![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/glover6.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/mcbride6.jpg)
The tale of two Davids
Steve Vai shares with Music Radar a couple of stage mishap stories from his stints with David Lee Roth and Whitesnake.
Vai recalls a similar incident on stage with Whitesnake and the band’s singer David Coverdale.
“It wasn’t too different,” Vai says. “Fast forward a couple of years and I was playing Jones Beach Theater with Whitesnake, playing that big heart guitar in the rain.
“I usually do pretty good footwork. I never go down. You get this foot radar, knowing where the pedals are, so you can act like a rock star.
“I was backing up and knew the monitor was behind me, so I was moving to step over it, but I had these spurs on my boots.
“The spurs caught the monitor and again I was up in the air, staring at my feet and landing on my back, completely out.
“And this time I had this giant triple-necked heart-shaped guitar on top of me!
“I opened my eyes and this time it’s David Coverdale standing over me saying, ‘Steven, darling, are you okay? Are you alright?’
Here Steve Vai talks in 2024 to the Backstage Pass Rock-News podcast about his time in Whitesnake:
Thanks to Music Radar for the mild amusement.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Spinal Tap indeed.
March 19th, 2025 at 08:11Yeah, but spurs are key to a good musical performance. The audience would have felt cheated otherwise.
March 19th, 2025 at 14:38Vai is a great and original guitarist/musician. To hire him for WS was an ill choice, magnified by the fact that he did not get to write new music with DC (which might have been interesting if likely quite a departure from what WS had been doing in the past), but saw relegation to being “Adrian Vandenberg as performed by Steve Vai”. That was just the incongruous idea of an apparent committee and can only have been due to huge commercial pressure.
I’ve always been wary of the “Adrian couldn’t play on Slip Of The Tongue because of his hand injury”-excuse. According to producer Keith Olsen that was a publicity hoax because Adrian had issues cutting it in the studio (for whatever reason, he might have not been a John Sykes or Steve Vai, but Adrian can sure play). Especially John Kalodner, never happy about John Sykes’ ousting from WS, was deeply concerned whether Adrian could bring any magic to the crucial follow-up to the vastly successful 1987 album.
According to Olsen, Vai made the demand to be given free rein when he signed the dotted line with WS, he wanted to do all guitar parts, including those already laid down by Adrian. The change from what had been recorded already was so radical that Rudy Szarzo admitted in a later interview that he had to completely redo his bass tracks on SOTT after (!) Vai had laid down his guitar layers, because Szarzo’s original bass sound had fitted Adrian’s sound, but not Steve’s. The sound of the original bass takes could not be tweaked sufficiently to get as good match with Steve Vai’s zillion overdubs, so Rudy just redid everything with a different sound (using another bass and amplification one assumes).
The difficult and hardly organic gestation of SOTT likely explains why the album lacked the immediacy and grit 1987 so abundantly had – SOTT sounded like hard, meticulous work (on an unlimited budget), but I hear no spur of the moment inspiration on that album at all. If Steve Vai had been allowed to be Steve Vai, a glimpse of what could have been can be heard at 00:30 here of an alternative Fool For Your Loving mix to the one released on the album and as a single:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3gHr2ZjvCE
That “SciFi-guitar” playing in the first verse is to me real Vai, if the album had been more like that it would have at least been sonically interesting (though the question would have still beckoned whether DC would have been the right singer for Vai’s guitar atmospherics, IMHO a voice like Graham Bonnet’s would have fitted the bill better).
I did see Vai with WS eventually. He was mesmerizing in the way he played, looked, sashayed across the stage (those slinky moves!) and sounded. To an extent that he severely upstaged the whole band – including its leader DC! His abilities were so effortlessly sky-high above what WS’ music demanded (and needed), you had the feeling you were watching Steve Vai turn up for an impromptu session at a musical education hour at the local kindergarten. It wasn’t far removed from Allan Holdsworth playing lead guitar with Status Quo – it was THAT out of place. 🤣 You know something is evidently wrong when all of the sudden Adrian Vandenberg is the grittiest, bluesiest and most rock’n’roll player on stage. 😑
Vai’s very appreciative of John Sykes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz85O_tzqac
March 19th, 2025 at 17:45I do enjoy the Steve Vai interviews these days. Both retrospective and current (recent) touring with his involvement in the Crimson project Beat band with Adrian Belew, Tony Levin and Danny Carey. A friend gave me a copy of the live streaming concert film of that recently. Blu-ray quality, wonderful that is. Thanks for the interview. Cheers.
