Jason Becker: The Complete 1990 Interview

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Jason Becker: The Complete 1990 Interview About David Lee Roth, Cacophony . . .
By Jas Obrecht April 28 2011

In 1990, Jason Becker was rapidly ascending the heights of guitar stardom. The 21-year-old had already released two Cacophony albums with co-guitarist Marty Friedman – the Shrapnel releases Go Off! and Speed Metal Symphony – and well as his acclaimed 1989 solo album, Perpetual Burn. Most notable of all, Jason had just completed the sessions for David Lee Roth’s A Little Ain’t Enough. Fans were anxiously anticipating Roth’s new album and upcoming tour – after all, Dave had previously performed alongside Eddie Van Halen and Steve Vai. A Little Ain’t Enough was released and went gold, but a tour with Jason Becker on guitar was not to be. Jason had just been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The Becker family was initially told Jason’s life expectancy was three to five years. By 1996, he’d lost the ability to speak, so his father developed a method of communicating via eye movement similar to the Noirtier de Villefort character in Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo. From his wheelchair, Jason continued to compose music with a computer that responds to eye movement. On his 1996 album Perspective, he wrote that ALS has “crippled my body and speech, but not my mind.” He followed-up with 1999’s Raspberry Jams and 2003’s Blackberry Jams. His latest, Collection, came out in 2008. Jason has published portions of his medical and spiritual insights from his autobiography-in-progress at http://www.jasonbeckerguitar.com/ .

In his book Crazy from the Heat, David Lee Roth praised Jason as “the kindest, gentlest, most flexible, absorbing, want-to-learn spirit that I’ve ever really worked with.” This parallels my observations of the man. When I contacted Jason in April 2011, I mentioned that my father had recently passed away. I also asked for his permission to run our interview on my website. Jason responded by email: “Hey Jas! That sounds wonderful! I would be honored to be included. Thank you so much. I am very sorry about your father. Peace, my friend.” And friends he has: On March 26, 2011, several of these – Joe Satriani, Marty Friedman, Jeff Watson, Greg Howe, Richie Kotzen, and Steve Lukather among them – gathered in San Francisco to perform at the Jason Becker’s Not Dead Yet Festival.

A few days before our December 13, 1990, phone interview, Jason had sent me an advanced cassette of A Little Ain’t Enough. I used several quotes from our conversation for my profile in the March 1991 issue of Guitar Player magazine. Here, for the first time, is the complete interview.

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I sure love your playing on the new Dave Lee Roth album.

Aw, thanks a lot, man.

You did a great job.

Thanks a lot, Jas! Good to hear.

Did you feel any special pressure knowing that you were following in the footsteps of Eddie Van Halen and Steve Vai?

No, not really. You can’t think about that. When Dave listened to me and the guys heard me, you know, they don’t want another Eddie or another Steve. They want me for what I do. You know, there’s no way – I don’t play like Steve or Eddie, so there was no pressure. I just do what I do. Some people are gonna like it more, and some people aren’t gonna like it as much. So the only thing that you do is play and make yourself happy. And making Dave happy is good too [laughs].

Given Dave’s passion for control, what kind of input did he have on what you played?

Well, you know, it was really cool. You hear a lot of stories about Dave and stuff, and when I was going in I didn’t know what to expect. I was very pleasantly surprised, especially as far as recording, because he had a lot of input and he wanted everything to be special and to fit. It wasn’t like he told me anything to do; it was like, “Why don’t you try this and this?” And I’d try it, and he’d think, “Well, cool. What about trying this and this?” He’d try to pull things out of that I would do myself. It wasn’t like, “Do this!” It was more just go for it, and we’ll see where to go from there.

What was the road that led you into that gig?

Gosh, what was the road? Um . . .

I associate you with being in Cacophony.

Right. I was in Cacophony, and I had just gotten out of the band – not even knowing about the Dave thing or anything.

When was this?

