‘What song? Okay, you’re the guitarist, Steve. “The difference between this record and all of the other records I made outside of my solo work is every decision had a committee involved in it. Steve Vai circa 1993, rocking his Evo Ibanez JEM, named after the Harley Evolution engine. He just blasted that shit out and I knew that, given time, it would develop into stuff that – well, we don’t know. Yeah, sometimes I think what we could have done in the future, and it is tough. We were great best friends and he trusted me musically, completely. Watch what happens if you do this.’ Because he loved me. “I was planning on going back and tweaking some things, explaining, ‘Try this. There were certain ways that he was singing that I thought, ‘I wish I had time to work with him.’ I could hear things that were raw, unfiltered and energetic, like a teenager, but I also knew there was going to be a development. “I produced every record I ever recorded of mine, and I have recorded great singers, and I could tell that he was just starting. Yeah, sometimes I think what we could have done in the future, and it is tough We were great best friends and Gash trusted me musically, completely. Affter I tried to sing the record, which was an abysmal disaster – I don’t have that rock ’n’ roll voice – I got him in the studio and was stunned, like, ‘Are you kidding me!?’ “But I could hear his voice, just his speaking voice, and his yelling voice, my instincts said there’s something in there. There is a video of him online – he made a video for his dad – singing Frank Sinatra. He had never sang rock ’n’ roll! He sang crooner. I think I did In The Wind first, but the thing about Johnny was, he had never sang. Did you sequence it in the order that you recorded it, and this was him really hitting his straps the more takes he did? Gash's voice gets stronger as the album goes on. Not the energy just listen to that voice, the accent, and the… cheekiness. Gash is as hardcore East Coast, New York, Italian biker as you can get. The Roth stuff is more West Coast sounding, it’s kinda like California, it’s got that vibe. “But the rock ’n’ roll is in there, and I loved that. With the Gash record, I didn’t want to be the Steve Vai that got in the way of the vocal. One of my ears has been pulled towards rock ’n’ roll my whole life and the other is high-information music my brain mixes it up and that’s when you get the weird Vai shit. “Obviously, I am the same guy who was playing on all those other records, and I have certain stylistic nuances and idiosyncrasies – and I love rock ’n’ roll. People will hear this and say, ‘Oh, it sounds like when he was with Roth, or Whitesnake, or Alcatrazz.’ But there are big differences in it for me. “Yeah, and you can hear New York in his accent, in his singing voice. You say crazy and unpredictable, and then we read he is from Queens, NY, and it kind of all makes sense. I could tell you stories, you just wouldn’t believe.” He was endearing, and funny, and a pain in the ass sometimes! All these things! Totally unpredictable, man. “He was crazy, and did insane things, but he was so charming and charismatic, and loveable. Because he was such an interesting character. Whenever I would listen to the record, because I knew Johnny, I loved it.
And there is a difference between that, and nary to they meet where you have a great singer who has got the real charisma like a David Coverdale. There is a difference between being a great singer and a rock star, a person who has that DNA, who can stand on a stage and just be engaging, charismatic, commanding, empowered, confident And by that time when I made that record, I had worked with a lot of lead singers in rock ’n’ roll, from Zappa to Roth, Graham Bonnet, David Coverdale, Lemmy, Ozzy, tons of people, and y’know there is a difference between being a great singer and a rock star, a person who has that DNA, who can stand on a stage and just be engaging, charismatic, commanding, empowered, confident. I mean, he was such an extraordinary character.
“It’s an odd feeling, because you really had to know Johnny Gash. Did releasing this give you a sense of closure? This record is our introduction to Gash but even just by the time it is finished we get a real feeling for who he was by the time it is finished.
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