March 19th, 2025 at 21:08Steve is a very thoughtful and reflective interview partner, no doubt about it.
March 20th, 2025 at 16:43@ 3 – interesting Vai comments and I always wondered how he ever fitted into Whitesnake, even just playing along with their already written and recorded music. I have never heard it, do I take the plunge after all these years. Yes he would have been out of place I imagine, a marketing ploy that would have been at the time, getting him in there. I have never listened to David Lee Roth with Vai either. At least that may have suited both of them at that time, as desperate as Roth would have been to match or exceed the Van Halen band. I will have a listen to the Snake with Vai sometime soon purely out of curiosity and no doubt, it could kill this cat if I am not careful. The fact that I have just watched the first half of the Beat band live gig again. From Crimson to the Snake??????? hmmmmm, I had better give my ears a warning. Cheers.
March 20th, 2025 at 20:37I just relented from my ‘no hair metal’ discipline and had a listen to Fool For Your Loving and my ears were ready for it. The only problem was my coffee did curdle, damn and blast. I have to stop doing that first thing in the morning, what a way to start the day. Just reading about that re recording of that song. Apparently ole Cov’s was talked into releasing that new recording as the single and loathed the fact that he was, well bullied into it by the sound of it. Hopefully Marsden and Moody received some extra royalty payments though, so something good may have come out of it. Not a good ‘new’ version, very cliched and typical of that time, the dreaded 80’s and all, but I would say that wouldn’t I. I probably have heard it before and have not remembered it at all. Back then the younger ‘metal’ musicians I knew were into all that ‘new’ music at that time. The original 1980 version I do still enjoy. Cheers.
March 20th, 2025 at 21:05given that Steve Vai is basically a session musician for WS, and given that I sometimes like SOTT even more than 1987, Kalodner the producer put up the money to call Vai, and then he satisfied Vai when he asked to play all the guitar lines of SOTT, poor Vandenberg could only put you aside when one of the 2 most famous and innovative guitarists of the 80s/90s arrived (the other was Satriani)
I’m sure Adrian would have done an equally good job, Steve played with his eyes closed of course…
SOTT was definitely over-produced, but its sound is still modern and sparkling like few other albums of that period….I mean, the albums of Gun’s’roses UYI part I & II or Bon Jovi or others, sounded 10 years behind
March 20th, 2025 at 21:50The boxset of Slip Of The Tongue is very enjoyable – you get versions of those songs before they were produced to death!
March 21st, 2025 at 08:24Steve Vai is a great guitarist, but I don’t like his WS phase. I don’t like David either too.
March 21st, 2025 at 09:35Slip of the Tongue album is much weaker than 1987….it lacks the classic blues style.. And album ” Restless Heart” is better , it has WH’s characteristic soul, blues influences.
Steve is brilliant, the best in “Wings of the Storm”, melodic passionate guitar driving.
“Fool For You Loving” the guys thought by re-recording they wanted to repeat “Here I Go Again”…but I like the 1980 version better (it’s the best WS song of all time in my opinion). Steve plays great but Bernie as the author played it with a blues soul and it doesn’t have Neil Murray’s incredible bass part (great Martin Birch), David doesn’t sing as passionately-baritone as in 1980. The best song on the album Slip of the Tongue for me is “Sailing Ships” an underrated gem. The acoustic version on Starkers in Tokyo is even better. Shows why David Coverdale is
one of the best rock singers ever beautiful ballad vocals… “Sailing Ships follow-up to “Soldier OF Fortune”, “Time & Again”,”Blindman”….to,Don’t Fade Away , “Forevermore”
The whole story of WS runaway success is quite ironic. David had an immense pressure on him to make it real big in the mid-1980s. The pressure was mostly of his own making, but anyway. And then he makes it real big with 1987, and then he face even more pressure, now from everyone: the recording company, the fans etc., to replicate his success. And then he cracks under that pressure and folds WS. That’s what success does to you. Damned if you make it, damned if you don’t.
