“Obviously, I am the same guy who was playing on all those other records, and I have certain stylistic nuances and idiosyncrasies – and I love rock ’n’ roll. People will hear this and say, ‘Oh, it sounds like when he was with Roth, or Whitesnake, or Alcatrazz.’ But there are big differences in it for me. “Yeah, and you can hear New York in his accent, in his singing voice. You say crazy and unpredictable, and then we read he is from Queens, NY, and it kind of all makes sense. I could tell you stories, you just wouldn’t believe.” He was endearing, and funny, and a pain in the ass sometimes! All these things! Totally unpredictable, man. “He was crazy, and did insane things, but he was so charming and charismatic, and loveable. Because he was such an interesting character. Whenever I would listen to the record, because I knew Johnny, I loved it. And there is a difference between that, and nary to they meet where you have a great singer who has got the real charisma like a David Coverdale. There is a difference between being a great singer and a rock star, a person who has that DNA, who can stand on a stage and just be engaging, charismatic, commanding, empowered, confident And by that time when I made that record, I had worked with a lot of lead singers in rock ’n’ roll, from Zappa to Roth, Graham Bonnet, David Coverdale, Lemmy, Ozzy, tons of people, and y’know there is a difference between being a great singer and a rock star, a person who has that DNA, who can stand on a stage and just be engaging, charismatic, commanding, empowered, confident. I mean, he was such an extraordinary character.
“It’s an odd feeling, because you really had to know Johnny Gash. Did releasing this give you a sense of closure? This record is our introduction to Gash but even just by the time it is finished we get a real feeling for who he was by the time it is finished. But now the time was right to go back to it, to apply the spit and polish and put it out. After Gash’s death in a biking accident in 1998, Vai put the material on cold storage. It is straight-up hard rock, with a hydrocarbon rhythm guitar tone – all organic crunch – and solos that say their piece with a minimum of fuss. Tracked at the dawn of the ‘90s, fast, unrehearsed, in the moment, it was intended to be the Vai and Gash’s soundtrack to weekends spent on the back of a Harley Davidson. Vai/Gash is our posthumous introduction to this voice, this force of nature, and it is an album that offers ample evidence to support Vai’s endorsement. And yet his friend, the late Johnny ‘Gash’ Sombrotto, an untutored fellow biker born with a voice and all attitude is by Vai’s lights right up there. As a young buck with an ear for transcribing and a prodigious talent for the electric guitar, he made his bones in Frank Zappa’s band. David Lee Roth, David Coverdale, Ozzy, Lemmy, Vai has worked with them all in some capacity.
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