Steve Vai states that David Lee Roth’s solo band reunion on the radar
Steve Vai states that David Lee Roth’s solo band reunion on the radar
Great news for fans of David Lee Roth and in particular his debut full-length solo album Eat ‘Em And Smile as former DLR guitarist Steve Vai has confirmed to Ultimate Classic Rock that following a close call in November 2015, a reunion of the line-up that played on the record is “on the radar.”
The following are excerpts from the interview / article from Ultimate Classic Rock:
“What seemed like a fun idea at the time was one that quickly snowballed out of control. The band that assembled for David Lee Roth’s 1986 album, Eat ‘Em and Smile — his full-length solo debut — was a powerful unit that featured guitarist Steve Vai, bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Gregg Bissonette.
In November 2015, it was announced that the trio would reunite on the eve of the album’s 30th anniversary to run through a few songs at Ultimate Jam Night, a weekly event hosted by Quiet Riot bassist Chuck Wright. The former bandmates said that Steel Panther’s Ralph Saenz, who had logged plenty of shows with the Van Halen tribute Atomic Punks, would be standing in for Roth. But things got a little bit crazy — and then canceled — once Diamond Dave himself showed up.
“When we got there, they had crammed 1,700 people in a 350-seater, and the line was literally three or four people thick all the way down [the street] and around the block,” Vai tells Ultimate Classic Rock. “I’ve never seen anything like it. And then Dave got out of the car, and people just went ape s—.”
Vai recalls plans for the reunion came together casually — “a very innocent kind of thing” involving an open-mic night. “Billy was telling me about it, and he said, ‘What if we just showed up and played a few songs?’ Like ‘Shyboy’ and ‘Yankee Rose,’ you don’t need to rehearse those,” he explains. “So I said, ‘Yeah, let’s do that.’ And then I thought maybe Dave would be interested. So I just floated it out there and he was. We didn’t do a proper rehearsal, but Dave came over to my house before we went there, and we reviewed it all and we just kind of went over it so that there was a comfort level.”
Plenty of fans were disappointed that the show was shut down, but there was hope that 2016 might bring a second shot. “We tasted a little bit of the forbidden fruit there,” Vai says. “We all decided that it would be nice, why not? It was a great era. It was a great record, we were a great band. So it’s on the radar. It’s just a matter of getting everybody’s schedules to align. That’s the tough part.”
You can read the rest of the interview / article at Ultimate Classic Rock.
David Lee Roth‘s “Yankee Rose” video:
– YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.