Billy Sheehan knows a thing or two about holding down the low end for some of the world’s top virtuosos, having worked with everyone from Paul Gilbert and Mike Portnoy to David Lee Roth.
And, it just so happens that Sheehan who introduced another virtuoso – a certain Steve Vai – into the fold when he was playing alongside the former Van Halen vocalist.
In 1984, Vai found himself replacing Yngwie Malmsteen as the lead guitarist of Alcatrazz, with whom he recorded their sophomore album, Disturbing the Peace. However, Vai was soon recruited to join the solo project of post-Van Halen David Lee Roth – although, as Sheehan recalls, Vai wasn’t his first pick.
“The original idea was Steve Stevens, but he was busy with Billy Idol and wisely decided to stay with him,” Sheehan remembers in a new interview with Guitar Player.
“I told Dave I know another Steve, ’cause at the time my band Talas was on Relativity Records out of New York City, and Steve was also on that label, and we’d talked about doing something together before the Roth thing happened.
“Steve, because of his association with Frank Zappa, had a sense of humor about his playing, which was very important for the Roth band.”
As Sheehan describes it, Vai’s stint with a musician as left-field as Zappa left an imprint on his playing, which became “kind of quirky”.
“He had all the fundamentals very, very down, then added the quirkiness from the Zappa thing. So Vai came in and was just awesome, a great, great player,” he continues. “So he was in, and we had a great time putting that Eat ’Em and Smile tour together.”
As for what he remembers from those heady days with Vai, Sheehan immediately replies, “He’s such a dedicated player. We’d be in the dressing room before the show, and he’d be there for hours, just working on stuff, head down for hours at a time before every show, pretty much.
“That also shows how much he cares about the audience, too, ’cause you want to do the absolute best for them all the time. Steve is definitely in that club.”
Later on, Sheehan would join Vai on some of his solo tours as part of his backing band, The Breed.
“It was always a blast,” he recalls. “ We had so much fun on those tours – no nonsense, no drugs, drinking, disrespectful rock star bullshit. We were all just legitimately having fun, and it was like a 24-hour comedy show.
“There was a lot of mutual respect in the bands I played in with Steve. I have nothing but great things to say,” he concludes.
And speaking of Vai, for those in the hunt for their own top-tier home studio, the guitar maestro just listed his LA property – which comes fully equipped with his famed Harmony Hut studio – for $11.7 million.
