Vai had just joined the band Whitesnake, but he was also signed to Capitol Records as a solo artist. It was pure, infinite freedom of expression. “Even in this state of mind, I wanted the solo to grow, and I gave it everything I had. “Because I was fasting, I alternated between feeling sick and experiencing this strange euphoria,” he says. While standing underneath a wooden pyramid he had built (“I was fascinated with pyramids at the time”), Vai, on the fourth day of a 10-day fast, performed the song’s breathtaking solo on one of his signature Ibanez Universe seven-string guitars. Working in his own home studio, Vai guided bassist Stuart Hamm and drummer Tris Imboden through their parts, then recorded his guitar tracks in his own inimitable fashion. It wasn’t until he was recording the follow-up to his indie smash Flex-Able that he felt ready to give the song the treatment it deserved. “I would walk past it, and it would kind of trip me, but I just didn’t know what to do with it,” he says.
The cassette sat on Vai’s shelf for years. (Image credit: Frans Schellekens/Redferns) Don’t Try This At Home