March 21st, 2025 at 11:32DC even once admitted in an interview where he was not hiding behind his grandness that with his rags to riches personal story he was always driven by the worry that whatever wealth he had attained escaping from Saltburn-by-the-Sea might be gone tomorrow. It‘s a frequent thing with people who share his biography. It also explains his obsession of being in control of situations.
Now, as an old man, he is of course being humbled by the realization that health and the function of his vocal cords cannot be controlled by him. I‘m pretty sure that he sometimes asks himself why an Ian Gillan six years his senior (they are both at an age where those couple of years can mean the huge difference between being alive or deceased) is still fit to tour the world and he obviously isn’t. And I don‘t think that DC lived an unhealthier or unhappier or less privileged adult life than Big Ian. Gillan was no choir boy and DC hardly reckless (except for those few years when he subjected his voice to singing in ranges it simply wasn‘t made for).
Both IG and DC weren‘t exactly Jim Morrison as young men, but apparently Gillan has the more resilient physical constitution.
March 21st, 2025 at 20:04I believe SOTT would have definitely turned out better if, instead of Vai, Vandenberg would have done the whole recording – and better still if Vivian Campbell hadn’t been rowed out by DC at the behest of Tawny Kitaen because she hated Vivian‘s girlfriend and wanted to reestablish pecking order at the time – you know how wimmin are, Kitten’s Got Claws indeed, G-string tuned to A (one of DC’s most butt-wrenching poetic lines!) or not.
Vandenberg‘s neo-Schenker melodic style and Campbell‘s Irish grit and blues influence might have created something in the studio, who knows, but for some reason DC only established a writing relationship with the fret-flying Dutchman. And Adrian was always insecure with Vivian, fearing for his privileged position with DC, only to – once left to his own devices after having seen Campbell driven out – not be able to handle the mounting pressure in the studio and wake up one morning with Steve Vai being in the band as DC‘s new first officer. Campbell on Vandenberg in an interview long after he had adorned himself with the financially secure camouflage spots of the hearing-impaired feline predators from Sheffield: “Talk about bad karma, poor Adrian.” 🤣
But, for the sake of fairness, let’s have Adrian have a say on the matter too:
https://blabbermouth.net/news/adrian-vandenberg-i-had-nothing-to-do-with-vivian-campbell-getting-fired-from-whitesnake
March 21st, 2025 at 20:40The worst thing about the SOTT version of FFYLNM (let’s use more acronyms!) is the utter lack of swing, (dis)courtesy of Tommy Aldridge, who doesn’t know what swing is and if a pole dancer accidentally bumped his nose.
https://25.media.tumblr.com/67887fe886b225a2398434ec91942dfe/tumblr_miur32d0Qt1re9897o1_500.gif
(Herr MacGregor: SFW, emphasis on athletic abilities & muscle control! 😇 )
It’s a song that requires feeeeeeeeeeel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTD9GIHKH2E
(When did Micky Moody learn to play jazz guitar scales? 😲 @03:50 …)
More conventional version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb9FaH2TWdk
March 21st, 2025 at 21:46#10 Ivica
It must be said that in 1987 there is 0% blues in the songs
#11 Georgivs
I still remember an interview with David during the SOTT period where he said something like this:
“you can use it before you go to the toilet because I’ve been told that the album sucks”
this was an excerpt from an interview I read in the Italian fanzine Purple Glow back in 1990, and it’s still etched in my mind.
I honestly have never heard this difference between 1987 and SOTT, they seem like two very similar albums to me.
I think the substantial difference was that the years 84-87 for hard rock towards glam AoR were unrepeatable, while from 1990 the Grunge tide was already coming to sweep everything away.
even Iron Maiden with Fear of the dark (their most mature album) entered into crisis.
Metallica with the Black Album reached the peak (which they had not yet reached, while WS had reached it in 1987), Scorpions without Wind of Change and Guns without Don’t cry and the cover of Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door would not have been the success of that time.
