Passion and Warfare was inspired by dreams that Vai had when he was younger. In the sheet music book of the album, Vai describes the album as "
Jimi Hendrix meets
Jesus Christ at a party that
Ben Hur threw for
Mel Blanc". It was recorded at Vai's home studio, The Mothership, a building in which his guitar parts for
Whitesnake's 1989 album
Slip of the Tongue were also recorded. Whitesnake members
David Coverdale,
Adrian Vandenberg and
Rudy Sarzo are credited with backing vocals, and Coverdale also contributes spoken vocals. According to Vai, planning for the album started as early as 1982, but was shelved after joining David Lee Roth's band and not picked up again until parting ways with Roth in 1989. The music video for "The Audience Is Listening" received regular airplay on
MTV.
Recording methods Vai utilized many unusual recording techniques on the album. For what would come to be one of his most popular songs to date, "
For the Love of God", he
fasted for ten days and recorded the song on the fourth day of the fast. "Blue Powder" was originally recorded in 1986 as a showcase track for
Carvin, using their X-100B amplifier, and given away with
Guitar Player magazine in
flexi disc format. Vai was introduced to Carvin by his mentor
Frank Zappa, who had also used the X-100B. The drums were subsequently re-recorded for the album. The equipment used to record
Passion and Warfare was:
Ibanez JEM and
Universe guitars;
Charvel Green Meanie guitar;
Marshall JCM900 and Carvin X-100B amplifiers; ADA MP-1
preamplifier;
Boss DS-1 distortion pedal;
Eventide H3000 Harmonizer; Lexicon 480L. Like many other releases by Vai, the album is largely instrumental, with only
spoken word pieces being featured in terms of vocals, which are performed by many guests.
Legacy The song "For the Love of God" is available for download for the 2007 video game
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and was voted the 29th best
solo of all time by a readers' poll in
Guitar World magazine. In 2016, Vai embarked on the Passion and Warfare 25th Anniversary World Tour, where he played the album in its entirety for the first time. ==Track listing==