This was about a month before I started playing with Dave in late ’89, I guess. So I got out of that band just because I wanted a little more blues in there and a little more pop thing. I just kind of wanted to start fresh. Even though Marty [Friedman] is my best friend and we play together all the time, I just wanted something new. So I started writing tunes that are more like Dave’s, for [Shrapnel producer] Mike Varney. So he really liked them. I think it was matter of Mike Varney and [Roth drummer] Gregg Bissonette talking. So I want down and auditioned.

Can you describe the audition for Dave?

Ah, it was great! I got there to Dave’s house, and they’re hanging out. Dave’s eating cereal. It was great because they were just like normal people. They are about the nicest guys I have ever met – you know, the guys in the band. They just really made it easy. It was really easy. It was just a matter of going and playing.

What kind of stuff did you play?

We played “Hot for Teacher” and “Gigolo” and “Panama,” and a couple of the new tunes.

Had you woodshedded to learn all this before you went down?

Oh, yeah. It wasn’t that hard to learn, so yeah, I definitely got it down. I learned the songs the way the songs were on the records. They’d heard a tape of me before, so they knew that I had ideas and stuff. So they just wanted to make sure I could cop the vibes.

Did any of the songs that you were writing make it onto the record?

Two songs I wrote, the last two on the record – “Showtime” and “Drop in the Bucket.”

I wondered about “Drop in the Bucket,” because it’s so guitar-intensive. It seems like it came from a guitar player.

Yeah, definitely. You know, most of the songs were written when I got in the band.

Do you have songwriting credits on other songs?

Nope. Gosh, lots of different people wrote on the record. Steve Hunter wrote quite a few tunes with the keyboard player, Brett Tuggle. You know, Dave writes the lyrics.

Did he write the lyrics to “Showtime” and “Drop in the Bucket”?

Yeah. See, when I went in there, they had all these tunes and they said, “If you’ve got any tunes, by all means.” And they had so many great tunes, all I wanted to do was say, “Okay, what is it missing?” and write a tune in what it was missing. Because why write another “Tell the Truth” or “A Little Ain’t Enough” when there’s already one that’s really cool? So I kind of filled in the gaps.

When you got there, were there demo tapes to work with?

Yeah, they had done little demo tapes.

With guitar?

Yeah. They were using a guy whose name is Rocket Ritchotte. He’s a really good player. So they had some demos with him. I’m not sure, but I think he co-wrote maybe a couple of the tunes. I’m not sure which ones, though.

Why didn’t they use him in the band?

Um, I can’t really say, because I don’t know for sure. I have my ideas, but . . .

Okay, good enough. What were the sessions like?

It was really cool! It was really mellow, really easy. You know, Bob Rock’s a guitar player too. Bob Rock produced it.

“Bob Rock”? What’s his real name?

To be honest, they told me that’s his real name. Bob Rock! [Laughs.] It’s an appropriate name. He’s a great guy and a good producer. There wasn’t really pressure. You know what’s funny? We did a demo for some of the songs before we went up to Vancouver to record. And a lot of the solos I did on that, I sort of winged them and made them up at the time. And I thought, “This is fine for now, but I can kick ’em up later.” But Dave fell in love with half of them, so I had to re-cop what I did. But that was cool. That was good. But the recording, it was just loads of fun.

Did Dave play any guitar?

No, he didn’t play any.

What did Steve Hunter play on?

He actually played on all the cuts but “Showtime.” Like he does the popping rhythms in “40 Below,” the snapping rhythms in that. He does a little slide in “Sensible Shoes,” and we trade off in “Hammerhead Shark.” That’s a fun one. I like trading off with him. It was a friendly thing.

Were you both set up in the studio at the same time?

No, we weren’t, actually. He did his parts first. But actually, I got lucky because I didn’t have to do it fresh. I got to hear what he did and come up with my part.

Did you get a chance to meet Steve Hunter?

Oh, we’re best friends! We hung out all the time in Vancouver, and I’m actually gonna see him tonight.

I remember seeing him with Lou Reed and Alice Cooper when I was a kid. He must be an old guy now!

Yeah, he’s as old as my dad. We always joke about that.

But you related as two regular guys.

Oh, definitely! We definitely get along. He’s really one of my best friends. He’s a good guy.