Aerosmith and Bon Jovi still had MTV behind them, other bands were already in crisis like Whitesnake.
crisis means that you were not selling like 3/4 years before, even if WS had then sold out Donington park.
but the symptom was that the record companies were starting to not believe in the hard rock bands of the 80s anymore because the “garbage” of grunge (as punk was “garbage” before) called for a new refreshed trend…
Restless heart was a very brave album for David, an album that people (and himself) should praise more, because it was in an era where for the record company he was an old dinosaur, and he made a much more sincere album than 1987 and SOTT and took it on tour and managed to do it when people like Iron, Judas, Motorhead, Kiss, Queensryche, Skid Row and many others were in crisis, while David was walking the world’s stages in a blue suit! (I still remember the color of his outfit!),
March 21st, 2025 at 23:37in Italy I think he played in front of 3,000 people at most, but it was a better concert than the one I saw on the SOTT tour with the phenomenon Steve Vai!
@ 14 -thanks Uwe for the warning. The only trouble is I still clicked on the link, he hehe. Perhaps if you could put future ‘spoilers’ ahead of the link, that way I wouldn’t get confused at all. Cheers.
March 21st, 2025 at 23:42#14 Uwe
he’s right, “blacksmith” Tommy Aldrige ruined the sound of every band he joined!
March 22nd, 2025 at 00:12but by the mid-80s his mega-reverb snare was behind the times
15#1 I agree..so I wrote that 1987 lacks blues…
March 22nd, 2025 at 15:01It has a little bit of it “Crying in the Rain” new version blues-hard/rock song..Skayes gave it sharpness and turned it into blues heavy rock.
Steven, darling, are you okay? Are you alright? You know, there are two kinds of spurs. 😀
March 22nd, 2025 at 15:1914/17
I often wondered what made DC hold on to Tommy A. The man butchers every song he plays on. And I mean…DC played with Ian Paice… the king of swing.
March 22nd, 2025 at 17:03DC is innocent for once, Max. Aldridge is not his favorite drummer in live giglWS, he regards him as a bit too technical, he said as much in an interview. But he wanted the band to decide – and overwhelmingly and much to his surprise they voted for Tommy to return to the drum stool. DC obliged and granted them their wish.
I guess that Aldridge’s drum machine approach coupled with his drum clinic sound make for a reliable live foundation.
March 22nd, 2025 at 20:18I have always wondered about the Tommy Aldridge ‘go to guy’ scenario. He seemed to be just that with some of the hair metal bands during the 1980’s. From O$Bourne’s circus to Whitesnake and back again and so forth. Something like that. I do think it was his showmanship and professionalism, always thought that. That stick twirling, double kick manic image thing. He looked the part, in that sense. When he joined the Circus, I was bewildered and not only because of the fiasco that occurred with the treatment handed out to Lee Kerslake and Bob Daisley. Anyway I didn’t follow O$$y after Bark at the Moon and I definitely didn’t follow that slithering Snake into his abyss. What is that saying over there, ‘it’s all showbiz’. Oh and ‘it’s only the glitter and shine that gets through’. So true. Cheers.
March 22nd, 2025 at 20:53I never liked Aldridge, I think he’s terrible, all he does is beats the crap out of a drumkit. The man doesn’t know how to play anything subtle. I remember seeing Whitesnake with Brian Tichy, better drummer only 1 bass drum, much smaller kit, yet the band was a lot better. WS hasn’t recovered really since even before the Purple Tour. Doug Aldrich’s departure really hurt the band.
March 23rd, 2025 at 04:29Sidroman, I agree 100 %
March 23rd, 2025 at 14:18I’m not sure that DC disagrees with either of you, Sidroman & Max. He loved Brian Tichy and he loved Denny Carmassi for their respective grooves, Aldridge is just a powerhouse stadium spectacle to him.
It’s interesting that the famous go-to rhythm section of Tommy Aldridge & Rudy Sarzo is associated with spectacularly successful albums they both never played a single note on: Blizzard of Oz, Diary of a Madman, 1987/Serpens Albus and, in the case of Rudy Sarzo, even Quiet Riot’s Metal Health mega seller on which Sarzo just played on a few tracks, the others were recorded by Chuck Wright.
