Steve Vai and Favored Nations / Mascot Label Group have announced the release of VAI / GASH, a straight-ahead rock record that Vai recorded 30 years ago with his great friend, Johnny \u201cGash\u201d Sombrotto.
VAI / GASH is released digitally and on CD on January 27, 2023. The vinyl album release will follow on February 24 .
Vai reflects, \u201cAround 1990, I was overcome with a desire to rip out what I thought would be a straight-ahead type of rock record that contained the kind of music I wish I had to listen to when I was that teenager ensconced in the biker culture. And then I met Johnny \u201cGash\u201d Sombrotto.\u201d
John was born in Queens, New York, and as a youth was an avid motorcycle enthusiast. In 1977 at the age of 21, he endured a serious accident that caused his body to catch fire while plunging 30 feet onto a barbed wire fence. Vai wrote in the liner notes, \u201cThe doctors told his family that he had third-degree burns over 60% of his body and that if he even survived, there was a strong possibility that he would lose his right arm and left leg. While in the Burn Unit, he endured excruciating pain, especially when given the intense daily cycle of hot baths for his burns. He soldiered on, and after a month he was finally discharged from the hospital. Luckily, no limbs were amputated. He was, however, left with a partial left ear and layers of skin grafts over his neck, arms, legs, and entire chest.
The stories he told about his recovery and the excruciating pain involved were crushingly gut-wrenching. But he survived, and eventually thrived again. He made his way out to Los Angeles in 1982 and got right back up on his
motorcycle.\u201d
Ahead of the release of the 30-year-old record VAI / GASH, on January 27th, 2023, Steve Vai sits down with Dino Bedrocker to discuss why now is the right time to release the album in honour of his late great friend Johnny \u201cGash\u201d Sombrotto\xa0