Working on my solo album, Pata

After that, every member of X started working on their own solo projects. I believe it was Toshi who did it first. I wasn't thinking about making a solo album at all, but the record company approached me with the idea and I just went along with it. I wasn't the initiator, but I ended up with a solo album project, and started to come up with more ideas for it. The first person I was reminded of was Stan Katayama.

I met Stan Katayama when I was recording guitars for Jealousy. He's a Japanese sound engineer living in LA, and he was responsible for my guitar take on Art of Life. He's older than me, and a genuine Kansai man. He once worked for Yamaha in Japan, but quit because he didn't like his boss. He then learned everything from zero as a studio apprentice, and later became a Grammy-nominated audio engineer.

But, to be honest, my first impression of Stan wasn't very good. When we were working on Jealousy, he mocked the 1959 Les Paul Standard I had just bought, saying: "Hopefully that guitar sounds good, heh..." And so, at first I thought he was an insufferable bastard.

Our first meeting was like that, but we became friends the more we worked together. We often went out to grab some food, and sometimes I asked him to give me a ride home after work. The recording process was taking longer than what we had anticipated, so the band decided to rent apartments in LA. Until I could move into mine, Stan kindly let me be a freeloader at his house for about a month.

It was Stan who also coordinated the recording band for my solo album. First, he contacted drummer Tommy Aldridge. He replied: "I'll drum as long as it's not pop music."

He also called another drummer, Simon Phillips, who had just moved to LA to play with Toto. I was over the moon as he had played with Judas Priest, the Michael Schenker Group, and I also loved his work with Jeff Beck.

Then, we got Tim Bogert on bass. I'm a big fan of Beck, Bogert & Appice, so I was also thrilled with the choice. Stan worked with House of Lords as their recording engineer, and he introduced me to James Christian, who would do the vocals. I personally think Stan set up an amazing band. He also had the idea to invite Cozy Powell, and I remember we talked about it. Thinking about it now, I wish Stan had invited him.

The majority of the songs on my solo album were written in LA. While I was staying at Stan's house, he would create rhythms. Then I would use the Multi Track Recorder and layer some guitar over it, or add some chords. Stan and I discussed many possibilities, and we worked together in tandem. Our meals while writing songs were mostly the same thing I had in Japan: Sapporo Ichiban ramen, that is, instant ramen topped with some vegetables I stir-fried. I felt like I was in the sports club at school.

At first, I thought I'd make an all-instrumental album. Mostly because I don't sing. Well, I reached an impasse halfway through the process because I started feeling like I wanted to include songs with vocals too. And from the beginning, I wasn't writing music solely with guitars in mind. Most of the ideas came from strumming chords that sounded nice or simply felt good, which then developed into songs. Sometimes I would also think of a drum rhythm and then make a song out of that. There are people who write songs by imagining some kind of scene or landscape, but I don't make songs that way.

What was very memorable to me about recording, was Simon Phillips' sheer talent. He would listen to a song 2 or 3 times, then would write the notes down on a score right away, and take the score with him to the studio. He would maybe have some mistakes in the first take, but the second take would always be perfect. He would record two more takes and ask: "How did I do?" and when I would ask him to make some minimal changes, he would follow my exact instructions in the next take. His craft, technique, adaptive skills, and comprehension were incredible to witness.

A stark contrast to Simon was Tommy Aldridge. He said he didn't play well if there wasn't a band playing along, so during the recording, I played guitar as his guide. Tommy is the complete opposite of Simon, the impression I have is that he is a drummer who must be popular with bands. If I went on tour, my drummer would definitely be Tommy.

One funny thing is that once I played the intro riff to Ozzy Osbourne's "Bark at the Moon", and Tommy just went along with it and kept on drumming. He also plays "real drums" on my original songs. I really felt like I was Jake “Pata” Lee. He also continued playing when I started playing the intro riff to "I Don't Know", I felt like I was Randy Rhoads. When we toured together to promote my solo album, Tommy's signature soundcheck beat is the intro to Ozzy Osbourne's "Over the Mountain". And he also does it while carefully spinning the drumsticks between his fingers. I was mesmerized when I saw it.

Tim drove to the studio in his beloved old Beetle, with a couple of bass guitars and acoustic bass amps. As I watched him unload everything, I caught myself wondering how did it all fit in the car. Tim is a tough, but spirited man. His bass playing is also amazingly wild.