What are your favorite tracks on the album?

My favorites change every day. You know – “A Little Ain’t Enough” one day, “Tell the Truth” the next day, “Drop in the Bucket” the next day. There are little parts in each song that I like. It depends on what mood I’m in.

You had a chance to do some fire-breathing solos on this record.

Yeah, I got a chance. I got a chance to blaze on the last couple.

It seems like you saved your best stuff for “Drop in the Bucket” – the last song.

Yeah, I’ve heard people tell me that. It’s kind of that way. My other records are pretty much blaze from start to finish, and I love doing that, but I didn’t want people to say, “Oh. Whatever.” But then again, it’s an exciting thing and I like to put it in there. But to be honest, I didn’t choose the sequence of the record, so maybe that’s what Dave wants.

How did Dave’s sessions compare to the sessions you did with Mike Varney?

Well, for Varney, me and Marty went in and Varney didn’t even show up. It was just like, “Go ahead, you guys. Record whatever you want.” So we got to do everything we wanted. It’d take a month, and the only worry was like, “Uh, are you guys spending too much time, too much money?” You know. Of course, the vocals were a little less of a concern in Cacophony [laughs]. Oh, it was just the most incredible experience in Vancouver. You know, I’d rather have a producer telling me how to change things and how to make it kind of cooler. Which is kind of cool for what it is, but I tend to want to jam cool licks in every second. I used to think, “I don’t want a second of boring parts – I want it all to be incredible.” I really like being – it wasn’t like I was stifled. It was just, “Why don’t you try this. And it would be more effective if you’d wait here, and don’t do it here.” I consider it a learning thing, and I’m really into learning, so it was fun.

How old were you when you produced Perpetual Burn?

I was 18. I’m 21 now.

Is there an acoustic guitar in “Sensible Shoes”?

Is there an acoustic guitar? You know, I don’t think so. That one and “Tell the Truth,” I left the scratch tracks that I did. When we were recording for the drums and the bass, we’d all play together and Dave would sing. And so we left the scratch tracks on those two tunes.

Did you play the reverb-drenched parts?

The swampy things? It’s almost like a Leslie [rotating speaker] on there, the little vibrato? No, Steve did that. That’s a hip part, huh?

It sure is.

Yeah. He’s good at that old blues stuff, and he did a little bit of slide. It’s funny, because we’d take turns doing that little lick, that [sings the part] – sometimes it’s him doing slide, and sometimes it’s me with the bar. It’s hard to tell.

“Baby’s on Fire” is a cool combination of vibe and attitude.

Yeah, yeah. I like that one. That one – I think that’s Dave’s best singing, like, in a long time. He sounds really tough on that one. For that solo, it was kind of a weird thing I did. I took a melody and played it forwards. I flipped the tape and learned how to play it backwards and then played it on the tape and turned it over. So it’s the same melody, only it’s backwards.

So the pick attack is at the end of the note instead of at the beginning.

Exactly. Right, right. It kind of almost doesn’t sound like a guitar, in a way.

It has a nice thick buildup of guitars, almost a Houses of the Holy type of sound.

Yeah. It’s kind of a thick one, yeah.

Did Dave ever tell you, “More guitar, more guitar”?

No, I don’t think he ever had to say that! [Laughs.] I think that was the least of his concerns!

Were you asked to abridge parts?

What do you mean abridge?

Edit them down, remove stuff.

Yeah, You know, we’d go over solos. Sometimes he’d say, “That lick there isn’t necessary” or “Why don’t we stick it over here.” Yeah, we worked on the solos.

Were solos pieced together?

We’d figure out the vibe, and sometimes some of the parts, we wanted them to be in there. I’d punch some, but I never got into that doing a bunch of tracks and piecing them together. Although, you know, Bob Rock could have done that when I wasn’t there, so maybe.

Was he recording digitally?

Yeah, we did that. That’s very cool.

The whole record?

Yeah, I believe so.

Did you learn anything about getting a good guitar sound while working on that record?

