I was reaching into that secret part of the brain that we all go to for inspiration, and was curious as to if I could make those visions an audible reality.”Įven after parting ways with the former Van Halen frontman, Vai was still juggling. Dave knew it when he heard it and he knew it when he didn’t hear it.”Īfter two successful albums with Roth, Eat ‘Em & Smile and Skyscraper, Vai was ready to move on and as he recalls in a post on his website, he was “determined to finish the record.” On the heels of the experience of working with Roth, he felt like there was a “larger, other world of music to explore. That was good for me, because I was coming from more of a quirky musician side and I always wanted to let my rock freak flag fly and that really allowed me the opportunity, because I had to write music that worked and had that simplicity, but high energy. He looks for that special thing in the songs that makes it worthy of the big rock arena genre.

He knows what he wants, he knows what he doesn’t want. His press persona comes off as this wild, crazy kind of guy, but he’s got a lot going on there and he’s very intuitive. “What was good about it that a lot of people don’t quite understand is how intuitive David Lee Roth is. I was a huge Van Halen fan and a big David Lee Roth fan too,” Vai says. Because first of all, I love that style of music.

Naturally, as any guitarist who got that phone call in the '80s would have, he seized the chance to work with Roth. First, Vai would get another phone call, with an opportunity to go work with David Lee Roth. “At that point, I thought, ‘I’m going to start over because I’ve got all-new musical ideas and I’m going to record a new record.’ That turned into Passion and Warfare.”Įventually. He took the gig and while he was on the road with the group, got an offer to do a solo album with Capitol Records. He put a band together and started writing material and recording basic tracks for a follow-up and during that time period received an offer to join the heavy metal band Alcatrazz, featuring former Rainbow vocalist Graham Bonnet.

Steve vai passion and warfare