James Christian is a cheerful Italian. We were the closest in age, so we hit it off. We talked a lot and visited each other many times. I also met the guys from James' other band, Rumble Tribe. That led me to make a guest appearance on their 1994 album, Fire, Water, Earth & Stone, where I played a guitar solo on one of the songs.

To record my solo album, I mainly played my 1959 Les Paul Standard. I also used a Fender for backing and some solos. I took a long time to record the guitars, and I wanted to use many of the guitars I owned and the ones that I had recently acquired. Depending on the song, I used different guitars such as a Jazz Master, a Mustang, and so on.

And so, my solo album, Pata, was completed without incident and released on my birthday, November 4, 1993. I was so busy rehearsing for the tour that coincided with the album's release that I didn't even have enough time to process the joy of releasing an album. Still, there's no point in releasing an album if you don't play live. Playing live is much better than making an album, it's much more interesting to play live music with fellow musicians rather than record. Speaking in English is not my forte, but as soon as our instruments begin to sound, I can understand and be understood. That's what being a musician is all about.

The solo album tour

Then, my solo album's tour began. My band consisted of Tommy Aldridge on drums, Tim Bogert on bass, and James Christian on vocals. We didn't treat each other as if we were all "guest musicians", but had a lot of fun together both on stage, obviously, and offstage.

Tommy Aldridge is, surprisingly, a sumo wrestling fan. We toured in November, just in time for the Kyushu tournament. Around 5 PM, after the live rehearsal, we'd often watch the live broadcast of the sumo match backstage. Tim Bogert also liked sumo, so all of us would watch the broadcast. When the match ended at 6 PM, we would change into our stage costumes, and the show would start at 7. We quickly fell into that routine during the tour. Watching sumo wrestling was a pre-concert routine you don't get to experience very often.

By the way, American musicians have very detailed contracts, so much that it's normal to even include minimal details for things like catering specified in them.

For example, the candy must be M&M's brand chocolate, chewing gum must be this or that brand, even the beer has to be a specific brand, and the exact number of bottles is specified in the contract. There are so many pages of details in touring contracts that some of them can be 2 to 3 centimeters thick. Tommy Aldridge's contract was the most specific of all, I wouldn't be surprised if it happened to include a section about watching the sumo wrestling live broadcasts. Well, he did watch them after every rehearsal, so perhaps it really was included in his contract.

This wasn't written in the contract, but Tommy said he didn't want to play fast-paced songs. The reason being his age, that he got tired very quickly. But, he's 73 nowadays and is still active, playing just like in his younger days. I met Tommy a few years ago when Whitesnake came to Japan. I have a friend who's a guitar tech for Reb Beach and he invited me to see Whitesnake. Tommy walked to me while we were watching from the side of the stage, before the concert started: "Hey! It's been a while! I'll talk to you later," he said. I did want to talk to him, but also didn't want to be a nuisance before the show, so we only made small talk.

After the solo album tour, I still keep in touch with Tommy and Stan through emails. Stan is currently living in Hawaii.

From X to X Japan

I was still busy even after my solo tour ended. I started rehearsing immediately for X's upcoming Tokyo Dome shows on December 30 and 31, "X Japan Returns", and I was also going to play guitar with hide on his 1994 solo tour.

The 1993 end-of-year Tokyo Dome concerts were the first we performed as X Japan. It was also Heath's first concert with us. By the way, on the 31st, before the concert, we made an appearance on NHK's Kohaku contest. After joining the band, Heath's first live show was at the Tokyo Dome, and his first TV appearance was Kohaku. That's a huge undertaking, thinking about it.

*This is incorrect as they played a show on December 24, 1993 on Music Station SUPER LIVE'93. Seems they got mixed up.*

I think most people know why the band's name changed from X to X Japan. Atlantic informed us they couldn't use the name X on international releases because there already was a band named X in LA. So, a band name change was necessary, and that was when Yoshiki suggested changing it to X Japan. It felt a little weird in the beginning to have a country's name in the band name, but Yoshiki explained to me: "There's a band called The Mission UK", and I agreed: "Ah, now that you mention it..."