I’ll tell you what I learned about getting a good guitar sound: I learned that it’s not an easy thing! Just because you’re in an expensive studio, you’re not going to go in there and get good tone. It kind of made me learn that it has to come out of the playing. I think tone has a lot to do with your playing. You know, that’s a good one. It’s just a matter of having a cool head, I guess. [Laughs.]

Did you change your gear?

Yeah! I kind of wanted different tones on each of the tunes. Basically we had about eight Marshalls in there that we went back and forth from. I used about a million different guitars too. I used Peaveys, Carvins, Ibanez, ESPs, Valley Arts – just any guitar you can think of. Hamers.

Why?

Just for a different feel.

Did any particular ones tend to show up in more prominent places?

To be honest, it’s quite even. Like I’d pick a guitar for a certain tune.

Would it be for that guitar’s tone, or just to have something different?

Yeah, mainly the tone. Like I used the Les Paul on “A Little Ain’t Enough,” an ESP on “Lady Luck,” and a Valley Arts on – gosh, I forget which one. See, I kind of forget too. I just want to go for something different.

Why not use eight brands of amps too?

Well, because Marshall is the coolest amp! [Laughs.]

What do you look for in a Marshall when you test one out?

Even that, I haven’t been much of a searcher. I just find the cool Marshall. Mainly some beef. It would have to have a lot of meat. Sometimes they have this tinky high-end thing happening. But just a lot of meat, and then you can always add stuff.

Do you have a lot of processing gear there?

No. It kind of bothered me at first. It was just Marshall and nothing else – no reverb, no nothing.

Guitar into amplifier?

Right.

Miked amplifier?

Yep. And see ya. It’s not very inspiring to play, so you have to really pull it out of you, which was a challenge. And that was really fun. It got to be fun. At first it was, “What’s the deal? C’mon, let’s juice that puppy up!” But it was really fun.

Did they add sound processing once you had it on tape?

Yeah, once it was on tape. In the mix, they’d slap that stuff on there.

Do you have special requirements for your guitars?

Yeah, I use .008 to .046s [string gauges]. That’s the only requirement.

What about the whammy setup?

Nah, not really. Whatever. Just as long as I can yank back a little bit, that’s enough.

So it doesn’t matter if it’s a Kahler or Floyd Rose.

Yeah, actually it has to be Floyd or Ibanez or whatever. I used Kahler for a while, but mine didn’t stay in tune.

I detect a lot of blues influence in your playing.

Yeah. You know, that’s from early on. My uncle plays blues guitar. His name is Ron Becker, and he’s into Roy Buchanan and Clapton and all those guys. So I kind of got it from him.

How old were you?

I was five when I started. My dad plays classical, so that’s kind of why I go back and forth from doing those things. But yeah, a lot of Clapton, a lot of . . . . My first influence was Dylan.

At which period? The acoustic folksinger Dylan?

That was well as “Like a Rolling Stone” and all those things up to Desire and Blood on the Tracks.

So you must be very song-oriented.

Well, kind of. It’s funny because my guitar playing, if you listen to it, it doesn’t really seem like it’s influenced by Dylan. I don’t know what it is, but when I was into it, I was like five and six and seven.

Were you practicing a lot back then?

Yeah. I learned like every Dylan tune, and I sang and played the harmonica in front of my school with an acoustic guitar – the full-on Mr. Tambourine Man!

Do you have a photo of that?

I think I do. I’m tellin’ ya. I’ve got to look for it because it’s really funny.

Did you take lessons?

Not really – not until I was 14. I took lessons from Dave Creamer then. I guess he did a record with Miles Davis [1972’s On the Corner]. Incredible player! I’ve got to go take another lesson sometime.

When did you move from imitation to innovation?

Whoo. That’s a good question. I guess right before I met Marty, and especially when I met Marty, because he was doing stuff that I had never heard. I was like, “What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I . . .” That was in high school – I guess my junior year. So yeah, that’s about when I started.

Where were you guys going to school?

Marty is actually older than I am, so he wasn’t in school. I went to school in Richmond [California], a school called Kennedy High.

Was Marty a local guitar hero?

