Steven’s last appearance with GN’R / as a member - May 1990

by Wilco Thu Sep 15, 2022 9:40 am

This isn’t technically a GNR related video, but it is the release party for Steve Vai’s 1990 album Passion and Warfare, which was released on May 22nd 1990.

Duff and Steven were there at the party and were briefly interviewed about the record; Steven would be fired just under 8 weeks later on July 11th 1990.

It would be as such his last public appearance as a member of GN’R, coming a month after his last concert as a member at Farm Aid on April 7th 1990

https://youtu.be/duVHaVeYFZs

by **Soulmonster** Thu Sep 15, 2022 11:53 am

For fun, and to add something to the thread, I ran "Steve Vai" through my database to see what came out of it:

[Interviewer saying he has an identifiable guitar sound] Oh, that’s a nice compliment! Because I can’t tell Joe Satriani - I think his name is - and all these guys, and Steve Vai, apart. I don’t – you know, it’s all the same thing, it’s like this... do you know what I mean?

June 1988

One of the main ones [=auditions] I've told people about is the audition for David Lee Roth. Some secretary called me up and said, "Steve Vai is putting a band together," and that was it. Right away I figured it would be a Frank Zappa type of audition. I went down there, and Mark Craney was standing in line, and Gregg Bissonette was behind me. [...] It was real weird. David Lee Roth wasn't even around. A woman came out and called your name, and you had ten minutes to go in and show your stuff. First of all, it was a horrible rental kit. And it was a double bass kit, and in those days I didn't play double bass. I walked in and picked up one of the kick drums and moved it over to the side of the room, and Steve Vai said, "You don't play double kick drums?" Right there it was one demerit. He stood over the drumkit and said, "Play your fastest heavy metal beat," so I played my fastest heavy metal beat. Then he said, "Play your heaviest rock groove," so I just played the groove to AC/DC's "Back In Black." Then he said, "Play your hi-hat on quarter notes, and I'm going to say a drum fill, and I want you to follow it on the next measure." So he said a drum fill and I had to play it on the kit.

June 1991

Umm... you know, I'm not a great drummer, or a great guitar player, or a great singer, by any means. Umm, so, if somebody will criticize it for: "Well, it's kinda under-produced and not..." you know, Steve Vai record. I love Steve Vai, but you know what I'm saying. Umm, if they wanna criticize it like that, this is my heart and soul on a plate, or a CD, I guess, now. So, if you wanna criticize my heart and soul, get in line, you know!

September 27, 1993

I mean, I play enough with other people, and then Guns N’ Roses is a vehicle for me to be able to be – more or less to do everything that I want to do. So it just seems boring to me. It’s like, nothing against Gary Moore or Steve Vai or... I’m not good enough to be one of those who, like, make a guitar record and it doesn’t interest me, so I’d have to start a new band, which I’m not gonna do.

December 1993

[Being asked what other guitarists he has affinities with] I don't know. Steve Lukather is a friend of mine, but we don't talk much business when we are together! (laughs). We rarely talk about guitars. As for the guitarists I don't know personally, there's none that I've been really interested in lately. Because... I mean, most of the guitarists I like play an older style. Jerry Cantrell from Alice In Chains is cool, I know him too, but when we are together we never talk about guitars, you gotta believe me! As far as rock guitarists go, I think they fall into two categories: either they play in a raw, old style, to the point where I end up not liking it at all because I don't think they're good enough to play that basic stuff. They often sound wrong as soon as they pull the strings. The others play in a Steve Vai style, and I don't really like that either. So I still listen to Jeff Beck and stuff like that...

February 1995

Steve Vai - I have no idea about that one. He might have to take my place if anything weird were to happen.

January 1997

As much as Guns just kind of got pigeon-holed into this bad-boy, sloppy circus thing, I was actually trying to hone in on the guitar playing. I wasn’t trying to turn it into a Steve Vai, technical kind of thing. I was trying to play where my heart and soul were coming from. There was a conscious effort to play good.

February 5, 1997

The whole Van Halen, Steve Vai, Satriani thing, all those guys, they’re the ones that took everyone into guitar and showed them a whole other realm out there. They just make you rethink everything and start challenging yourself.

August 28, 2009

[Being asked what he think sof Steve Vai's triple neck guitar] Not enough necks.

March 29, 2011

I cut my teeth on guys like Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani and was so into the guitar and good, good guitarists. Stevie Ray Vaughan, of course. My aunt and uncle got me into a lot of stuff like Foghat, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Rolling Stones and bands I never would have really listened to because I was too young at that time. They really schooled me in stuff like Meat Loaf. I just love those big, theatrical songs.

October 27, 2011

by ludurigan Sat Sep 17, 2022 12:00 am

it is fucking hilarious to have GN'R guys saying they don't have -- and never wanted to have -- anything to do musically with Steve Vai and similar guitar players...

and then two of the ~~Guns n' Roses~~ Axl guitar players basically saying that they love Steve Vai

Very Happy

by **Blackstar** Sat Sep 17, 2022 1:41 am

ludurigan wrote:it is fucking hilarious to have GN'R guys saying they don't have -- and never wanted to have -- anything to do musically with Steve Vai and similar guitar players...

and then two of the ~~Guns n' Roses~~ Axl guitar players basically saying that they love Steve Vai

Funnily enough Steven agreed with the NuGnR guitarists (in the OP video).

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Steven’s last appearance with GN’R / as a member - May 1990

Steven’s last appearance with GN’R / as a member - May 1990

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Re: Steven’s last appearance with GN’R / as a member - May 1990

Re: Steven’s last appearance with GN’R / as a member - May 1990

Re: Steven’s last appearance with GN’R / as a member - May 1990