Sarzo is that very successful touring bassist everybody knows who has recorded not a single studio album with Ozzy, only one with Whitesnake, only two with Quiet Riot (not counting their prior years with Sony Japan) and nothing with either Dio or Blue Öyster Cult though he had substantial tenures with both bands, strange. He’s certainly a flashy bassist with great looks and technique.
https://media1.tenor.com/m/VBGAikRG_2AAAAAd/rudy-sarzo-quiet.gif
https://media1.tenor.com/m/i7ks_5OzQdAAAAAC/rudy-sarzo-playing-guitar.gif
March 24th, 2025 at 04:50And all these years I thought I was the only one who was so annoyed by Tommy A.’s drumming. Thanks, dear forum, for the confirmation. He completely ruined WS’s ‘The Purple Album’, with his thumping, lacking any swing or feeling. “You fool no one” and “You keep on moving” are completely unacceptable. There’s a world of difference between Little Ian’s versions on “Made in Europe” and “Last Concert in Japan.” Even as Lee Kerslake’s successor in Ozzy Osbourne, he wasn’t convincing. I can only imagine that he was quite cheap and an extremely reliable person. But he definitely doesn’t have the groove.
March 24th, 2025 at 08:22@22 My pet theory on what made Tommy a go to drummer has it that Sharon A. had a crush on him in early ’80s and brought him to the band. That gig gave him a reputation to live by and started his international career. I saw him in 2004. He was solid but not nuanced. Not nuanced but solid.
March 24th, 2025 at 13:08I find that Tommy A sounds like a drum machine programmed to heavy metal. He probably likes to record with a click track too, a sign of the times, alas!
He sure made the most of meeting Ozzy Osbourne and David Coverdale at some obscure Californian open air in 1974 – he was the drummer with Black Oak Arkansas who opened at CalJam!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMT5J7ZPmpU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBnUC8p2wgw
And at home, before the TV set, a then 17-year-old Randy Rhoads saw that performance on TV and thought Tommy Aldridge infinitely cool (as he would state in an interview in 1981).
Talk about chance encounters.
Speaking of Black Oak: When I first heard and saw David Lee Roth with Van Halen, my immediate thought was: Jim Dandy – the lead singer of BOA! The hair, the naked torso, the (overdone) accent, the stage antics & the stage rap + of course the baritone voice. Except that Jim was much better at hitting notes. 😈
March 24th, 2025 at 16:06I think Tommy was a big influence for Mike Terrana, they sound very similar, then I never looked into whether Terrana can do more swing and refined passages, but I don’t think so
March 25th, 2025 at 07:30Sharon Osbourne definitely had something with Tommy drumming for Ozzy. Regarding Lee Kerslake, he was older than Ozzy, had a beard, and was a heavyset guy. It was a case of image not Lee’s drumming that led to his demise. I think even the guys in Heep called him The Bear. I got to meet the guys in Heep briefly, 99 maybe 2000 at a club they played here in Scranton, and got to shake Lee’s hand. The guy had a grip like a vise and his skin felt like sandpaper!
March 25th, 2025 at 12:04I’ve read that Bob (Daisley) was dragged by Randy (Rhoads) to a Pat Travers gig in London where Tommy (Aldridge) drummed because he was a fan of his drumming since having seen him on TV at the Cal Jam with Black Oak. So I’m not sure whether Tommy’s lean looks were really driving Sharon …
She was against Lee (Kerslake) because of his stoutness though, that much is true. And also because he wouldn’t let himself be marginalized, he wasn’t afraid to speak up (as he hadn’t been in Uriah Heep, leaving them in a huff after a heated exchange with Heep manager, producer and all-round Svengali Gerry Bron).
Daisley was vehemently against Kerslake being fired because he rated his inherent groove (as did longtime rhythm section buddy Trevor Bolder). Ozzy however thought that replacing a drummer wasn’t much of a thing (oh, the folly, these people are priceless …). According to the bassist, many years later upon hearing the drum track of another drummer played back in the control room, Ozzy leaned over to him and admitted: “You know … you were right about Lee …”.