Marty? On, no. He just gave lessons and stuff. He was kind of a local hero in Hawaii. He had a band called Hawaii quite a few years before that. But he moved to San Francisco because I guess he was gonna work with Mike Varney.

Would he be one of the major influences on your development?

Yeah, I think so. Definitely.

What are the differences in your styles?

Me and Marty?

Yeah. Does he have strengths that you admire?

Oh, yeah. I think he has weirder bends. He’s more into, like, the Uli [Jon Roth] thing. He’s got great phrasing and bending, and he really digs deep into that, whereas I might – well, actually, at this point I’m more into that too. That’s a good question! I don’t know the differences. It’s just a matter of listening. I never really think about it. A lot of people ask me about it, so I guess I should think about it. It’s kind of like he’s more of just a regular guy playing cool guitar, because he likes the full-on heaviest – like he’s Megadeth. He’s in the heaviest thing, but he’s like an incredible guitar player. That’s a good question.

Did you do any backup singing on Dave’s album?

No, I didn’t.

Were any of the tracks completed or well developed when you joined Dave?

Oh, yeah. Which ones were? “Last Call” was pretty much in there. “A Little Ain’t Enough” was a complete tune, but it was more of a keyboard tune, so I had to make it into a guitar tune.

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What was finished with “Last Call” when you got there?

It was pretty much right in there. I just had to stick a solo into it.

Were the opening riffs already done?

It was already all there. Steve Hunter and I both played rhythm on that, and I did the solo. And I did that little breakdown.

That’s a pretty flamboyant solo, with the growls and the chord parts.

That one is one of those where we had just done a couple of solos. It took a long time figuring out what the vibe should be and how long it should be and what notes it should be. We were kind of getting tired of that, so he said, “Okay.” And it’s funny, because Angus Young was recording right next door.

One of my favorites!

Yeah, definitely! The greatest vibrato. So we heard that his producer gave him like three takes and just pieced it together. So they said, “C’mon now. You can do that.” I said, “Okay. Two takes, and I’ll let you piece it together.” Usually I was like, “C’mon, let me do it again, let me do it again.” But this time it was, “Alright. If Angus can do it, I’ll try.” So it worked out, and they pieced together two.

Did you do all your solos in two weeks, or was it done song-by-song?

It was song-by song. I was there for three months. And it wasn’t done instrument by instrument. They finished all the drums, and then me and Dave and Steve would kind of trade off days – whenever Dave felt like singing and whenever we felt like playing. So it was funny – we’d have quite a few days off now and hang around in Vancouver.

Tell me about why you’re not touring with Dave.

That’s because I have this illness. They say it’s called ALS, which is a form of Lou Gehrig’s disease. That just got into my leg – actually, both of my legs – so much to where I can just barely walk now. So I kind of have to take care of it and go through some programs.

Can it be reversed?

Well, technically, no. It’s just a matter of trying everything. It’s actually doing okay.

Are you able to ambulate on your own?

Yeah. I need a cane, though.

What are your plans for the near future?

I’m working on a solo album. That should be quite different and quite new and quite cool. So I’m not sure when that’s gonna be out. It’ll probably be with Varney. And I’m sure me and Dave will work together again.

What’s Dave going to do about touring?

He’s got another guy. His name is Joe Holmes. I haven’t even heard him play, but he’s a really nice guy.

Did Dave audition people for that?

Yeah, I was actually there. We were auditioning for rhythm guys, and he came and played rhythm. And then I told Dave about my thing, that it probably wasn’t going to work out, so he just used him.

Jason Becker today.

So Dave was planning a two-guitar band?

Yeah, a nice full thing. It’s a new thing for Dave. Yeah.

Are you going to be moving back up to the San Francisco Bay Area?

Yeah, I think so. Probably January or February.

Is there anything you’d like to add, Jason?

Gosh, not really. I’m not the great interview guy. I never know what to say – I just play.

You’ve done a great job, man.

Well, the only thing I ever think about is just playing. I never really think about what I felt at the time, so I always kind of feel sorry for the guy interviewing me because I just answer the questions and don’t elaborate. But, yeah!