Guitar icon Steve Vai has posted the following message via Facebook:

"Happy 33rd Anniversary to Eat 'Em and Smile! This week in 1986, the record was released. I was barely 26 and had no idea what this all meant, but I found out quick. What a ride!" 

The original David Lee Roth band was recently offered a new record deal with Jeff Scott Soto fronting, following their appearance in Anaheim earlier this year. The revelation was made by Soto himself, speaking to eonmusic while promoting Soto the band's new album, Origami.

The original Eat 'Em And Smile band made a brief appearance at Ultimate NAMM Night, which took place at the Hilton, Anaheim, on Saturday, January 26, 2019. The group performed two songs with Soto standing in for David Lee Roth; "Shy Boy", and a cover of Queen's "Tie Your Mother Down".

In a brand new interview with eonmusic, the singer revealed that Roth had been approached to perform with the four members of the band - guitarist Steve Vai, bassist Billy Sheehan, drummer Greg Bissonette, and keysman Brett Tuggle, to appear at the event. Said Soto: "Initially they did reach out for Dave, and asked him if he wanted to do it, but he was in New York during that week, and he said he would have loved to have done it."

It was Roth's enthusiasm for the get together that ultimately, affected the song choices on the evening. Said Jeff: "From that, the guys, mainly Steve [Vai], they worried that if they ever wanted to put this thing together and actually make it work, by doing it with me and doing two DLR songs, he might say; 'Yeah, you know, you’ve kind of already done it, you don’t need me to do it anymore', kind of thing. So, it was by design that we removed ‘Yankee Rose’."

Going on to comment on the reaction to the two-song set, Jeff revealed that the one-off appearance had actually resulted in an offer from an undisclosed company to record a full album. "The aftermath, it got so much press, it got so much notice. We got to the point where a record company offered a deal for the Eat ‘Em And Smile band and myself fronting, to do an album together. It got to that, but everybody’s busy, and everybody’s doing their thing, and I don’t expect anytime soon that we’re going to revisit that in a real way, but it was still a lot of fun to do."

Read the full interview at eonmusic.

Photo by Neil Zlozower / Atlas Icons