“What would be totally ridiculous and would grab everyone’s interest? I said, ‘I’m going to make my guitar talk!’”: When Steve Vai was in direct competition with Eddie Van Halen

Steve Vai with David Lee Roth in 1986.

It was rock’s version of the heavyweight championship of the world. In one corner, Van Halen. In the other, the band’s former singer David Lee Roth.

It was 1986, and there was outright hostility between the two camps after Roth quit Van Halen and was replaced by Sammy Hagar.