Guitar virtuoso STEVE VAI will finally release his shelved ’90s rock album ‘Vai / Gash‘ on 27 January. “This record was written and recorded in somewhat of a stream of consciousness in 1991 within perhaps a two-week period as an answer to my desire to have a particular kind of music to listen to when I was riding my Harley Davison Motorcycle with my friends,” reveals Vai.
“It’s reminiscent of a certain type of rock music I enjoyed as a teenager in the 1970s. These recordings sat on the shelf for over 30 years and are being released now in 2023.”
Around 1990, Steve was overcome with a desire to rip out what he thought would be a straight-ahead type of rock record. The name of the ‘Vai / Gash’ comes from his collaboration with vocalist and fellow biker Johnny ‘Gash’ Sombrotto, who sadly died in a motorcycle accident in 1998, nearly two decades after suffering life-changing injuries from an earlier accident.
Featuring Vai on all guitars and other instruments and Sombrotto on vocals, ”Vai / Gash” is an homage to the brawny, riff-heavy ’70s biker rock both musicians grew up listening to – and is a stark departure from Vai’s more cosmic and technical solo work.
As example, ‘Busted’ is one fun ride, with Vai barreling his way through the song’s central riff with a devil-may-care, Keith Richards-like attitude. Overall, with its unpredictable lead squeals and breakneck boogie tempo, there’s more than a little Eddie Van Halen energy in Busted – not that that’s a bad thing, of course.
Sombrotto was involved in a horrific motorcycle crash in 1977, which left him with a partial left ear and layers of skin grafts over his neck, arms, legs, and entire chest. Once he had recovered sufficiently to get back on his bike, though, Sombrotto relocated to Los Angeles, where he eventually met Vai through a mutual friend.
“Something in me wanted to get him in the studio and see how he would belt over these biker type songs I had demoed,” Vai said in a press release last month, “but nothing could have prepared me for the voice that came out of his mouth. I had to think, of course he sounds like that because that’s him – confident, authentic, fearless but with a light-hearted intention. This was the voice I wanted to hear wailing over these slamming rock tracks. I was stunned.”
At the same time though, Vai had also begun work on what would become his 1993 album, Sex & Religion, and soon became preoccupied with it. Though Vai wanted over the years to add on to the eight tracks he recorded with the vocalist in 1991, hopes of completing the project were dashed when Sombrotto was tragically killed in another motorcycle accident, in 1998.
“Disheartened,” Vai explained, “I put the entire project on the shelf, and would listen to it at least once a year for the past 30 years, especially around the anniversary of his passing. Then recently something compelled me to want to put it out now.”
1. In The Wind
2. Busted
3. Let’s Jam
4. Woman Fever
5. She Saved My Life Tonight
6. Danger Zone
7. New Generation
8. Flowers Of Life
Steve Vai – VAI/GASH 2023, MP3+FLAC
 |