We couldn't really change the band's name to something completely different either, and adding "Japan" to the name also made it easier to know where we came from. And that's how the band became known as X Japan. By the way, I do own a CD by the LA band called X. It came with a sticker included, so I thought it'd be funny if I put it on my guitar case as a joke.

After X Japan's Tokyo Dome concerts, I wanted to take a break on the first few days of 1994, but there was no time for that. hide and I soon returned to the US and dragged away to LA for work. Since I would be touring with hide soon, I spent the first few days of the year learning songs in our LA apartment. Parallel to that, rehearsals for hide's tour had begun, and I heard that Ina was directing the other band members, giving everyone very detailed instructions. hide's other guitarist was Ran, formerly of Blizard.

A story like this was what led to me and Ran playing guitar together. At the time, hide and I both lived in Asagaya and we often drank at the same neighborhood bar. It was a bar in Asagaya we both nicknamed 'Grandma's'. I called it 'Nana's' with the utmost respect. I was also the one who discovered it. I was with my good friends from Rockin' F, Abe, Hosoi, and the photographer Koichiro Tobiki, when I spotted Grandma's right in front of us. Grandma's stayed open until later, so we decided to go there, and that was how I became a regular. After that, hide and I often went there to drink, and both mine and hide's offices even hosted our Tokyo Dome after-party at Nana's.

It was also there where I convinced Ran to join hide's solo tour band. I discussed it with hide, and since I had Ran's address, I asked him to come to Nana's. We talked while having a drink, and Ran wasn't too enthusiastic at first. But when we left and got to Asagaya Station, he changed his mind and said, without missing a beat: "I'll come, but only if Pata comes too." I thought: "Why are you dragging me into this?", and hide said: "Sure, Pata's also coming." And then I became part of hide's solo touring band. I was Ran's bargaining chip.

What happened during Art of Life

In the last subchapter, I said that Heath's first live show was the Tokyo Dome, and his first TV appearance was NHK's Kohaku. But to be more precise, his first actual work with us was on Art of Life. It's incredible how he was immediately put to the test (laughs).

Art of Life was originally meant to be included with Jealousy as part of a double album. However, we couldn't finish recording it on time, and Art of Life wasn't included with Jealousy and we ended up not making a double album. But the recording itself had been in progress since Jealousy. The drums had been recorded, then we would move on to record the bass, followed by guitars, and then vocals and other details, but we had no bassist, so we just recorded the drums and guitars. Since I only heard the drums while recording my guitar backing, recording felt as if it was a showdown between me and Yoshiki.

Art of Life was 29 minutes long, I had to record two backing tracks for both left and right sides, it was very challenging. Studios weren't using computers back in those days, only analog channel disc recorders. The engineer taught me how to use the locators, and I was checking and operating them myself. There was no assistant engineer. It took a little over two hours since I had to listen to it, rewind, and check which parts needed to be corrected. There was no way I could record such a lengthy song in its entirety in only one session. I would play what I could, and then stop to take a breather.

Earlier, when the melody to Art of Life was finished, Yoshiki gave me a demo tape and the sheet music. That demo tape had no guitar recorded on it, just a variety of chords played on the keyboards. I think there were very few guitar notes written on the sheet music. During the recording process, I didn't play while looking at the sheet music, I learned the song first. I can't play the song if I don't learn it first, I have to have it memorized, or else I wouldn't be able to play it live either. After the X Japan reunion, I listened to Art of Life again, and I realized how well structured and arranged the song is. I could only understand it better after getting older. But not so much at the time it was recorded.

The guitars on Art of Life were all a division of labor between hide and I. hide played all harmonies and finer details while I did all the backing guitar. I don't know if the bass track was complete or if it was provisional, but I believe there's a take somewhere of Taiji's bass. That take wasn't used, though. Just after Heath joined the band, he started recording the song, and there were many times when I saw him talking with our director in the studio. I just wished him good luck and left, as to not barge into anyone's business.

During the recording, people used to say I would "play and run away". But it's a challenging song, and there's nothing really left to say after a hard day of recording, you just let the others work.

Living between Japan and LA

In 1994, I went on tour with hide. After, I worked on a solo record of my own, Raised on Rock, while working on recording X Japan's Dahlia. However, in the beginning, it didn't feel the same as recording Blue Blood or Jealousy. While making the album, singles were being steadily released before the album, so it felt more like we were working on recording singles according to their release dates.

