with Edward on the front cover ...& they showed a page from it where Steve had transcribed Edward's 'ERUPTION'...That must have been one of the things that instigated the interest to get him playing the character. Actually I remember Steve transcribing Allan Holdsworth's solo for UK's 'In the Dead of Night' in a British 'Guitarist' magazine going as far back as 1980 ! ...This was at the time when he was doing stuff for Frank Zappa.... Steve was perfect for the role not just musically but also because he looked a bit like the image of 19th Century Violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini ....The idea of having incredible skill on an instrument by making a deal with the devil was an idea which pre-dated the electric guitar going right back to the 19th century. Didn't they get a guitar coach called Arlen Roth to show Ralph Macchio how to roughly make the hand changes on the board before speeding up the film but it was Steve's playing actually on the soundtrack.... So the final dual with the Paganini variation is actually Steve 'beating himself' ? ....lol (Paul)
@@bryanjordan4262Yes, I completely remember this vividly in the press, that it was Sam first, then somehow got the rest of the guys to chime in on the vitriol spewed at Roth during that time.