“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

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.

Van Halen landed the first blow. Their album 5150 was released on 12 March 1986, and was an instant hit.

But Roth had assembled a stellar backing band for his debut solo album Eat ’Em And Smile - drummer Greg Bissonette, bassist Billy Sheehan and guitarist Steve Vai.

Vai was Roth’s most potent weapon - an emerging guitar hero whom Roth felt might beat Eddie at his own game.

And when the first single from Eat ’Em And Smile dropped in June 1986, it was like a bomb going off.

The single was Yankee Rose - and its stunning intro featured Roth and Vai talking to each other, Roth with his voice and Vai with his guitar.

David Lee Roth - Yankee Rose (Official Video) [HD] - YouTube

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With Yankee Rose, Steve Vai’s status as a guitar hero was sealed.

And as he now tells MusicRadar, his inspiration for that song went all the way back to his childhood.

“It’s funny,” Vai says. “In some ways, it was a reflection on something that my sister Pam said to me as a little boy. She said, ‘One of these days, you are going to make your guitar talk!’

“It kinda stuck, I guess.

“With David Lee Roth, you are always reaching for the absurd – things that live on the cusp of cool and crazy. And I approached that project just like any other situation where I had to take the place of another guitar voice.

“I did that with Frank Zappa’s band. And with Dave’s band, it was Edward [Van Halen]. Whenever you hear Dave’s voice, you immediately hear Edward’s guitar playing.

“My goal was to not sound like what was there before me. Of course, there’s a wheelhouse you play in, but my goal was to always bring something new.

“When I set out to do that Eat ’Em And Smile record, I was an Edward fan, of course. But I knew I didn’t sound like him and wasn’t going to try.

“Instead, I wanted to bring in my own voice. I’m a little quirky, there’s a quirkiness to what I do sometimes. And when you’re hanging out with David Lee Roth, that stuff will come out.

“We were in the studio working together and you have to remember Van Halen were one of the biggest rock bands in the world and Dave had just quit. They were making another record and so was Dave.

"These guys were all trying to do the next big thing. And I was like a colourful fly on the wall watching it all go down and enjoying it very much.

“We wondered how to open the record – what could be interesting, fun and totally ridiculous to grab everyone’s interest. I said ‘I’m going to make my guitar talk!’

“And with that I was able fulfil my sister’s prophecy!”