Lee also participated in songwriting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I2LwgkC828
I saw the Randy Rhoads + Ozzy + Rudy Sarzo + Tommy Aldridge + a hidden keyboarder (not Don Airey, he only joined them for the North American leg of the tour) line-up at the time as openers to SAXON at Offenbach Stadthalle in 1981. I wasn’t impressed at all. They weren’t the tightest band on earth, let’s put it that way. Their sound was kind of all over too though that might not have been their fault, but rather the curse of the opening act.
Kerslake had groove, no two ways about it. And he was meaty in his drumming, but not a “Holzhacker”, pummeling rather than ‘powelling’ his kit.
March 25th, 2025 at 15:55We have heard the stories that $haron Arden expelled Daisley and Kerslake because they dared to question the financial aspect in regards to their input. She had obviously learned from watching her old man in ‘musical’ business, ruthless, no compassion etc. A chip off the old block in more ways than one. Cheers.
March 25th, 2025 at 23:15I think Tommy Aldrige played on a Motorhead album, but only 1 or 2 songs, and supposedly he told Mikkey Dee that he could be credited for the song or 2, and Dee replied “I don’t want to be credited for your drumming!’ I don’t blame him!
March 26th, 2025 at 01:28@33 It’s the other way around. He played on all tracks but two, of which one had no drums on it. Mickey played only on one track:
March 26th, 2025 at 08:22https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_%C3%B6r_Die
Interesting story in that wikipedia tale of Motorhead. Lemmy apparently scribbled down a few words for the O$Bournes as O$$y’s missus asked him to for a heap of cash. So Lemmy did just that (four songs allegedly) and according to the story (Is Lemmy taking the mickey or not?) he made more cash out of that than all of Motorhead. If true, it seems that things had changed somewhat from the early rip off days of the Daisley and Kerslake ‘song writing’ partnerships. Although a heap of cash in a one off arrangement is not ongoing royalties is it? Cheers.
March 26th, 2025 at 21:26The Osbournes liked to run a tight ship. Sharon couldn’t help her genes.
March 27th, 2025 at 17:24Very sad (for the O$Bourne’s) that they had to get Lemmy or anyone else for that matter outside of the band to jot down a few lines. Says it all really. Cheers.
March 28th, 2025 at 00:00Doesn’t Ozzy have issues both reading and writing? He likes to avoid it as much as he can.
No matter, I always liked the plaintive/wailing characteristic of his voice. And he has a knack for simplistic melodies delivered in very stately, even lumbering rhythms that somehow stick in your mind.
When he left Sabbath in the late 70s no one would have betted a dime on his career continuing. He’s done well for himself, especially in the US. I find him live more amusing than fascinating, but hell, he’s Ozzy! In a parallel universe, if he had replaced Gillan in DP, I think he could have done a blistering version of Highway Star live. The way the vocal melody and rhythm in Highway Star cling to the chugging bass and rhythm guitar is a bit reminiscent of Paranoid if not quite as stiff.
March 28th, 2025 at 12:32Meanwhile, Loudwire declares Rudy S the second best hair metal bass player:
March 28th, 2025 at 16:21https://loudwire.com/best-hair-metal-bassists/
@38
“In a parallel universe, if he had replaced Gillan in DP, I think he could have done a blistering version of Highway Star live.”
NOW I am depressed! 😣
Normally I think highly of you, but if you really mean that, I have to do some serious re-considering.
It is not that I am criticising OO, but comparing him to Ian, and actually regarding him to be better at singing Highway Star…
I think I’m finally done! 😧
I can’t take it anymore! 🙁
My storage tanks are empty, the wind blows lonely through this landscape of music and joy!
The sun has stopped shining… even the birds are mute, bowed down with sorrow as they are at this cruel statement.
Maybe one day I can smile again, but right now I can’t see a reason for even a small, faint smile. 😞
It was once so easy to enjoy the many musical experiences, but even the beautiful music can’t turn this trauma into something good.
If I had known the world could be so cold and heartless, I would never have set foot in it.