I recorded the guitar for "Rusty Nail" in Japan, but at the time I was going back and forth between Japan and LA. The band was going to record in LA, so we decided to rent apartments in LA in order to avoid the hassle of moving around. So, while we were working on Dahlia, I had both a place in Japan and one in LA.

The apartment I rented in LA was right next to the North Hollywood One On One Recording studio that X Japan often used. It only took a minute's walk to get there. It's better now, but back then when I was renting that place, the area was dangerous and people often advised me to not go out at night. The apartment consisted of two bedrooms, a living room, and a bathroom. I turned one of the bedrooms into a workroom where I set up a multitrack recorder and many other kinds of sound equipment on a table. I also had a Rockman X100 amp, which is said to be the original amp simulator.

I was living between LA and Japan with only one suitcase, and my guitars. Since 1993, it became tradition for X Japan to play at the Tokyo Dome at the end of the year, so as a general rule, I always spent December in Japan, but during the rest of the year I was always moving between Japan and LA.

Yoshiki bought his studio in LA, so he has been based over there ever since then. Since I was spending half of my time there, I went out drinking with Heath in LA many times, we also went out often to watch movies. I also went to Yoshiki's house with Ami from the Tokyo Yankees many times, and we used to hang out until morning. But other than that, I spent most of my time hanging out with hide.

Dahlia was finally released on November 4, 1996, after six singles such as Tears and Rusty Nail. Since most of the songs on the album had been released as singles, to me, Dahlia felt more like a compilation album rather than a new album.

It also felt like the band's activity dwindled down, since our activities consisted mostly of releasing singles. After moving labels, we didn't have a concrete schedule, and no fixed dates to release an album or for other band activities.

Dahlia could be described as another "difficult delivery". Previously, Atlantic had talked to us about releasing a best-of compilation album internationally. But I think Yoshiki was dead set on making a new album instead of a compilation album as our first release, after the label change.

The words we exchanged after the Last Live

When the Dahlia Tour of 1995-1996 ended, Toshi left the band. But I had already heard about this from hide, before it happened. Before Toshi's announcement, I once saw hide and Yoshiki sneakily talking about something. A little later, I went out drinking with hide, and while we shared a cigarette outside the bar, he told me what he and Yoshiki were talking about. Yoshiki said: "I can't go on like this, so I'll break the band up, and then we can come back with a new vocalist."

I don't know if Toshi said he was going to quit first, or if Yoshiki was already planning to find a new vocalist first. I also don't know much about Toshi's circumstances at the time. After Toshi said he was leaving, he called my number and left me two voicemails on my answering machine. I couldn't return his calls since I didn't know his number. I only knew hide's phone number.

In the end, X Japan disbanded. Before that, we didn't know if we should do a last show or not, but eventually hide said we should do it, so we decided to do so. The band's break-up was announced on September 1997, and we played our last concert on December 31, 1997, at the Tokyo Dome.

Even though it was our last show, we didn't change what we usually did. Before the show, hide and I were joking about what formation we should used for a certain song. Obviously, we never did that kind of thing, but I suggested we go with "formation 3" and hide agreed, all in jest. It felt like another regular live performance, with us joking around. And like that, the last live began.

But, as I played and watched Toshi sing beside me, I started to reflect upon it: "Ah, so this is the last show..." and, "X is really ending..."

After the concert, there was no after-party with the band. I went out to drink with my small crew of 4 or 5 staff members in Meguro, while hide went to his own after-party in Azabu or Roppongi.

Then, hide found out that I was drinking in Meguro, and he sent some of his guys to the bar I was at, telling me that hide was calling me over to where he was. All of these people were familiar faces, and it was one after the other telling me to go.

Since he had gone through all this trouble, I thought I had no choice but to join hide at the bar where he was having his after-party. When I opened the door, the place was so packed there was barely a free spot where I could stand. So when I saw hide, I said: "Yo! I'm here!" and he just raised his hand and replied: "Yup." Even though he was the one who pestered me to join him...

He then decided to go to another bar, but I didn't go with him. I went home. The year had ended, and it was now the 1st of January, 1998.

At the time, I had absolutely no idea that those words, "Yo! I'm here!" and "Yup," would be the very last words exchanged between us.