Sushi

[Alain Benoit]

"He's one of the most amazing sight-readers that ever existed on the instrument. One day we were in a Frank rehearsal, this was early '80s, and Frank brought in this piece of music called "Mo 'N Herb's Vacation." Just unbelievably complex. All the drums were written out, just like "The Black Page" except even more complex. There were these runs of like 17 over 3 and every drumhead is notated differently. And there were a whole bunch of people there, I think Bozzio was there. Vinnie had this piece of music on the stand to his right. To his left he had another music stand with a plate of sushi on it, okay? Now the tempo of the piece was very slow, like "The Black Page." And then the first riff came in, [mimics bizarre Zappa-esque drum rhythm patterns] with all these choking of cymbals, and hi-hat, ruffs, spinning of rototoms and all this crazy stuff. And I saw Vinnie reading this thing. Now, Vinnie has this habit of pushing his glasses up with the middle finger of his right hand. Well I saw him look at this one bar of music, it was the last bar of music on the page. He started to play it as he was turning the page with one hand, and then once the page was turned he continued playing the riff with his right hand, as he reached over with his left hand, grabbed a piece of sushi and put it in his mouth, continued the riff with his left hand and feet, pushed his glasses up, and then played the remaining part of the bar. It was the sickest thing I have ever seen. Frank threw his music up in the air. Bozzio turned around and walked away. I just started laughing."

Steve Vai

[Mathieu Benoit]

Haha.... I just read that article 3 weeks ago, when I was on the throne...

He's still by far my favorite ever. Hands down, one of the sickest muthas to have ever touched a pair of sticks.

[macrae11]

I'm assuming we're talking about Colaiuta and not Paul here

[Alain Benoit]

I'm assuming we're talking about Colaiuta and not Paul here

Owen???

[macrae11]

I meant Vinnie Paul, but Paul Owen, thats hilarious.

[Malcolm Boyce]

Vinnie's best recorded performance ever is the ALF theme, and if you don't believe me... I'm kidding.


... about the best part. It is Vinnie.

One of my favourite Vinnie articles/interviews:

http://www.vinniecolaiuta.com/articles/ ... ing91.aspx

[Mathieu Benoit]

One of my favourite Vinnie articles/interviews:

http://www.vinniecolaiuta.com/articles/ ... ing91.aspx

Hehe...

Vinnie's account of his audition:

"He made me sight read; then he'd throw tunes at me to see how much I could retain, see how my time felt. He said, 'Solo in 21.' And then he made me solo over these bizarre vamps. Then he'd solo and I'd accompany him. Then he gave me this piece called 'Pedro's Dowry' which I played in unison with Ed Mann. Finally, he pulled me aside and said something thing like, 'Look man, I'll be amazed if anyone comes in after that.'" And that, as they say, was that.

What Zappa said at the end was priceless, as I'm sure the waiting room cleared out some quick after that...