(Too theatrical? ☺️😉)
March 28th, 2025 at 20:20(Btw: Purple would NEVER, N E V E R, have been Purple with OO as the vocalist!😠)
I have no idea Uwe, about O$$y’s reading and writing skills. I like his vocal, always have. However were they that inept of enough words to finish or to be inspired for a song or four? I just think of what Bob Daisley did for them and how they must have missed him big time when he finally told them to sod off. Daisley played bass guitar on that album apparently. No More Tears indeed. An interesting thought about O$$y singing on Highway Star, yes it probably would have passed the pub test. Possibly. Cheers.
March 29th, 2025 at 07:35“My philosophy is: What people say about me is none of my business.
March 29th, 2025 at 08:36I am who I am and do what I do.
I expect nothing and accept everything.
And that makes life easier.
We live in a world where funerals are more important than the deceased, marriage is more important than love, looks are more important than the soul.
We live in a packaging culture that despises content.”
❤️🤗
Karin, fetch a glass of water, sit down, get a grip on yourself, I never said that Ozzy could have been to DP what Ian is, I just said that he could have done justice to Highway Star because the vocal phrasing ON THAT ONE SONG (!) was right up his alley, nuthin‘ more!
Wimmin … 🙄
March 29th, 2025 at 17:17@43
Uwe, you suggested OO would do a better job than Ian!
I need more than a glass of water! (And no, I don’t mean two glasses of water 😝)
March 29th, 2025 at 18:51With all due respect to Uwe, I really don’t rate Ozzy as vocalist. Dio era Sabbath is by far my favorite. My favorite Ozzy Sabbath album is Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and even then, I sort of have to be in the mood to listen to him. Ozzy, Neil Young, Jon Anderson, and Geddy Lee are all singers that I like and have seen perform live, but I have to be in the right mood. Robert Plant also, usually if Zep comes on Sirius Xm radio and I’m driving, I’ll switch to a different station with the exception of a few songs.
March 30th, 2025 at 04:29“In a parallel universe, if he had replaced Gillan in DP, I think he could have done a blistering version of Highway Star live. The way the vocal melody and rhythm in Highway Star cling to the chugging bass and rhythm guitar is a bit reminiscent of Paranoid if not quite as stiff.”
Now where exactly, liebe Frau Verndal, did I say that Ozzy would have been better than Ian?! 🤔🙄 “Blistering” doesn’t mean better, it’s a description of a form of delivery. Ozzy is a one trick pony and not nearly as variable as IG nor does he have his range (both up AND down the register). All I stated was that he could have done HS justice in his own way and (which DC and GH, though both strong singers, never could, that very close to the rhythm guitar, almost a little punkish vocal line was never their cup of tea).
*************************************************************
Georgivs @39, this Sarzo quote says it all:
QUOTE
“If I’m gonna play less, I perform more,” Quiet Riot and former Ozzy Osbourne bassist Rudy Sarzo explained on Spector Player Profiles. “Let’s say if I’m just playing simple parts on the bass, I put the bass on my head or behind my neck. … Growing up, I watched a lot of boring shows, and I promised myself, ‘If I’m ever on that big stage, I’m not gonna be that boring.’ So I actually project myself into the audience a lot of the time.”
UNQUOTE
In his prime, Rudy was a sight to see, a male Playmate of a bassist and – he’s from Cuba & you can still hear it by his accent – also a great mover. What he never was, however, is a in any way remarkable stylist on his instrument, not a Roger Glover, Glenn Hughes, John Gustafson, Bob Daisley, John McCoy or Neil Murray who all play bass in a immediately recognizable style so that you can pick them out after two minutes of playing or so.
Rudy didn’t actually play on that many albums because he relatively often found himself promoting live what other people had laid down in the studio, but where he did (Ozzy’s ill-advised and today rightfully largely forgotten live album of Sabbath chestnuts “Speak of the Devil”, Quiet Riot’s Metal Health in part and, of course, Slip of the Tongue) his bass playing is bland, unimaginative and devoid of any character. It’s like what AI would recommend you to play, bass playing by numbers, without any “Ausdruck”. Of course, Ozzy telling you to stay as close to Geezer Butler’s orginal lines as possible or being buried in the mix of Slip of the Tongue so Herr Vai can stack his umpteen overdub layers won’t help you leaving a stamp as a bassist, but still …
I hate to say it because I like the guy, but Rudy just isn’t very creative though he certainly has all the chops as a bassist. Some people just aren’t. That DC chose him over Neil Murray for WS in 1987 is a bit like favoring The Rock over Leonardo DiCaprio in a non-muscle movie.
