The Vito Bratta Forever YouTube channel, dedicated to original White Lion guitarist Vito Bratta, has shared rare fan-filmed video of the band petrforming the Ozzy Osbourne classic "I Don't Know" at an undisclosed location. Check it out below.
White Lion was officially active from 1983 – 1992, releasing four albums: Fight To Survive (1985), Pride (1987), Big Game (1989) and Mane Attraction (1991). The band called it quits in September 1991 and Bratta retired from the music business.
Guitar World caught up with Bratta in 2023, and during the interview he discussed White Lion's debut album, Fight To Survive, released in 1985. Bratta calls it a "fucking disaster" specifically because of the guitar parts that made it onto the record.
He reveals that the entire album consists of scratch tracks. For those who don't know, scratch tracks are demo tracks recorded as a temporary filler to help hold down the rest of the song. These are meant to be replaced with final takes, which Bratta never got to do.
Bratta: "None of it is what it was supposed to be. I laid the scratch guitars down, and then the producer, Peter (Hauke) told me, 'OK, Vito, that’s good for now. We’ll have you come back in and finish the guitars when the rest of the album is done. So, I’m thinking, 'Okay, I guess I’ll redo these and put the polish on after.' See, I was a dumb kid. I knew nothing. I’d never been in a recording studio. And now, I’m in Germany with this bald guy yelling at me. I won’t say I was scared, but I wasn’t going to question him.
Long story short, Mike (Tramp) finishes his vocals, and Peter tells me, 'We’re done. You can go home now.' And I’m like, 'What about the guitars?' Peter just looked at me and said, 'Sorry. We ran out of money and time. We’re going with what we’ve got.' I was devastated. I couldn’t believe a bunch of shitty scratch tracks would be my first record."
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