Who is calling Steve Vai a genius and his records the most challenging of his career?

Who is calling Steve Vai a genius and his records the most challenging of his career?

XS Rock recently interviewed a musician who calls virtuoso guitarist Steve Vai a “genius” and who called his records the most challenging of his career.

Excerpts from the interview from XS Rock are as follows:

“Bro, Steve Is A GENIUS! Those records were THE MOST CHALLENGING OF MY CAREER!! I don’t read music and Steve was so patient with me when it came to tracking those songs. He had a specific vision for each song and I had to take his vision and try to lay them down as closely as I could. I remember doing “Kill The Guy With The Ball” and it took me close to 6 hours to take the drum patterns he heard and put them to tape. He was so cool and walked me through each part of that song! The toughest song I’ve ever recorded in my life STILL TO THIS DAY!!”

The musician in question is none other than former Journey drummer Deen Castronovo who has also played on Ozzy Osbourne‘s Ozzmosis and played with many other artists including Bad English, Paul Rodgers, Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, Tony MacAlpine, Wild Dogs, Hardline and Fear Factory. Castronovo played drums on some of the songs on Vai‘s Alien Love Secrets (1995) and Fire Garden (1996).

Castronovo had the following to state about playing with Ozzy: “I had a great time playing with that lineup of Geezer, Zakk and Ozzy. I don’t think there’s one crazy story that stands out, the whole experience for me was Crazy lol!”

You can read the entire interview with Castronovo at XS Rock.