In his quote, Rudy spins it that he put a focus on being a good showman (he indeed was), but that is only half the story. Gene Simmons is a good showman, but you can tell his bass playing from a mile away (contrary to public perception he’s a less simplistic hard rock bass player than most of his contemporaries). Glenn Hughes didn’t play simplistic, yet was a showman on stage and so was John McCoy who combined machine-like, almost comic monotony in his playing with really smart or flashy fills and breaks.
I also wonder how one can think up the “five best hair metal bassists” and not mention Nikki Sixx – love him or loathe him – once! 😳 That is like a poll about Blues-influenced black rock guitarists that doesn’t‘t mention Hendrix. 😑
Anyway, I‘m happy that Rudy finally got some credit for looking his gorgeous part. (Some eye candy for Karin 😘, hairy male Cuban torsos … Rudy is the dark-haired Latin Lover on the left, see how I never fail to think of you?!)
https://youtu.be/nOmBHoTLuH0
PS: I actually liked Quiet Riot, they were good fun. Kevin DuBrow, their singer, committed the same folly as Ritchie though by eventually having his telltale thinning widow‘s peak augmented, he looked a lot nastier and more expressive with his receding hairline as in the above vid.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSdbcKS6MPu6LInK2xK7u5lBIDBdc37Wa2eNQ&usqp=CAU
Had he spent the money needed to replenish his natural hairline for a proper cocaine withdrawal, he might also still be with us. 🫤
March 30th, 2025 at 10:06Sidroman, I didn’t say Ozzy is a great singer – he’s not – just a one-of-a-kind-stylist, and that HS is one song he could have reasonably done in the Purple oeuvre due to the parallels to Paranoid in the vocal line! ONE SONG!!! Jeeeez …
I prefer Ozzy-era to Dio-era Sabbath because – this will sound weird – Ozzy is more poppy/catchy with his minimalist, almost children’s melodies vocal lines. He had a knack of singing tuneful, if very simplistic melodies over Iommi’s lava riffs.
He honed that even more in his solo career: Crazy Train is a pop song at its core.
Of course Dio is the more elaborate singer, but he wouldn’t have had the charm to do something as endearing as this:
https://youtu.be/zze_uvkQ8-U
Ozzy just stands there and sings it with his wailing drone and to me it’s touching and has loads of charm.
Now if Dio attempts Beatles material, it might be sung better, but is the emotional impact the same?
https://youtu.be/P9MKHXgt5pg
https://youtu.be/VDqDwUKzGV4
March 30th, 2025 at 10:45@46
“Now where exactly, liebe Frau Verndal, did I say that Ozzy would have been better than Ian?! 🤔🙄”
You said that he would do a better job mumbling Highway Star than Ian!
This does not go away easily!
(And then please stop harassing me, I’m down at the moment and I need to get my mind on more lighter subjects 😥🥺)
I do know what “blistering” means!
March 30th, 2025 at 16:06But to suggest Ozzy Osborne is preferable in a Purple context, well that send me on a path of no return!
@46
“(Some eye candy for Karin 😘, hairy male Cuban torsos … Rudy is the dark-haired Latin Lover on the left, see how I never fail to think of you?!)“
March 30th, 2025 at 16:11Thank you, but no thanks 🥺😞
“But to suggest Ozzy Osborne is preferable in a Purple context, well that send me on a path of no return!”
Hell hath no fury like a woman (whose Gillan has been) scorned!
March 31st, 2025 at 07:51@50
“Hell hath no fury like a woman (whose Gillan has been) scorned!”
Exactly!
I protect those who are dear and important to me 🥰
March 31st, 2025 at 11:53No worries Uwe, as long as we can agree on Supertramp as is well. Bloody Well Right!!!!!
March 31st, 2025 at 11:57